Rustic Plum Tart with Hazelnut Frangipane and Thyme

a bake with what you've got recipe

When I began planning out recipes to work on this month, I had scheduled myself to be working on a black pepper and rye brownie. Obviously, this recipe is not that. I kept putting off the recipe testing process and I began to run of out days to tell myself, “I can work on it tomorrow”. I just wasn’t very inspired by the idea which made motivating myself to get in the kitchen much more difficult.

Trader Joe’s had plums on sale last week, and, as I was making dinner on Monday, I realized I still had quite a few of them rolling around in my produce drawer. I started brainstorming ways that I could use them (another batch of plum caramel maybe), but then I found a package of puff pastry in the depths of my freezer. Do you see where we’re going here?

Baking doesn’t always have to be a big production. One of the reasons I started this newsletter was to empower people to treat baking the same way they do cooking—adapting and tweaking, tasting and testing, playing and experimenting, to find and create desserts that YOU love. I want you to look at the scraps in your fridge and find yourself feeling inspired and capable! So many times, my very favorite recipes come from these little bursts of inspiration as I play around with what I have on hand. My bank account also thanks me.

a rustic plum tart

When I have a bounty of produce, my first instinct is usually a tart. In my personal opinion, they are far easier than a pie (say hello to only one crust) and far cuter with their decorative tops and thin little slices. For this recipe, we took a short cut and used frozen puff pastry in place of a traditional sweet crust. I filled the middle with a hazelnut frangipane, more on that below, and piled it high with sliced plums that I tossed in crunchy demerara sugar and fresh thyme. And finally, because I always make way too much streusel and therefore always have some sort of streusel topping in my freezer, I sprinkled the top with a little before baking. (This is completely optional! I use this recipe or this recipe and often make a large batch for the freezer.)

and how I became a frangipane girlie

I am a pastry chef who cannot stand the taste of almond extract and all through culinary school, I had a professor who always made us use almond extract in our frangipane, so I spent quite a few years thinking that I hated frangipane. And then, I got out of culinary school and remembered that I can do whatever I want in my kitchen so you will never find almond extract in my frangipane. Like this one, that features warm, nutty hazelnuts in place of the quintessential almond.

Frangipane is so simple to make—my 14 month old hopped up on his little kitchen stand and helped me make this batch. You simply cream butter, sugar, eggs, and ground nuts (whichever ones you like!) to make a paste. I like to make it a couple days ahead and store it in the fridge to make tart assembly even easier, just be sure to bring it to room temperature before trying to spread it into your crust.

rustic plum tart with hazelnut frangipane and thyme

makes one 9” tart