Plum and cinnamon galette

A plum and cinnamon galette is a rustic free-form tart baked directly on a large baking tray, without the need for a tart tin. It’s wonderfully simple to make: just roll out the pastry, arrange the fruit in the centre, fold the edges over the filling and bake. Towards the end of baking, I switch the oven to bottom heat only and move the galette closer to the lower heating element to ensure the pastry base is fully baked and doesn’t become soggy from the fruit. The addition of buttermilk or kefir makes the pastry beautifully pliable. It actually reminds me a little of traditional Polish pierogi dough. I love serving this galette warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:

• 240 g plain flour
• 140 g cold butter, diced
• a pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons icing sugar
• 80 ml cold buttermilk or kefir

Ingredients for the plum filling:

• 550 g plums (such as Victoria or other dessert plums), stoned and cut into halves or thick slices
• 2 tablespoons ground almonds
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Sift the flour into a bowl, add the butter and rub it in (or cut it in with a knife) until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar, salt and buttermilk, then quickly bring the dough together. Alternatively, prepare the pastry in a food processor. Shape the dough into a disc, wrap it in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Roll out the chilled pastry into a 3 mm-thick circle, lightly dusting the work surface with flour as needed. Transfer it to the prepared baking tray. Sprinkle the centre of the pastry with the ground almonds. Leaving a 3 cm border, arrange the plums in overlapping circles, starting from the outside and working towards the centre. Sprinkle with the caster sugar and dust with the ground cinnamon. Fold the edges of the pastry over the fruit, gently pressing the folds together where necessary to help them stay in place during baking.

Bake at 200°C for 35–40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and fully baked. About 10 minutes before the end of baking, switch the oven to bottom heat only and move the galette closer to the lower heating element to ensure the base bakes through and stays crisp. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly.

Serve warm, preferably with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!