Russian Season

On weekdays, I start my day with just a cup of tea and a tiny bit of cottage cheese. Even if I have something yummy in the fridge, I don’t care because I am usually too sleepy to enjoy food. The situation changes greatly on weekend mornings that bring you all the luxury of long and lazy breakfasts, with endless tea drinking and a slow, relaxed talk.

This plum tart was baked last night and, despite the irresistible smell of melted plum jam, it waited patiently until this morning to be served along with the wonderful Ginkgo tea I get from Slovakia.

The pie is absolutely easy and turbo-quick to make, as it uses frozen puff pastry and home-made plum jam (taken from Mom’s collection of preserves: tons of strawberry, cowberry, plum, cranberry, black currant, cherry and raspberry jam). The jam was strong, sour and even with a tiny note of bitterness. I served the pie with a drizzle of dark chocolate sauce, but unfortunately the photos turned out to be blurry when I viewed them on a large screen, so just believe me: it goes very well with dark chocolate dressing.

Ingredients
1/2 kg puff pastry
1 cup home-made sour plum jam
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
15-20 dried plums

Roll out the pastry, spread the plum jam over it and decorate with dried plums. Sprinkle with cinnamon and, optionally, some cardamom.

Bake over a low heat for 30 to 40 minutes, until the crust has baked through.

Let the tart sit overnight, until the plum topping thickens.