Shortbread Plum Tart With Honey and Cinnamon Recipe (2024)

How can it be that you only need FOUR plums for this? What size could the plums be to have that yield two and a half cups? That must be a mistake.

Can this recipe be made ahead and frozen.

Delicious. Definitely make sure you use an 8-inch spring loaded pan and not a 9-inch, or that you add an additional 1/2 of the shortbread recipe if you use a 9-inch.Also, I simmered the compote over medium heat for approx 30 min as instructed and it still didn’t get “Think and jammy,” so it ended up a bit runny — might need a bit more time.

Do you peel the plums?

I find it utterly ironic to see recipes for any variation of gateau breton that calls for unsalted butter. All Breton pastry is based on butter that is saltier than the normal French demisel. Bretons have traditionally had such salty butter to thumb their noses at the french monarchy who imposed a hefty salt tax on the populace but could never enforce such a tax in Brittany.

plums can be peeled like anything, but i wouldn't bother. the skins give the beautiful color and simultaneously disappear texturally when cooked. (i recently made a plum clafoutis from smitten kitchen's site with some plums that were quite soft and going south so i couldn't peel them, and really didn't feel like it either. the thought of the skins kind of bothered me - like when you get a rolled up tomato skin in a sauce - but the plum skins were totally undetectable.)

I used large black plums, they were slightly smaller than a tennis ball, and 4 was enough but if you used smaller ones or a different type you will need a few more.

I make a lot of jams, including with plums, and I've never peeled a plum. The skins kind of absorb into the jam and aren't noticeable (same as with apricots).

There is not enough sugar or pectin to get supper jammy. A bit more sugar and even some lemon juice will help. Also, you should keep at a boil and constantly stir to avoid scorching. Jam usually comes together in about 10 to 15 minutes.

This is AMAZING. Followed the recipe closely, used three varieties of plums to fill 2.5 cups. Needed 3 tablespoons of sugar in addition to the honey. Made the dough and filling the day before. Dough was hard to roll out at first, but then it got soft and I ended up transferring it to the form in pieces and patching up the holes - didn't matter at all, the crust still came out perfect, crumbly and delicious. Exactly one hour at 325 convection bake, plenty of time to cool, and it is heaven.

You can make the compote and dough a few days ahead, but this tart is best served within 24 hours of baking. After that, the center starts to turn mushy from the moisture released by the fruit.

Easy, gorgeous, delicious. Made as directed (using large black plums, but any would do, as long you get about 2 1/4 cups worth of slices). Definitely remember to place the springform pan on a baking sheet to catch any butter seepage.

I'm wondering whether I could use some of the rhubarb compote I made this spring from my huge bumper crop. I made it very thick, and I suppose I could thicken it even more to keep it from becoming runny. In any case, I think it should be the law to serve this with vanilla ice cream on top.

There is no way the plum mixture will be spreadable and thick enough to allow you leave a border. I cooked the plum mixture for about 30 minutes in an attempt to thicken it but without some sort of thickening agent I can't see that happening. It was delicious nonetheless, but things got a little messy trying to seal the two pieces of dough together with the plum mixture running everywhere. Next time I will try spreading the bottom layer up the sides of the pan about an inch or so.

Perhaps consider chilling the jam to help it thicken. And then freeze the bottom crust for 5-10 minutes before adding the jam layer, and then maybe freeze after adding the jam for another 5-10 minutes before adding the top layer. Might reduce the messiness!

Any thoughts about the alternative spices Melissa Clark suggests: ginger; lemon thyme; rosemary sprig? What about a lemon verbena sprig added to the plums (and then fished out after simmering)? And if lemon verbena is added, does it play well with cinnamon? with rosemary? with ginger? Or should any or all of those be left out? --All seem like great variations; I'm just not sure how they do or don't combine.

I didn't have trouble with the jam like some of the reviews, but the dough is *very* difficult to work with. I let it sit in the fridge overnight, rolled it out cold, dusted the parchment with flour, put the bottom layer in with the parchment still attached, and then had to patchwork the sticky top layer on. Also worth noting, I used a 10 inch springform pan and still thought the dough layers were too thick. There was a lot more dough and less jam than the picture shows.

I baked for 68 minutes, and although the tart looked gorgeous on the outside, it did seem mushy/undone for about 1/4" thickness of the dough touching the filling. My dough had just come out of the fridge so maybe I should have let it come to room temperature? I think I will make this again, and I am going to try the same thing in a 9" pan as I am starting to wonder if the 8" pan instructions were in error. My crust looks a lot thicker than the picture.

My dough circles ended up very thick - like 1/2 an inch. This made them difficult to shape out of the fridge. I did my best and got them into the pan alright, but I was not able to seal the edges well at all. It is in the oven now - fingers crossed.

The plum filling was delicious, I used 6 plums with cinnamon and rosemary and it thickened after about 30 minutes. The crust tasted fine as well. However, I made this using a 9" springform so I did 1.5x the ingredients for the crust. The crust was much too thick and didn't cook through. I wish there were a thickness of crust specified or directions for a more standard springform pan size.

Jammy plums can be achieved in a 350 degree oven. Check after 30 minutes. May take as long as one hour.

When my dough didn't "come together," I treated it like pastry and kept flicking water at it until it did. Perhaps I flicked too much, because the dough was too wet, even after chilling. Was expecting this to be an epic fail, but I persevered and finished assembling. The result? Quite nice actually. I guess anything with a cup of butter in it will be tasty in the end. Don't know if I'll try making it again, though.

Four plus is accurate if you use LARGE plums, as the recipe states. I reached 2.25 cups at 3.5 plums.

I used six plums - they were on the small size, so I knew I’d need more than four - but otherwise this is an easy recipe with a great resulting tart.

What kind of plums are recommended for this?

I'd like to weigh in on the salty versus unsalted butter thing; In my h.o. sugary desserts desperately need salt, along with savoury dishes; the unutterably cloying effect of unsalted butter dishes is sickening.....

If you think the plum mixture might be too runny, you can add a cut -up apple,to the mixture when you cook it beforehand, which you can either subsequently remove, or else incorporate into the compote. The apple skins and seeds will supply enough pectin without making the mixture too sugary.

Haven't tried it yet, but reading through the comments it occurs to me that you could add a peeled and diced apple to the plum mix. The pectin in the apple would bump up both the volume and the pectin level and there would be no discernible taste difference.

There's no mention of how far up the edge to press the lower crust so as to limit the filling from gushing out. Any recommendations for the 8" springform pan would be welcome. Thanks!

I made this with Italian plums, a bay leaf, cardamom & cinnamon. Once they cooked down, I was afraid it was too little filling so I added about a cup of black currant preserves. The combination was fantastic! I also had a larger pan so I made 1.5x the crust recipe, but ended up with plenty leftover. And I used 3 eggs and 1 yolk in the crust, and the white to glaze. I wish I had blind baked the bottom crust for more texture. But despite the article, leftovers held up wonderfully the next day.