Spotted at the Supermarket

PLUMS! Bought my first Mirabelle and Reine Claude plums of the season.

The Mirabelle Diaries

My obsession with making a mirabelle tart started when our neighbors (the ones of raspberry, hazelnut, and red berry tiramisu fame) gave us a bounty of mirabelles from their tree. That set me off and I didn't relax until my 3rd tart. You can read all the frantic details of my obsession in my comment to Kerrin's post about plums and melons.

Long story short: I used a pate brisee as called for by nearly all the recipes I found. It was soggy even after pre-baking. My second tart was all custard. See the mess here. After this I asked my neighbor for her recipe. I was unsure about the result, as I had the memory of a Mirabelle tartlette I ate from Oberweis in my mind. Pure heaven, btw.

My neighbor's tart is different. It is rustic. It is thrown together. It doesn't use very much sugar. I'm sure it is the homemade tart I'd find in most Luxembourgish homes.

Here is her recipe, copied as she wrote it. The measurements are general; I think that is the way it's intended. It is meant to be thrown together, catered to your own liking. She recommended used a large ceramic tart pan. I didn't have one so I used a glass pie pan. If you use a pie pan you'll need to cut the ingredients by a 1/4th or so. I ended up with too much crust. This is the crust she uses for all her tarts - plum, apple and rhubarb. It is very different. It's almost bread like, sort of cookie like and not very pastry like. I'm anxious to try this again. I'm curious to see what you think. Here goes:

Mirabelle Tart

Crust:
250 grams flour
100 grams butter
2 teaspoons of yeast
1 egg
3-4 spoons of cream (or water, though not as good)
a little bit of salt
3 spoons of sugar

Mirabelles - wash and push pit out. do not cut in half. This is rustic, people.

Filling:
1 egg
2-3 spoons of sugar
2-3 spoons of cream
1 spoon of potato starch

Combine the crust ingredients with your hands. Press into your tart dish. Scatter enough fruit to cover the bottom on the tart. Combine filling ingredients, mix with a fork. Pour over fruit.

Bake at 180 degrees (350 degrees Fahrenheit) until done. About 20 -30 minutes.

Look what I found in my La Cure Gourmande stash.