Tarte aux Mirabelles

As tradition built it

Serves 8. About 45 minutes, plus resting.

Ingredients

• 250 g pâte brisée (flour, butter, a little water and salt)
• 700 g mirabelle plums, halved and stoned
• 2 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• 100 ml crème fraîche
• 30 g ground almonds
• a pinch a little cinnamon

Method

1. Line a tart tin with the pastry, rest 30 minutes, blind bake lightly.
2. Arrange the halved mirabelles, cut side up, over the base.
3. Bake 5 minutes to begin setting the fruit.
4. Whisk the eggs, sugar, cream, ground almonds and cinnamon to a smooth migaine.
5. Pour over the fruit.
6. Bake a further 25 to 30 minutes, until the custard is just set and lightly golden.

What a modern chef changes

The fruit concentrated, since fresh mirabelles are genuinely hard to find in Britain.

Kit note, not tied to a numbered rung.

Method

1. Dehydrate a portion of the mirabelles first, halved, at a low setting until just chewy, before layering them into the tart alongside fresh or substitute plums, concentrating flavour to compensate for fruit that has usually travelled further and ripened less than it would in Lorraine in August.
2. Where fresh mirabelles cannot be found, use a mix of Victoria plum and greengage for the tartness-and-sweetness balance, stated here honestly as a substitution, not a match.
3. Finish with a spoonful of mirabelle eau de vie brushed over the warm tart, genuinely well stocked in the UK even where the fresh fruit is not, for a proper hit of the plum's honeyed, low-acid character.