This is the most beautiful September that I can remember in London. It's bright and sunny during the day, whilst crisp and chilly during the nights. As Autumn draws near, a delicious summery dessert is in order to make the most of what's left of our English sun.
You may also find that if you bake this during the day, you'll end up eating a rather large chunk of the tart for lunch. This will fuel a 9K run quite nicely! I was surprised at how good it tasted, I simply could not resist digging in.
I wanted to create the pastry myself with oats and polenta flour, as I have a rather large bag of the latter in the cupboard. I love Scottish oats so this was the perfect choice for the base. I used soured cream, thus this tart is not milk free. I am so sorry about that, but you'll be happy to know that it is egg, wheat, gluten and soy free. If you need to avoid milk, but not soy, then try substituting the soured cream with soy yoghurt. It may just do the trick.
The best news? - It's low in fat at 4.8% fat. It's a great way of incorporating fruit too. I know that you'll love it, as the Frenchman described it as 'excellent'. Now that is a compliment as he's very very honest with me!
Pastry:
100g polenta flour
75g large oats
Pinch of salt
40g butter
Binder:
1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum
3 tablespoons semi-skimmed milk
2 tablespoons cold water
Filling:
600g dessert plums
275ml soured cream
60g mashed banana
30g dark brown muscovado sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
Cinnamon sugar:
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 teaspoons golden caster sugar
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
2. Add polenta flour, oats and salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut the butter into small cubes and using your finger tips, gently rub the pieces of fat into the flour.
3. Next prepare your binder by dissolving the xanthum gum in milk and water. It's quite difficult to dissolve so give it a good stir, then pour into the pastry mixture.
4. You may have a crumbly mixture but as you knead the milky mixture into the dough, using your hands you will be able to create a lovely smooth ball of dough. If there are still bits in the bowl, then add a little bit more milk.
5. Wrap the ball in cling film and pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
6.Whilst the dough is resting, prepare your filling. Remove the stones from the plums and slice them in half. Mix the soured cream with the mashed banana, muscovado sugar and the spices.
Note - I froze my banana overnight and then defrosted before using. This is not an essential step.
7. Now press the pastry into a flan tin. It may crumble but don't panic, be very gentle and press it so that it covers the entire tin.
8. Pour the filling into the flan tin and bake for 20 minutes.
9. Arrange the plums over the tart, sprinkle the cinnamon sugar and bake for a further 20 minutes. When the plum tart appears to be almost done, cook for a further 5 - 10 minutes at 230ºC.
10. Allow to cool completely before serving. If you have any remaining cinnamon sugar, sprinkle this on top before serving. This would be lovely with yoghurt.
Yield = 8 slices
Nutrition Profile: Each slice provides 231kcal, 30g carbohydrates, 11g fat, 4g protein. This recipe has also been loaded on My Fitness Pal - Autumn Plum Tart With Cinnamon Sugar By A Light Perspective.
What do you think lovely readers? Hope you enjoy this gorgeous fruity autumn dessert. Do comment below, I absolutely love hearing from you.
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