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A recipe by Pierre Hermé: Quetsche tart

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Total Time 5 hours 15 minutes
Servings: 8 servings
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Shortcrust pastry
  • 250 g type 45 flour
  • 190 g butter softened at room temperature
  • 5 g Guérande fleur de sel
  • 3.5 g caster sugar
  • ½ egg yolk 10 g
  • 50 ml milk at room temperature
Spoon biscuits
  • 2 egg whites 70 g
  • 45 g caster sugar
  • 2 egg yolks 40 g
  • 25 g pastry flour
  • 25 g potato starch
Cinnamon sugar
  • 100 g icing sugar
  • 5 g ground cinnamon
Assembly and finishing
  • 1 kg fresh Alsace plums quetsches
  • Apricot jam or apple jelly for glazing

Method
 

Shortcrust pastry
    With a mixer:
    1. Sift the flour into a bowl.
    2. Place the butter, salt and sugar in the mixer with a plastic blade. Add the egg yolk and milk. Blend until smooth.
    3. Add the flour, blend, and as soon as the dough forms a ball, stop.
    4. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 2 hours.
    By hand:
    1. Cut the butter into small pieces and soften with a wooden spatula.
    2. Mix the milk, salt and sugar in a bowl, then drizzle over the butter while stirring.
    3. Add the egg yolk.
    4. Sift the flour, then stir into the butter mixture. Knead quickly.
    5. On a floured surface, flatten the dough with the palm of your hand, gather it into a ball and repeat. Flatten slightly, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.
    Blind baking the pastry shell:
    1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (gas mark 6).
    2. Roll out the dough into a pastry ring (24 cm diameter, 3 cm high). Prick with a fork and rest 30 minutes in the fridge.
    3. Cover with greaseproof paper and dried beans. Bake 20 minutes, remove beans and paper, then bake another 10 minutes.
    Spoon biscuits
    1. Preheat oven to 230°C (gas mark 7-8).
    2. Sift together flour and potato starch.
    3. Whisk egg whites with sugar until stiff.
    4. Add yolks and mix gently.
    5. Fold in flour/starch mixture with a spatula.
    6. Spread onto a lined baking tray. Bake ~5 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
    7. Leave to dry, then blend finely into a powder.
    Cinnamon sugar
    1. Mix icing sugar and ground cinnamon together.
    Assembly and finishing
    1. Preheat fan oven to 160°C (gas mark 5).
    2. Sprinkle ~50 g of spoon biscuit powder over pre-baked tart base.
    3. Halve the plums, remove stones and arrange upright, packed tightly.
    4. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar.
    5. Bake 30–40 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
    6. Brush tart edge with apricot jam or apple jelly, then coat with cinnamon sugar.
    7. Place tart on serving dish and keep at room temperature.
    8. Just before serving, sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar.

    Notes

    Tips and advice: You can either use the dough immediately after resting, keep it in the fridge for 2 days, or freeze it in tightly-wrapped portions. Before using, let it defrost slowly in the fridge. Spread the thawed dough but do not rework it, as this will cause it to lose its melt-in-the-mouth texture.

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