This gorgeous autumn fruit tart recipe, from Debbie Major, uses ripe purple damsons but greengages also work well if you’d like to try something different.
Looking for more ways to use the seasonal fruit? Take a look at all of our damson recipes, here.
Ingredients
- 170ml soured cream
- 80ml double cream
- 1 large free-range egg, beaten
- 8 tbsp caster sugar
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 1 tbsp ground almonds
- 500g ripe but firm damsons (see tip)
- Icing sugar for dusting
For the pastry case
- 175g plain flour, plus extra to dust
- Pinch salt
- 50g icing sugar
- Finely grated zest 1 small orange
- 100g chilled lightly salted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 large free-range egg yolk
- 1½ tbsp ice-cold water
Method
- For the pastry, briefly blend the flour, salt, icing sugar and orange zest in a food processor. Add the butter and whizz to fine breadcrumbs. Mix the egg yolk with the water, add to the mix and briefly whizz again until the mixture sticks together in clumps. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and bring together, kneading briefly until smooth. Wrap in cling film and chill for 15 minutes, then roll out on a lightly floured surface. Use to line a 2.5cm deep, 23cm loose-bottomed flan tin. Chill for 20 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/ gas 6. Line the pastry case with a crumpled sheet of baking paper and fill with baking beans/rice, then bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are biscuit-coloured. Remove the paper and beans/rice and protect the edges of the case by covering with strips of foil. Return the case to the oven for another 5-7 minutes until the base is golden too. Remove from the oven, discard the foil strips and set aside.
- Mix the soured cream, double cream, beaten egg, 6 tbsp of the sugar, the 2 tbsp flour and ground almonds in a large bowl until smooth.
- Run a knife around each damson, twist the halves apart and put the neater halves without any stones into one bowl. Prise the stones from the other halves with a small, sharp knife, put them in another bowl and toss with 1 tbsp of the remaining caster sugar. Scatter these sugared damson halves over the base of the pastry case and pour over three- quarters of the filling. Toss the neater damson halves with the rest of the sugar and arrange neatly, cut- side down, on top of the tart in concentric circles. Pour over the rest of the filling.
- Bake the tart for 30-35 minutes until the filling has set and is tinged with brown in places. Cool in its tin on a wire rack for up to 30 minutes. Dust with icing sugar, then serve warm (or see tips).
Nutrition
- 416kcals Calories
- 22.8g (13.1g saturated) Fat
- 5.3g Protein
- 48.3g (29.6g sugars) Carbs
- 2.6g Fibre
- 0.4g Salt
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Reviews
I love this recipe because it is so easy to make and uses seasonal fruit. When the right time of the year comes round this tart is a real treat and my whole family looks forward to eating it, we make up reasons why we just have to make it. It’s fun going out together looking for wild damsons or greengages (and plums work well too) and coming home to cook it. Look for nice ripe juicy fruit. The recipe looks long and complicated but it is not at all. It is lovely served with custard, cream or ice-cream and looks impressive, so I have cooked it for more swanky dinner parties as well as just family lunches. There’s something aout the sweet/sharp fruit with the creamy, custardy filling that makes it the perfect, satisfying pudding. Just looking at the picture makes my mouth water!
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