Perfectly Pleasant Plum Tart

Okay, this is not quite a plum pie, but an awfully close substitute.  Once  you taste it, I’m sure you’ll forgive me for making a tart instead of a pie. Before our big summer roadtrip, I had the tennis ladies over for a little tennis and then we tried some of this plum tart. I had a lot of plums to use up and I thought about a bavarian apple tart I used to make when I was first married that had a cream cheese filling and apricot glaze.  So, I dug that old recipe out and substituted in plums. Mighty tasty, if I do say so myself. Mr. D. was just looking over my shoulder and commented, “Mom, you have to make that again soon”.  The ultimate compliment. This recipe is also very versatile – in the fall substitute the apples back in, right now I’m thinking a peach one will be quite delicious. Oh, the possibilities are endless. The other good thing about this recipe is that it looks very pretty and complicated, but it is extremely easy to make- just the way I like it!

Perfectly Pleasant Plum Tart

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 t. salt
• 8 oz. cream cheese at room temp.
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 t. cinnamon (optional- I did not use it for the plums, but would with apples)
• 2 cups (I think this was about 4-5 large plums) halved lengthwise and cut into 1/8 inch slices
• 1/2 cup apricot jam

Cooking Directions:

1. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add flour and salt and blend. Spread crust mixture in the bottom of a buttered 9 inch springform pan.
2. Beat cream cheese until fluffy, add sugar, eggg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Spread over crust.
3. Dip each plum slice into the sugar and arrange slices over the filling in 2 overlapping circles. Now, nuke the apricot jam to heat it and brush it over the top of the tart. The original recipe calls for straining the jam. Now you can do this if you really want to, but I never do and it works fine for me.
4. Bake the tart at 375 degrees for 45-55 minutes or until golden. Cool to luke warm before removing from pan. Serve warm or cold. Serves 10-12.