A plum Madeira cake and a bag of fresh plums were recently delivered to various media on behalf of the Stone Fruit Producers Association of South Africa, to share and celebrate just how fabulous plums are. The aim of this campaign was to promote plums and encourage people to create their own plum recipes.
Plums are the perfect summer fruit – they’re they’re low in calories and have no saturated fats delicious, succulent and locally grown. The plum season is now well underway with different varieties coming into season at different times of the year. Decadently delicious and delightful, plums are also good for you in so many ways:
- they contain fibre, sorbitol, and isatin and are known to help regulate digestive system functioning
- fresh plums are an excellent source of vitamin C, which is also a powerful natural antioxidant
- they’re a very good source of vitamin A and beta carotene; consumption of natural fruits rich in vitamin A is known to help protect against lung and oral cavity cancers
- they are rich in minerals like potassium, fluoride and iron
- they are rich in the B-complex group of vitamins, such as niacin, vitamin B-6 and pantothenic acid.
The plum tarts delivered were made by Marcelino’s Bakery in Cape Town.
Here’s the recipe:
- 500g short-crust pastry
- 100g ground almonds
- 5 eggs
- 142ml cream
- 100g butter , melted
- 150g golden caster sugar
- 6-15 plums , depending on size, halved and stoned
- 2 tbsp demerara sugar
Roll the pastry out to the thickness of a coin and line a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin. Chill for 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 180C. Line the pastry with parchment, cover with beans and bake for 15 minutes, lift out the beans and parchment and bake for 5 minutes.
Whisk the almonds, eggs, cream, butter and sugar until smooth and pour into the pastry case.
Arrange the plums in the case cut-side down, pushing them into the custard mixture, they should fit fairly close together. Sprinkle the top with demerara sugar and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the filling is just set and the plums are cooked.
Sprinkle with icing sugar
Read more:
The South African Stone Fruit Report
Beautiful Country, Beautiful Fruit
For more plum recipes click here