Plum season is almost over which I am both happy and sad about at the same time. This year has been a wonderful plum season  - there was an overload of  the most juiciest and sweetest plums that you can imagine in my parents' garden  - and I made countless of different plum cakes. I don't think that I ever made so many plum cakes in a year. I had a lot of fun experimenting with plum cakes and improving my plum cake skills. I made several of this plum cake which was my favorite plum cake last year and I made many many plum marzipan tartlets (probably about 50 tartlets) because I am obsessed with making tartlets and the combination of a marzipan almond filling and plums is superb. It is my plum cake of 2014 and before it is too late I have to share this recipe with you. It is my way to say goodbye to the plum season. It is a little bit sad but at the same time  I think it is time to bake something else than plum cakes.



The plum tartlets taste the best on the day they are made (the next day the crust of the tartlet gets soft) and don't forget to eat the plum tartlets with a generous dollop of freshly whipped cream.Plum season is almost over which I am both happy and sad about at the same time. This year has been a wonderful plum season  - there was an overload of  the most juiciest and sweetest plums that you can imagine in my parents' garden  - and I made countless of different plum cakes. I don't think that I ever made so many plum cakes in a year. I had a lot of fun experimenting with plum cakes and improving my plum cake skills. I made several of this plum cake which was my favorite plum cake last year and I made many many plum marzipan tartlets (probably about 50 tartlets) because I am obsessed with making tartlets and the combination of a marzipan almond filling and plums is superb. It is my plum cake of 2014 and before it is too late I have to share this recipe with you. It is my way to say goodbye to the plum season. It is a little bit sad but at the same time  I think it is time to bake something else than plum cakes.
The plum tartlets taste the best on the day they are made (the next day the crust of the tartlet gets soft) and don't forget to eat the plum tartlets with a generous dollop of freshly whipped cream.



Makes 8 to 10 plum tartlets  (Ø 80 mm, I use tart rings)

Dough

  • 100 g unsalted butter
  • 50 g granulated sugar
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • ½ egg
  • 150 g all-purpose flour (sifted)
  • Mix butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg and salt; then add flour and knead all ingredients to a dough. Do not knead the dough too much and work as quickly as possible.
  • Wrap the pastry dough in clingwrap and let the dough rest for at least one hour or overnight in the fridge.
  • Butter and flour tartlet moulds or tart rings. 
  • On a floured surface roll out the dough until 2 to 3 mm thick. Cut out circles (the circles should be a little bigger than your tartlet moulds. Gently press the circles into the moulds. Trim away any excess dough with a sharp knife. Prick the bottom of each tartlet with a fork. Freeze the tartlets for 30 minutes (or longer).

Cinnamon Sugar

  • 45 g almonds
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • Toast the almonds in a skilled (ungreased) over medium heat. Stir often, so that the almonds do not get burned. It takes about 5  to 7 minutes until the almonds are toasted. Let the almonds cool on a plate. Grind the toasted almonds in a food processor.
  • Mix the almonds with the sugar and cinnamon.

Marzipan paste

  • 50 g powdered sugar
  • 50 g unsalted butter (softened)
  • 1 ½ eggs
  • 50 g marzipan
  • 2 tablespoons of flour
  • Mix powdered sugar and softened butter until creamy. Then add eggs, marzipan and flour and mix until it is smooth.

Assembling

  • 400 g plums (pitted and quartered)
  • Preheat the oven to 175 °C.
  • Take the tartlet moulds out of the freezer. line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the tartlet moulds onto it . 
  • Sprinkle each tartlet bottom with the almond sugar (about 1 tablespoon for each tartlet). Then spread the marzipan paste on top of the almond sugar.
  • Arrange the plum slices (skin side down) over the marzipan paste in a circle.
  • Bake plum tartlets for about 25 minutes.
  • Let cool completely. Remove the tartlet rings.