Tarte aux quetsches - Plum Tart

la ricetta in italiano qui

Last day in  Luxembourg  with the Culinary ABC of the European Community and our host is Heather from Girlichef.

And a great day to end up our trip in this region: today is a great festive time there, to celebrate the official Grand Duke's birthday!

Before leaving for sea holidays I tried this typical Alsatian tart, made with purple plums, named quetsches or Damson plums. The name comes from the Latin prunum damascenum, plum of Damascus.

It 'a great plum purple, which begins to ripe after the middle of August and then on the market until October. It is a typical fruit of Luxembourg, used often for delicious jams, tarts and sorbets.

In Alsace and in the Moselle region, but also around Basel, the Quetsch or Quiterie is the brandy distilled from fermented plums. It is served both fresh that at room temperature. It was an essential ingredient for the medicinal remedies that were shipped by the French East India Company for the wellness of crews during their merchant voyages in the eighteenth century.

As it is not yet the right season, I tried to do it with the red plums, the only ones currently available, but will surely try again around September with the most sweet, juicy blue plums, as they are named in Canada.

The recipe from here:

250 g all-purpose flour

12 g yeast

40 g sugar

125 ml milk

a pinch of salt

50 g butter

1 egg

Pour the flour in a bowl and make a well in the middle.

Mix yeast, sugar, milk, salt, butter, egg: pour the mixture in the bowl, mix and knead until everything is well amalgamated and the dough is homogeneous.

Leave to rest in the bowl, covered and in a cool place for 30/40 minutes.

Halve the plums and remove the core.

Roll out the pastry and transfer into a baking pan lined with parchment paper, leaving the side edges 2 or 3 cm high.

Arrange plums on the pastry base.

Bake at 180° for about half an hour.

Dust with icing sugar before serving if you like.

But zapping in the net I read other recipes using the pastry crust or brisée,

and decided to go for my usual crust base.

Pastry brise:

200 g all-purpose flour

100 g cold butter, diced

a pinch of salt

30/40 g cold water

30 g cold white wine

Quickly mix all ingredients together, even in a blender, until well blended.

Shape into a ball, wrap in plastic film and let rest in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

For the cream:

1 egg

a couple of spoonfuls of crème fraiche

Stir egg with the crème fraiche.

Halve the plums  and remove the core.

Roll out the pastry and transfer into a baking pan lined with parchment paper, leaving the side edges 2 or 3 cm high.

Prick the bottom of the base with a fork, cover with parchment paper and place dried beans or kitchen pebbles  (especially to the sides) and bake in the oven at 180° for about 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, wait a few minutes and remove the beans and parchment paper.

Cover the dough with the cream and then arrange the plums, dusting with a tablespoon of brown sugar on top.

Bake at 180° for about 20/30 minutes. Allow to cool and serve.