Plum Tart on Breton Shortbread
It’s the height of plum season, and I really had to get to it: I’d never worked with this fruit before. The spark came when I stumbled upon the plum tart by Nour Kandler on Instagram — after that, I couldn’t think of anything else. I took a lot of inspiration from her recipe for this tart. It’s made up of a Breton shortbread, a plum confit, a vanilla whipped cream (also Nour Kandler’s recipe, a staple in my notebook) and fresh plums.
Why replace sweet shortcrust pastry with Breton shortbread?
The real strength of this tart is how simple it is. Out goes the traditional sweet shortcrust pastry and the sometimes tedious step of lining the tin: here, we swap all that for a Breton shortbread, thick, buttery, and deliciously crumbly. You simply spread it out inside a tart ring, bake it, and that’s it. No lining needed, no risk of shrinking during baking, no pricking the base and no blind-baking with baking beans.
It’s also a much more forgiving base: even if your rolling isn’t perfect, the shortbread makes up for it in the oven, puffing up slightly and developing a lovely golden color. Zero stress for maximum indulgence.
Can you really pipe a confit the same way as whipped cream?
A little technical novelty this time: I piped the confit with a nozzle, in a rosette, exactly like the whipped cream. For it to hold its shape nicely, I slightly reinforced the confit recipe, with a bit more pectin, and a touch of gelatine. The result: a lovely alternation of confit rosettes and whipped cream rosettes, very graphic.
As for equipment, I’d strongly recommend getting two P125 nozzles (one for the confit, one for the whipped cream): it’s much more comfortable. I only had one and had to juggle between the piping bags. It’s doable, but I won’t lie, it’s a bit of a hassle 😉
Ingredients & method
4 components · Full recipe
Plum confit (can be made the day before)
- 200 g (7.1 oz) mixed plum purée, from several plum varieties blended together
- 20 g (0.7 oz) caster sugar
- 4 g (0.1 oz) NH pectin
- 1 g (0.0 oz) powdered gelatine
- 6 g (0.2 oz) water (to rehydrate the gelatine)
- a dash of lemon juice
Rehydrate the gelatine in the water.
Heat the plum purée, then add the sugar/pectin mixture and bring to a boil for at least 1 minute.
Off the heat, add the rehydrated gelatine and the lemon juice, and mix.
Cover with cling film in contact with the surface and refrigerate overnight.
Vanilla whipped cream (Nour Kandler’s recipe, make the day before)
- 20 g (0.7 oz) whole milk
- 20 g (0.7 oz) caster sugar
- 212 g (7.5 oz) full-fat whipping cream
- 1/2 Norohy vanilla pod
- 2 g (0.1 oz) powdered gelatine (= 1 leaf)
- 12 g (0.4 oz) water (to rehydrate the gelatine)
Rehydrate the gelatine in the water.
Heat the milk with the sugar to dissolve it, then add the rehydrated gelatine.
Pour over the whipping cream and add the vanilla seeds. Blend with an immersion blender.
Cover with cling film in contact with the surface and refrigerate overnight.
Breton shortbread
- 3 egg yolks
- 130 g (4.6 oz) caster sugar
- 150 g (5.3 oz) softened butter
- 200 g (7.1 oz) flour
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 sachet baking powder
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until you obtain a smooth, pale mixture.
Add the softened butter and mix with a spatula to smooth everything out.
Sift the flour, salt and baking powder over the mixture. Mix with a spatula.
Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of about 7-8 mm (1/3 in).
Cut out a disc using a tart ring (18 or 20 cm / 7-8 in in diameter). Leave the tart ring in place.
Bake for about 20 minutes. Once out of the oven, let the shortbread cool on a wire rack.
Assembly
- a few fresh plums
Quickly rinse the fruit in cold water.
Remove the plum confit from the fridge and blend it with an immersion blender.
Place the Breton shortbread on a serving plate.
Spread a little confit over the shortbread (without going all the way to the edges). Put the remaining plum confit into a piping bag fitted with a P104 nozzle.
Whip the cream with a mixer, then put it into a piping bag fitted with another P125 nozzle, and pipe a first rosette of cream around the edge.
Repeat with the plum confit, then finish with a second rosette of whipped cream. Also fill the center with a little whipped cream.
Arrange the plums attractively on the tart. You can also use several varieties of plums.
Keep chilled until ready to serve.
Gallery
