Recipe: Seasonal Plum Tart

Paired with GoodLot’s Farmstead Ale

Bonny Reichert’s seasonal plum tart. Bonny Reichert photo

Bonny Reichert—writer, editor, chef, recipe developer, food stylist and photographer—cooks from the heart. The changing weather and plums, which are in season in Ontario from July to October, always remind Reichert of her grandmother, who inspired this recipe. As a child of a Holocaust survivor who once lived on coffee grounds and potato peels, Reichert has inherited a complex and robust relationship with food that guides her through her work. Her memoir-in-progress, How to Share an Egg (Appetite | Penguin Random House) unpacks the obsession.

Farmstead Ale was the first beer GoodLot Farmstead Brewing ever released and is described as “sunshine in a can.” Notes of stone fruit as well as Ontario Cascade and Nugget hops complement the sweet and rich flavours of the tart by offering a hint of bitterness. With a beer the colour of the setting sun, this pairing is the equivalent of wrapping yourself in your lightest sweater as you sit outdoors with friends and enjoy the first or last few moments of summer warmth. A moment that feels foreign after a bitter winter, but is always welcome.

—Sabryna Ekstein

Reichert as pictured during the height of plum harvest season. Alessandra Landi photo

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb blue plums/Italian plums

• ¼ cup granulated sugar

• 1 sheet all-butter puff pastry, thawed according to package instructions but kept cold

• 3 tbsp clear jelly such as red currant, crab apple or even grape

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven according to puff pastry package instructions. Wash, pit and slice plums into a work bowl. Add sugar and toss until well combined.

2. Working quickly, roll out the cold puff pastry onto a well-floured sheet of parchment paper until the pastry is about 1/4-inch thick and just larger than a 12-inch non-stick tart pan with removable bottom. Drape the pastry over a rolling pin to transfer it to the pan, fitting into the edges. Trim excess pastry.

3. Lay plum slices over the pastry, working in a circular pattern. Place the pan on a baking sheet (to catch leaks) and transfer it to a hot oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until edges begin to brown.

4. Meanwhile, mix jelly with a dash of water and warm in the microwave to a liquid consistency. Brush melted jelly generously over the plums and bottom of the tart (not edges, where it might burn). Bake tart another 5-7 minutes or so, removing from oven when edges are deep golden brown. Remove pan edge, slice into generous portions and serve with whipped cream or caramel ice cream.