Plumb and Almond Tart

Preheat to 175ºC / 350ºF / Gas mark 4.

Put the flour, butter and sugar into a bowl and crumb by hand, mix in the egg and lemon zest and gently work it all together until you have a firm ball. Do not over work. Place in the fridge for an hour or so.

Cut the dough in half and have two spring form tart cases ready. Roll the dough out with some flour to around 3mm thickness – you want a nice crisp tart shell base. Put some cling film over each tart and fill with rice to keep the base of tart nice and flat and pop into the oven for around 7 mins. Take the rice and cling film off and bake for another 3-5 mins, until golden brown. NOT pale, this makes much better eating! Let cool down.

Blitz your almonds to a fine powder and put in a mixing bowl.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and add to the almonds with the eggs and fold into the mixture.

Stir in the nuts and put into the fridge for half hour or so to firm up.

Whilst the mixture is in the fridge, cut your plumbs in half, remove the stones and toss in the vanilla sugar. Set aside.

Now to assemble the tart, put half of the almond mixture into each tart shell, distribute evenly, then pop in your plumbs giving them a little push down into the mixture. Heavily dust the tarts with icing sugar and pop into the oven for roughly 45mins to 1 hour or until the almond mix has become nice and golden on the outside, soft in the middle.

Let them cool down on a wire wrack, then serve with some lovely ice cream or crème fraiche.