French Plum Tart Recipe
With Kisch Flavored Custard

Here's a plum tart recipe that features the great flavor of kirsch, a popular additon to many French fruit tart recipes. You can make it with different vaieties of plums and feel free to use a high quality, store bought pastry for the crust.

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Kirsch in French Recipes

You'll often find kirsch paired with fruits and featured in pastries, and it is also an ingredient in some fondue recipes. When they use it in recipes, the French use a cooking brandy, which is actually a mixture of kirsch and neutral alcohol. If you want to sip kirsch as an after dinner digestif, be sure to select a true cherry brandy and not the cooking variety.

Plums for Your Plum Tart

When I first came to France and heard people speak of prunes I assumed they were talking about dried plums. I soon found out that the French word for plum is prune and the word for prune is pruneaux.

There are several different varieties of plums grown in France. They appear on the market in the summer and early fall. Some of the more popular types are:

• Reine Claude - round, green, firm and sweet
• Mirabelle - small, yellow to orange, with a yellow-orange flesh
• Quetsche - large, oval, dark purple skin with a yellow flesh
• Americano-Japonaise - can be quite large, a recent addition to French markets

To make this plum tart recipe, I used what I found at the grocery store in May, which unfortunately meant plums from Chile. I prefer buying in season fruit but the tart didn't care - it still looked and tasted wonderful!

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• 1 unbaked pie shell
• 2 pounds plums
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 tablespoons Kirsch

Fit the pie shell to a 10 inch tart pan and prick the bottom several times with a fork.

Wash the plums, cut them in two, and remove the pits. Place them skin side down in the tart shell. Sprinkle the fruit with two tablespoons of the sugar.

Beat the rest of the sugar (6 tablespoons) with the egg. Stir in the flour and mix completely. Stir in the milk, butter, and Kirsch.

Pour the mixture over the plums and bake at 400°F for 45 minutes. Let cool completely. Serve cold.

Makes 6 - 8 servings.

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Other Resources . . .

• Go from plum tart recipe to fruit dessert recipes.
• Explore other fruit tart recipes.
• Have a look at some different French tart pans.