17 Sep EASY AUTUMN BAKING: PLUM AND ALMOND TART RECIPE

Autumn is upon us – what else could make us all feel better than a freshly baked tart using seasonal fruit? This quick and easy plum and almond tart recipe merely involves a little puff pastry, a good spread of almond paste and a scattering of crisp and sour sliced plums, and voila! Job done!

I recently saw that the last episode of The Great British Bake off featured an almond tart challenge; well, I say great minds! They made it look difficult, but honestly this plum and almond tart recipe is anything but, as long as you get that shop bought-puff pasty roll of course; you’re not competing in the bake off, so who cares if you take a shortcut?

As I am baking for children I added a little vanilla essence to my almond paste, but you could use a little cheeky dark rum instead!

1 roll of ready-made, all-butter puff pastry
500-750g plums

For the almond paste:
50g very soft butter
50g ground almonds
50g icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
a little milk
2 tbsp jam, melted
flaked almonds (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C.

2. To make the almond paste, mix the butter, icing sugar and ground almonds in a bowl. Add your egg and whisk until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence.

3. Slice the plums.

4. Unroll the pastry and score about 1.5cm around the edge and prick the centre with a fork.

5. Spread the almond paste and artistically arrange your plum slices on top.

6. Brush the edge of the pastry with a little milk and sprinkle with flaked almonds.

7. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden.

8. While the tart is still hot from the oven, brush all over with a little melted jam, to give it a lovely shine.

You can eat it warm with a little double cream, or even ice-cream to make you long for summer again..