Plum Tartlets (Back in the Day Bakery)

It was a beautiful winter afternoon when I baked these... 

Plum Tartlets

I was baking these lovely plum tartlets for our bake-along with Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, Lena from Frozen wings.

Plum tartlets? I don't deny asking myself this question when I baked these. At first glance, I reckon that these tarts made with the recipe from the book, Back in the Day Bakery or here do look more like cakes to me!

Apart from their looks, I think it is fair that they should be named as tarts as they do taste more like tarts than cakes to me.

To be specific, they are actually cake-like tartlets with outer rims of pastry-like texture with their insides being simply buttery and sandy. As they are neither spongy nor fluffy, I can appreciate and understand the reason why these can't be fully classified as cakes.

Buttery? Yup! I do have issue with the amount of butter used in this recipe. Originally, the recipe suggests 250g of butter to bake six tarts, resulting per tart containing 40g of butter!!! Being a health freak, I obviously don't like this idea! To fix my issue, I have baked my tartlets even smaller... Using half amount of the recipe, I have managed to bake six tartlets, resulting per tart containing 20g of butter! Now, that's slightly better!

Besides my butter issue with this recipe, I have also asked myself another question... Where can I buy fresh plums during winter? Sort of impossible. For those who are living in countries with seasons, I'm sure that you will understand what I mean as buying and consuming any fresh food that are not seasonal is definitely NOT a cost effective thing to do. For this reason and based on past experiences, I have learned to preserve various stone fruits with lemon juice and small amount of sugar and stored them in our freezer after our summer, just like I always do for our home grown nectarines. Now, we can enjoy summer fruits throughout the year!

No worries, now! This is how I baked these plum tartlets using frozen plum and less butter...

The addition of lemon, cardamom and vanilla make the mixture very fragrant!

See this... I have to agree that mixing this is like mixing a cake batter.

However, the mixture looks more doughy at this stage.

Due to winter, I have to use frozen plums to bake these tarts.

Assembling the tarts

I reckon my tartlets look very much smaller than the ones in the books.

Mine are not less prettier!

... and taste equally good with lesser portion of butter! :p

Here's the recipe that is mostly adapted from the book, Back in the Day Bakery or here

Makes 6 small tarts

150g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg yolks
40g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste (or extract)
lemon zest from 1 lemon
2 plums, pitted and sliced (fresh or frozen)
2 tbsp brown sugar
icing sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 160°C fan forced. Lightly butter 6 cups of a muffin tray and line each base with a circle of baking paper.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 mins. Add the egg yolks, granulated sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest and continue to beat until the mixture is light in color. In a separate mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cardamom and salt.

Reduce the speed to low and add sifted flour mixture in thirds, mixing just until incorporated; be careful not to overmix.
Divide the dough evenly among muffin cups. Place plum slices in each cup, lightly pressing the slices into the dough with your fingers. Sprinkle the tops with brown sugar.

Bake for 25 mins, until the tartlets look set and the tops are bubbly and caramelized to a golden brown. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

These are best served warm, but they can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Happy Baking
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