Often the crust for an open-faced tart is made of puff pastry. But a very good tart can be made with shortcrust pastry when puff pastry is not at hand.

A shortcrust open-faced tart needs a crust with more structure than a traditional American or two-crust pie. A pastry flour that produces a delicate, tender crust may leave the tart too fragile to cut and serve without crumbling apart. For this type of tart, a hard-wheat flour or one recommended for bread making will generally work better.

As with any fruit tart that is mainly about the fruit and sweetened only very little with apple juice concentrate, this one is good served as part of a lunch or brunch main course along with a cheese dish–for example: Käseschnitten Schweizer Art ~ Cheese toasts Swiss style with white wine and Gruyère.

The less processed options are: Plums, Homemade Apple Juice Concentrate, Flour, Butter, Salt and Water.

Equipment

• a Pizza Pan or a Baking Sheet that will hold a 12-inch (30.5 cm) tart
• a Cutting Board and Knife
• a Medium-Sized Heavy-Bottomed Pot and Lid
• a Flame Tamer (aka Heat Diffuser, Simmering Plate) is optional. The pot does not sit directly over the heat source. The filling can cook slowly and evenly and is less likely to scorch. Some brands may be used on smooth-top burners.
• a Slotted Spoon
• a Bowl or other Container to hold the gently cooked fruit and chill it while making the crust
• a Large Bowl in which to make the crust
• a Pastry Board and Rolling Pin

Ingredients

A note on flour: There is no single system for classifying flour varieties; classifications differ from country to country. Some systems do not classify by the variety of wheat. For this shortcrust, choose a white flour recommended for bread making rather than one intended for cakes and pastries.

• 1½ pounds (680 g) of plums–around 7 or 8 depending on their size
• 1 cup of Homemade Apple Juice Concentrate: Follow this link to the recipe: Apple Juice Concentrate.
• 1 and 1/2 cups (195 g) of Organic Unenriched All-Purpose Hard Wheat White Flour (Hard wheat flour is the standard American variety.) See the note at the beginning of this section on choosing a flour.
• 9 Tablespoons (128 g) of European-Style Unsalted Butter
• 3/4 teaspoon Sea Salt
• up to 4 and 1/2 Tablespoons of Cold Bottled Spring Water

Preparing the Plums

Note: When plums are picked before they are fully ripe, their texture is crunchy and they may be lacking in flavour. Plums found in supermarkets are often underripe. Gentle cooking in apple juice concentrate diminishes their firmness and improves their flavour.

• Halve the plums, pit them and thinly slice them.
• Place them in the pot with the apple juice concentrate.
• Place the pot on the flame tamer, if using it, partially cover the pot, and simmer the plum slices over medium low heat until they are tender but not soft, that is, just until a skewer will pierce a slice without resistance. Stir them occasionally to check their doneness and ensure that they cook evenly in the concentrate. The plums in the photographed tart reached the point of “just tender” in about 30 minutes.
• Transfer the plum slices with a slotted spoon to a bowl and refrigerate them while making the shortcurst. Reserve the juice in which the plums cooked. A little of the juice will be added to make the tart and the rest may be refrigerated and used for something else.

Making the dough for the crust

• Pour the flour and salt into the bowl and mix them together.
• Add the butter, cutting it into small pieces.
• Rub the butter into the flour with your hands until you feel only very fine bits of butter in the texture of the mix.
• Sprinkle a tablespoon of water over the mixture and lightly blend it in with your fingers. Add the water by tablespoons until the dough forms a cohesive ball.
• Lightly flour the dough. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes before rolling it out if there is time.

Rolling out the dough for the tart

• Roll the dough out on a lightly floured pastry board. Roll from the center out in all directions to form a circle a little larger than 12 inches (30.5 cm) in diameter.
• Transfer the dough to the pizza pan or baking sheet: Place the pan nearby. Roll the dough loosely around the pin, towards you, until only about half the dough hangs down from the pin. Unroll the dough onto the pan.
• Bring the edges of the dough up to form a narrow rim.

Assembling and baking the tart

Gas or Convection Oven:  thefoodlessprocessed uses a gas oven. The conversions from Fahrenheit to Celsius do not attempt to adjust for differences between baking in a gas or convection oven. I have no experience using a convection oven and leave adjustments to the better judgement of you who do have.

• Preheat the oven to 425 F/220 C and place the rack in the middle position.
• Arrange the plum slices in closely packed concentric circles on the unbaked crust.
• Bake the tart for 20 minutes. Remove the tart from the oven and trickle several tablespoons of the reserved cooking liquid over the plums to moisten them. (Plums that are not fully ripe will not release much juice.)
• Return the tart to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes.