PLUM TART RECIPE - ContainerSeeds.com -- Edible Container Gardening Seeds and Supplies/TITLE> <LINK REV="made" href="mailto:webmaster@containerseeds.com"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="container gardening, vegetables, herbs, fruit, edible flowers, theme gardens, seeds, supplies"> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="Seeds especially selected for successful edible container gardening. Container gardening supplies, books, how-to articles, and newsletters will help you achieve an edible container garden that is both productive and beautiful."> <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="ALL"> </HEAD> <bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#800080" alink="#ff0000"> <font size="+1"><center>ContainerSeeds.com </center></font> </font> </center> This is an old family recipe, handed down to me by my grandmother who learned it from her mother (which makes the recipe at least 125 years old, probably more). It's my very favorite summer dessert. I'm sorry that most of the quantities are approximate but they didn't measure ingredients back in my great-grandmother's day or even in my grandmother's day. The plums called for are those little blue ones. I've seen them variously called prune plums, Italian plums, German plums, and Stanley plums. They're only available (in the northeastern USA, anyway) in late August and September, so Plum Tart is a very special seasonal treat. </p> <p><b>PLUM TART</b> - Makes a 9 or 10 inch pie</p> <ul type="square"> <li> 1 stick of butter or the solid kind of margarine (1/4 lb) <li> 1 cup unbleached flour <li> Plums - the small blue ones, usually called prune plums although I've seen them called Italian plums or German plums <li> About 1 Tablespoon tapioca - not more (can be omitted) <li> About 3/4 cup granulated sugar <li> About 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon </ul> <p>Preheat oven to 350 F. Oil a 9 or 10" pie plate, or spray it with cooking spray. </p> <p>Mix the flour and butter with your fingertips until it is in the form of large crumbs that adhere to each other. Roll it up with your hands into a ball or sphere-shape. Put it in the pie crust, and pat it out with your hands so that it covers the bottom and sides of the pie crust. You can press the crust going around the top with the back of a fork's tines to make it look pretty, and I do this. Sprinkle the tapioca on the pie crust. You don't have to use tapioca, but the pie may be extra juicy (and the juices may boil over into your oven) if you do not use it. If you don't use it, you can put a cookie sheet on the bottom rack of your oven to catch any boil-overs.</p> <p>Halve and pit the plums (but do not peel them). Put the plums in the pie crust. The idea is to get as many plums in the crust as you possibly can. I do this by making concentric circles, starting at the outside. When you do this, you can get the plums to sort of sit up and you can get a lot of them into the crust. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and pour it over the pie. Bake at 350 for about 30-45 minutes or until the plums are soft and the juice is boiling. Let cool on a rack. Serve with *real* whipped cream. (It would be sacrilege to serve this with anything but real whipped cream!) </p> <center> <b><i>Return to <a href="../recipeindex.html">Recipe Index </a> </i></b><br> <p> <b><i>Return to <a href="../index.html">ContainerSeeds Home </a> </i></b><br> <p> <font size="-1"> <IMG SRC="../images/emailed.gif" ALT="" HEIGHT="52" WIDTH="45"><p> Comments or questions to: <EM> <A HREF="mailto:webmaster@containerseeds.com"> webmaster@containerseeds.com </A> </EM> <P> <i> Copyright © 2004 ContainerSeeds.com <BR> All Rights Reserved </i><p> </center> </BODY> </HTML> </font>