Stone Fruit Hazelnut Tart with Corn Flour Crust

Time really is a luxury these days. It’s rich to even notice when I’m too busy and to be able to contrast it with my more free-wheeling moments, but damned if I ain’t truly swamped. When my folks came out to visit a few weeks ago, my dad set about installing a set of gorgeous shelves in our sweet little kitchen. I thought I’d fill them up right quick with kitchen paraphernalia, but they’re stocked with nary a thing as I’ve hardly stepped foot in that bad boy since moving to Baltimore. Well, unless you count traversing the kitchen on the way to the back porch for too many 4:00 a.m.-beers and Spray Tan cocktails.*

This tart, then, is sort of a time suck miracle, borne primarily of the guilt of buying way too damn much produce at the farmers market that I found en route to Woodberry. These yellow egg plums—firm, fleshy, and sweet—sat sad on the counter next to a few wilting white peaches before I eventually mustered the stomach to be in My Kitchen on a rare day off from The Kitchen. And so I took a page from Yossy’s book, and cobbled the thing together as quickly as possible—press-in shortbread crust, no macerating, no chilling, a few ground hazelnuts because they’re the best—and there you have it. A surprisingly quick, easy, and downright good summer dessert: the barely sweetened fruit sings above the hazelnuts, and the corn flour tart shell is like one big salty-sweet cookie. Get busy or don’t, but definitely make this when you’re looking for an easy way to showcase that summer stone fruit.

*Ahem: coined by my sister in honor of my fantastic roommate, the Spray Tan is tequila, lime, and pompelmo, usually accompanied by a watermelon snack. Get it.

Stone Fruit Tart
Adapted from Apt. 2B Baking Co.

For the crust

4 ounces corn flour (or very fine cornmeal)

4 ounces all purpose flour

1.75 ounces sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 ounces butter, melted and cooled

1 egg yolk

1. In a medium bowl, stir the flours, sugar, salt and lime zest. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add in the olive oil, butter and egg yolk. Stir gently to combine.

2. Turn the dough out into a 10-inch removable bottom tart pan and pat it evenly on the bottom and up the sides. Pop into the fridge while you prepare the filling.

For the Filling

2.5 pounds plums or stone fruit of your choosing

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Scant 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons demerara sugar, divided

1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toast hazelnuts on a baking sheet for eight to ten minutes until the skins are darkened. Wrap them with a clean kitchen towel, let steam for a couple of minutes, then rub together to remove the skins.  Add the nuts and 1/4-cup sugar to your food processor, and pulse until nuts are very finely ground. Set aside.

2.   Turn oven up to 450 degrees F, and quarter your pit fruit while you wait for the oven to heat. Spread the ground nuts evenly over the bottom of your corn flour crust, and arrange plums and peaches evenly on top, in three, tight rings. Top the fruit with remaining two tablespoons of sugar and dot with the butter. Slide tart onto a cookie sheet, and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until crust is deep golden and fruit is baked and bubbling. This tart is best if eaten within a day or two.

Plum and Pine Nut Galette

The damson and black plums for this tart were piled high at the farmers’ market last weekend, along with a few green and red varieties and the bare beginnings of Maine’s apple season. While the start of summer drives me rather nuts with desperation about which juicy fruits to get my deprived hands on first, the fall transition has a lovely sort of ceremonious appeal--measured and familiar, instead of rushed. We’re expecting pears this weekend at the market, along with spinach, gourds, and more apples, and it’s that even rolling out of fall fruits that keeps me motivated to bake with produce before bourbon, custards, and creams totally take over for the winter.

This galette is a lovely end-of-summer ode. The fruit is beautiful and barely sweetened, and the pine nuts add a bit of savory depth and a toasty crunch. If you have a tart dough waiting in the wings already, then it comes together in just a few easy steps too, perfect for when the new, wonderful WWOOFer is distracting you with stories of Labrador or when Dave is laying the smackdown about dishes. And while it’s hot, hot, hot everywhere and folks are lamenting the use of the oven this time of year, it’s starting to cool off here and I’m a complete sucker for baking fruit to its juiciest peak anyway. For the next few weeks it’ll be a toss-up between plums and pears around here, but it’s a late summer dilemma that brings out some of my favorite kinds of baked goods.

Plum Pine Nut Galette

Adapted significantly from Gourmet (1999!)

For the Crust
From Apt. 2B Baking Co. and I Made That!

Makes enough for two, but you’ll only need one for this recipe. Feel free to substitute in your favorite crust recipe instead!

12 ounces pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
8 ounces (two sticks) very cold butter
4 to 6 ounces ice water
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1.  On a clean counter, dump your flour and salt; mix it around with a bench scraper. Chop one stick of butter into quarters, and cut it into the four with your bench scraper. When butter is about the size of lima beans, cut in the second stick, pulling, folding, and tossing with the bench scraper as you go, until the butter is about the size of quarters. Add the vinegar to the ice water.

2. Using your fingers, flick the water onto the butter-flour mixture, gently folding with the bench scraper all the while. You have added enough water once the mixture holds together when squeezed; it should be very shaggy.

3. Next, push the butter into the flour. Using the heel of your palm, push a small section of the dough down and away from you; this creates long layers of butter in your dough, which translates to long flaky layers in your crust. Use your bench scraper to scrape up the smear, and put it a bowl. Repeat until all the dough has been smeared and you have a bowlful of long, buttery layers. Push these into one mass, divide in half, wrap each in plastic, flatten into disks, and chill at least two hours, or better yet overnight.

For the Filling
2.5 pounds plums of your choosing
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup demerara sugar, divided
1 egg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out your pie dough to a 14- or 15-inch circle. Trim the edges so they’re even, slide onto a piece of parchment paper on the back of a cookie sheet, and pop into the freezer while you prepare the rest of your ingredients. This cooling step will help you fold or pleat the dough more easily in a bit.

2.  Cut the plums into half-inch slices. I cut some of my plums into quarters and the bigger ones into sixths, so it just depends on your plum size. Set aside. In a food processor, grind the toasted pine nuts with the flour and just two tablespoons of the demerara sugar. Mixture should be finely ground, but not powdered.  

3.  Remove the dough round from the freezer and, leaving it on the back of the cookie sheet, spread ground nut mixture across the bottom, leaving a three-inch border. Starting at the outside edge of the ground nuts, arrange your plum slices into one, tightly fit ring with all the plums facing the same way. Make the inner ring, then the final third ring in the middle. If you have extra plum slices, go back and fill in any gaps or wider spaces. And if you’re using different plum varieties, try to alternate the varieties in every other slice or one variety per ring. Don’t worry if you can’t!

4.  Fold tart dough up and over the plums, pleating or pinching as you go, then put the whole thing into the freezer for at least one hour. This will help the dough keep its shape when it’s popped into the hot oven. Once the tart has fully chilled, brush the crust with your egg wash. Mix the remaining two tablespoons of demerara sugar with the cinnamon. Sprinkle a heavy layer of the sugar-cinnamon mixture across the crust, then sprinkle the remaining over the fruit itself. Brush any stray granules off the parchment so they don’t scorch in the oven. Dot the tart with butter and cover the tart very lightly with a sheet of foil, and bake for a total of 45 to 50 minutes until crust is dark golden brown and juices are bubbling. Remove the foil about halfway through baking so that the crust can color. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes, and serve.

Apricot Sugar Plum Tart

This tart is from Independence Day two weeks ago, and fittingly I write to you now from the farmlands of Maine, where I am currently apprenticing at a goat cheese creamery. This land was previously a big ol' apple orchard and was once a Christmas tree farm, and now it's 100 acres of deciduous trees, bugs, coyotes, and (rumored) moose that's home to about 60 momma goats, kids, and bucks and a handful of farmers, volunteers, and one apprentice. To the northwest is Mt. Katahdin, and right through those trees I can spot the sea on a clear day. Just six days ago I was arriving home from Las Vegas where I spent a week at a freelancing gig, and now I'm waiting for the ph to drop on these curds in the cheese plant so that I can get to hanging them. Needless to say, it's been a hell of a change from Washington, DC, and a largely happy one so far.

The entirety of yesterday found me in the cheese plant helping make mozzarella and boursin and packing up the chevre for market, but today was a really delightful shift in pace. Just this morning, Dave and I went south to Winter Harbor, Maine for one of two Tuesday farmers markets. We packed up at 5:00 a.m., made a coffee pit-stop at Dunkin' Donuts, then jammed on the gas for two hours until we arrived at our market space in the parking lot of a coastal cafe. I will never ever get tired of the ocean, especially the ocean in Maine, which is lined by rocky embankments and dotted with piney islands--it was totally reviving to pass a rainy morning there. We spent the day hocking our cheeses and chatting up some of the town vacationers, but the fellow farmers were my favorite as they threatened to blow up DC and all its politicians when I told them from where I'd come. Then they invited me out to their "patch" to have lunch and pick garlic someday soon. The greatest folks.

But two weeks ago, before all of this, I said some final goodbyes in DC at an all-too-brief Fourth of July BBQ and hotdog cook-off at our (now "their") house. It was truly hot as blazes that afternoon--sweat poured down my nose and nearly onto this tart--but with a lot of beer along with hot dogs, patience, and a freezer, the tart kept its shape and didn't turn into a sweltering summer catastrophe. Apricots and stone fruit more generally are one of the greatest parts of summer, and every year I look for new ways to bake them. This tart is a casual spin upon a previous summer favorite, but as soon as apricots show up here in Maine, I'll be trying this beautiful pie from Lottie + Doof. And have you seen Nikole Herriot's pie project? The blueberry lemon verbena pie she featured was another total winner. Check it out while you count curds and soak up your summer!

Apricot Sugar Plum Tart

One-half recipe of your favorite pie crust recipe (try this!)

1 pound ripe apricots
10 small sugar plums
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons apricot jam
1 egg
2 tablespoons raw sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1.  Make your crust! Put it in the fridge to chill for at least an hour, preferably longer if your kitchen is pretty warm this time of year. Cut the apricots and plums in half, discard the pits, and toss the halves into a large bowl. Add the sugar and toss to coat. Gently stir ¼ cup of apricot jam into apricots; each piece of fruit should be lightly coated with jam.

2.  Roll your dough on a lightly floured surface into a 15-inch circle. Transfer the circle to the back of a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Slip into the fridge if you haven’t finished prepping your ingredients, but if you have, proceed!

3.  To assemble tart, smear two tablespoons of jam across the crust. Pile on the apricots and sugar plums face-up, tucking plums into the nooks. Working from the edges, fold the crust into the center, pleating as needed; there should be about three inches of crust showing. Freeze shaped tart for at least an hour; this helps it keep its shape while baking.

4.  Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk your egg with a splash of water until no streaks remain, and brush the top of your crust with it.  Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl, and toss it generously and evenly over the tart crust and center. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, rotating pan halfway through, until crust is deep golden brown and filling is bubbling. Can serve hot out of the oven or cooled to room temperature!

Caramelized Plum Galette

Two weekends ago I visited my sister in Pittsburgh, where among sisterly activities such as thrifting, eating corn fritters, and tallying the number of cicadas that Trout (cat) killed, we also had a dinner party of sorts.  I'm going to hijack the nuanced reason and say that it was a test drive for Olly Oxen Free, which is the secret cafe that I've been doing in Washington, DC (well, did once anyway).  The menu, was a simple savory tomato and thyme tart, an all greens and herbs salad with shallot vinaigrette, a super delish roasted chicken, our adopted and adapted recipe for truffled macaroni and cheese, sweet corn custard with blueberry compote, and a plum and apricot galette with an almond-y crust.  Oh and an assortment of bar drinks, especially red wine spritzahs and a seriously good Katie-made St. Germain cocktail.

The dinner was awesome, the kitchen only a mild disaster, and the food coma so very severe that we skipped the Night of a Thousand Bowies in favor of unzipping on the couch and listening to the addling 4:00 a.m. ramble of a well-meaning neighbor.  In addition to learning that truffle is best goddamn flavor I have ever put in my mouth, I also discovered that plum desserts are totally underrated and  fully delightful. I got zero pictures of the evening (well almost zero, here's an iPhone snap), but the macaroni and the plum galette were my favorite edible parts, so I tinkered with and recreated the dessert recipe last weekend.  What follows is a caramelized and more buttery (and more photogenic) version of the galette from Pittsburgh. Baby, it's pure late summer in a pie shell. 

All-Butter Pastry Dough
(Makes enough for two crusts)

2 sticks unsalted butter, very cold
1 cup ice water, divided
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

1.  Read this if you want to get some good advice about pie crust. I'll throw in some of my own hints, but Deb has compiled some excellent suggestions about how to keep your dough cold and your crust flaky.  Start by cubing your butter into small, half-inch pieces.  Put these in the freezer while you ready the rest of the ingredients.  Measure one cup of water, add some ice cubes and set aside to chill.

2.  I use a food processor for my dough, but was making wonderful crusts with a pastry blender until very recently. If your kitchen is very warm, you might want to chill the bowl or the blade of the processor to ensure that it cuts rather than melts the butter. Add all of your dry ingredients to the bowl of the processor, and pulse once or twice to blend the mixture. Sprinkle the cubes of butter over the top, and blend in pulses about 15 times, or until some pieces of butter are the size of peas, and the rest resembles oatmeal.

3.  Dump the mixture into a chilled, shallow bowl, and drizzle a half-cup of the ice water (minus de cubes) over the top.  Using a rubber spatula, cut the moisture quickly into the dough, gathering it together as you do. If the dough is too dry, add more water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together in a shaggy mess. (Sidenote: I never use more than two or three additional tablespoons of water, and generally keep it to a half-cup anyway, but this all depends on the moisture and heat in your kitchen!) Knead the dough gently a few times to make it come together more, divide into two equal pieces, and wrap in plastic wrap.  Flatten into disks and store in the fridge for at least an hour, preferably longer.

4.  If not using all of the dough that day, it will keep in the fridge for up to a week, wrapped in an additional layer of plastic.

Plum Filling 
Freely adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques

Suzanne Goin's recipe is for a plum tarte tatin with puff pastry, but since I lack a cast iron pan and love galettes, I used her caramelizing technique and scaled back the filling to make this summery tart with a crust.  Do not be dissuaded by all the text -- this recipe is simple and delightful.

1 1/2 pounds of plums, or about 12 small (I used a combination of Italian, red, and black), sliced vertically and pitted
1/4 cup + 6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest, optional
Pinch salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 egg

1.  In a medium bowl, gently mix plums, quarter-cup sugar (or less if your plums are real sweet), pinch of salt, and zest if you're using. Allow to macerate for half-hour.

2.  Meanwhile, heat a large, flat skillet over medium heat for one minute.  Add butter and melt until foamy, then add the six tablespoons of white sugar, stirring quickly just to evenly distribute.  Over medium-low heat and swirling often, cook the mixture for about six minutes, or until it's the color of dark caramel.  Remove from heat and allow to cool for 20 minutes.  It will harden, but that's okay!

3.  Once the plums are finished macerating, drain the liquid.  Arrange the plums cut side down on your skillet and return stove to medium heat.  Cook the plums in the caramel for 20 minutes without stirring.  They'll release a lot of liquid and essentially stew in their own awesome juices.

4.  Allow to cool for an hour or two.  Then preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and roll out one piece of dough to a 13-inch round and trim the edges so they're smooth (If it's hot in your kitchen, place the rolled-out dough onto the back of a cookie sheet and slide it into the freezer or fridge for ten to fifteen minutes to keep the butter from melting).  Slide your dough onto a sheet of parchment on the back of a cookie sheet. Maintaining a three-inch border of crust, arrange the plums cut side up in a tight concentric circle. Gently fold the edge of the dough over the fruit, pleating as you go.

5.  Brush pastry with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar if you wish.  Bake in the middle of the oven for 45 to 55 minutes, until pastry is deep golden brown and fruit is bubbling.  Allow to cool on cookie sheet for ten minutes, then eat it up or let it cool further on a cooling rack.  Whipped cream or ice cream would be excellent companions here.