Receta Plum and Almond Tart from Alice Medrich
Oven and Camera Ready!
Vanilla Ice Cream on the side
is highly recommendedWhen you have a blog to write, you tend
not to repeat recipes once you have made them.
You’re pretty well under the gun to cook something you’ve never tried
before simply to create content for your readers. Most of the time, this isn’t all that
difficult to do, especially when you have literally thousands of recipes at
your disposal. But then once in a while
you come across something that rings all the bells. It not only tastes phenomenal, it uses the
season’s best ingredients and, if they’re locally grown so much the
better. And then there are those gems
that not only meet those criteria but they’re incredibly easy to make. At that precise moment, you have to assert
great discipline in not running out and making the dish on an everyday
basis. With this tart, the invention of
one of California’s greatest bakers, all that discipline went out the
window. The tart appeared three times in
a week, breaking all previous records for recipe repeating in the shortest
amount of time. But one bite of Alice
Medrich’s superb invention, I can almost guarantee you’ll put this on your
repeat list too.
Alice
Medrich has been at the forefront of California baking for years. In 1973, Alice started making Chocolate
truffles and selling them out of her Berkeley CA home. What separated Alice’s truffles from their
French counterparts was that Alice’s version had a soft center and, when coated
with chocolate, they took on a look described as ‘lumpy’. They became known as California truffles and
Alice became known as the First Lady of Chocolate. Alice soon opened the first Cocolat
chocolate store in 1976 and by the time 1990 came along there were seven
Cocolat stores in San Francisco. Then
in a plot worthy of a TV series, a fire was deliberately set at its Berkeley
headquarters causing damages of $2,000,000.
An employee then embezzled $500,000 from the place. Alice sold her share but the business never
recovered and went under several years later amidst allegations that the new
owners had harassed employees who were not Scientologists! Alice, however soldiered on in her amazing
out put of cookbooks—9 by my count including “Pure Dessert” (Artisan Books
recipes.
Alice’s
Plum and Almond Tart came from “Pure Dessert”. Now almonds are a favorite
ingredient of ours and in this incarnation, they’re the perfect foil for the
- tartness of the plums that are flooding our farm stands. Andrew used two different varieties of plums,
- which not only made the dish a work of art, but added two distinct plum flavors
- to the tart. Alice makes note of the
- fact that you want a plum that makes you pucker slightly when you taste the
- flesh nearest to the pit. Now if you are
- not a plum fan, do not let that stop you from making this very simple
- tart. You can substitute peaches or
- nectarines and make an equally delicious offering this very weekend. And given that it’s Labor Day, you’ll
- appreciate just how little effort is involved in this stellar dessert.
- Recipe for Plum and Almond Tart
- from
- “Pure Dessert” by Alice Medrich (Artisan Books 2007)
- 1/2
- cup unblanched or blanched whole almonds
- 3
- tbsp firm butter or margarine
- 4
- large or 6 smaller plums, quartered
Preheat
the oven to 375. Butter a nine inch tart pan and set aside.
2. Place
the nuts, sugar, salt and almond extract in the bowl of your food processor.
3. Process
until finely ground.
4. Add
the flour and baking powder and pulse to mix thoroughly.
5. Add
the egg and margarine,
and
pulse until no flour remains and it begins to clump around the blade.
6. Press
the dough evenly into the prepared tart pan.
7. Arrange
the slices of fruit decoratively around the crust.
8. Bake
for about 40-45 minutes or until the crust is nice and golden. Cool on a wire
rack.