For this recipe I was inspired by the Plum & Vanilla Mascarpone Tart by Pierre Hermé found on The Happy Cooking Friends Blog. It consists of a tart crust, a soft Mascarpone, Almond & Vanilla cream, plums and ground sugared almond. I made it in a very cute heart-shaped tart mould found for 2 euroes at the flea market in Sète, but you can use any tart crust of course…

For a large tart – Serves 6-8 – Preparation 45 minutes – Baking time 45 minutes.

Tart crust recipe

Ingredients

• 125 g de farine
• 25 g maize starch
• 20 g icing sugar
• 1 egg
• 75 g butter (at room temperature)
• 15 g ground almond

Preparation

Mix together butter and icing sugar (I cheated, I used my thermomix 😉 ). Add the egg, still stirring. Then add the ground almond and sifted flour & starch. DO NOT WORK THE DOUGH (otherwise it will get hard and not crusty). Shape into a bowl, place in the fridge in a clean cloth (which is better than plastic wrap as this allows the dough to “breathe”) for at least 30 minutes. Preheat the oven (170°C). Roll the dough between two peaces of baking paper. >em>My tip, when it is very hot like in the summer in the South of France, is to place my rolling pin and baking paper 10 minutes in the freezer before using it. This allows to keep the dough cold. With a fork; make some marks on the dough. Place in the fridge for another 10 minutes, or for a shorter time in the freezer. Place the dough in a buttered mould tart. Adjust to the size. Place in the fridge or freezer for another 10 minutes. This will keep your crust from “shrinking” while baking in the oven. bake for 10 minutes. Your crust must dry but remain white.

Recipe for the Mascarpone, Almond & Vanilla cream

Ingrédients

• 250g mascarpone
• 3 bags of vanilla sugar (45g)
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 10g Maïzena (maize starch)

Preparation

In your mixer, beat the mascarpone until it gets very soft. Add vanilla sugar and Maize starch. In another bowl, beat the egg until it gets foamy. Add to mascarpone, as well as almond extract. Blend with a spatula until it gets creamy and homogeneous.

Garnishing and Baking

• 2 tablespoons ground almond
• 2 tablespoons ground sugared almonds (I used my thermomix to ground them, but you can buy them already ground)

Spread the groudn almond on your tart crust. This will absorb the juice of the plums while baking, and will keep your crust… crusty! Cut your plums in two pieces, release the stone and dispose on the tart, skin side up. Then pour the mmascrapone cream and spread to the sides with a saptula. Spread the ground sugared almonds on top and bake for 30/35 minutes. Wait until the tart is completely cold to unmould it and avoid any disaster! Enjoy!