Mirabelle plums and a recipe

For the past evenings, we've been picking mirabelle plums out of our tree. It's been on my family land for 20 years and it is the first year ever we get fruits. I tried the first one, it was sweat and juicy. It was a race between us and the magpies who had a wing advantage on us. Most of the plums were very high up so we used a mix a several techniques to get them: jumping, climbing the tree, shaking the branches and a ceiling mop taped to a broom stick. The last was the most efficient. We managed to get quite a few in the end and as Tom can't eat them raw because of allergies, we decided to make a tart.

Pâte brisée - Pie crust

Ingredients:

• 250g flour
• 125g butter
• 1/2 glass of water
• Pinch of salt

Recipe:

• Dice the butter at room temperature.
• Mix it to the flour with the tip of your fingers. Pour progressively the water while mixing. Don't work the dough too much.
• Once it all sticks together, wrap it in cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge.

Mirabelle Plum Tart

Ingredients:

• 500g mirabelle plums
• 1 egg
• 25g flour
• 1/2 glass of milk
• 50g sugar
• 20g butter
• Pie crust

Recipe:

• Wash, half and remove the stones of the mirabelle plums.
• Spread the crust in a buttered baking tin, pierce the dough with a fork and precook for 10 minutes on 180°C. To precook, cover with cooking paper and weight it down with dry peas, beans or uncooked rice. Leave to cool.
• In a bowl, mix the egg and the sieved flour. Add progressively the milk and the sugar.
• Sprinkle sparsely sugar on the crust and scatter the plums. Cover with the mix. 
• Sprinkle butter shavings and cook in the oven for 25 minutes on 220°C.

You can also serve it with ice cream. Enjoy!