Pluot Tart Recipe

You can make this recipe with other stone fruit and berries as well -- such as nectarines, peaches, plums, raspberries or blackberries.

This recipes adapted from Alice Water's cookbook, Chez Panisse Fruit (Harper Collins Publishers, 2002)

Ingredients:
6 ripe Pluots (about 1-1/2 pounds)
1 prebaked 11-inch pate sucree tart shell
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
juice of 1 lemon
2 eggs
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons plum brandy, grappa, or kirsch
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375-degrees - F

2. Cut the Pluots in half, remove pits and slice into 1/2-inch wedges. Arrange wedges in concentric circles in the pre-baked tart shell. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Let it bubble gently and cook until the milk solids turn toasty light brown. Remove the butter from the heat, add lemon juice to stop the cooking, and set aside to cool.

3. Beat the eggs and sugar together with an electric mixer until the mixture is thick and forms a ribbon when dropped from the beaters, about 5 minutes. Add the butter, brandy, vanilla, salt, four, and cream. Stir just until mixed. Pour the mixture over the Pluots, filling the tart shell. Bake in the top third of the oven until the top is golden brown, about 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool on a rack for 15 minutes.

4. Serve warm or at room temperature, with lightly whipped cream.

makes one 10-inch tart; serves 6 to 8.