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Damson & Soured Cream Tart

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Now last week I was treated to some "free" Damson's from my neighbours' Dad's garden. Hmm? I thought! This is is a new fruit to me, so having tasted the tart berry my mind instantly went to a Tart! Perfect! Damson & Soured Cream Tart. You could also use Greengages, or ripe Victoria plums instead. You will need a large deep flan dish, mine's a really old fashioned heavy earthenware one — 23cm by 2.5cm deep that I brought in a charity shop for a £1. The hardest part of this recipe was waiting for the fruit to ripen & sweeten a little, the second was removing the stones from the Damsons. If you have ever stoned a mango this is a similar process, just smaller & harder to do :-). I have included a recipe for the pastry but if you chose to use shop brought please feel free.

Click the Method tab below to see a step by step guide on how to make Damson & Soured Cream Tart along with some pictures to guide you.

damson and soured cream tart

ingredients

serves 6 to 8

Here's what you need ;¬)

for the pastry

  • 175g plain flour
  • pinch salt
  • 50g icing sugar
  • finely grated zest of 1 small orange
  • 100g diced chilled salted butter
  • 1 large egg whisked
  • 1 & 1/2 Tbls ice cold water

for the filling

  • 170ml soured cream
  • 80ml double cream
  • 1 large egg
  • 6 Tbls sugar
  • 2 Tbls plain flour
  • 1 Tbls ground almounds
  • zest of an orange

for the fruit

  • 500g fruit halved & de-stoned
  • *1 to 2 Tbls sugar

*Taste the fruit and then add sugar as required — bear in mind the tart mix is also sweet, so we do need to balance the dish.

method

How sweet do you like it? Well, we like it a little tart over here at Nutty's, so I tend to hold back on the sugar. However, you need to taste the damsons just so you know how sour they are and, if they are like mine were this time round, you definately need a little sugar adding to the fruit, so, one tablespoon if you like it sweet and the fruit is not too acidic or, two tablespoons if the damsons are 'really-head-shakingly' tart and you like it a little sweet, but adjust accordingly to your own taste ;¬)

Here's me gathering the ingredients to make life a little easier:

Ingredients
ingredients on a board
and beautiful fresh damsons
ingredients on a board

Method for the pastry

  1. put all the dry ingredients into a mixer or bowl
  2. process, or rub together by hand until you have a fine crumb
  3. add the wet ingredients and repeat until combined
  4. wrap in cling film in round disk shape, chill for 15 to 20 minutes
  5. roll out on a floured surface until the depth of a £1 coin
  6. carefully place the pastry into the dish pushing the sides down & in, especially where the base meets the side
  7. prick the base of the pastry all over
prep' the pastry base
raw pastry in a flan dish
  1. line with baking parchment then fill with rice
line with parchment & rice or baking beans
pastry and rice in a flan dish
  1. bake in a pre-heated oven @ 180c for 10 minutes
  2. remove the rice & paper bake for another 10 minutes
blind baked pastry
pastry and rice in a flan dish

Method for the filling

  1. whisk your sour cream, double cream & egg together
  2. add in sugar, flour & ground almounds, whisk until smooth
add sugar, flour & ground almonds
flan filling in a bowl
  1. add in your orange zest
  2. & set aside in the fridge
add orange zest
flan filling and orange zest in a bowl

Method for the fruit

  1. take each fruit & run a knife around the seam
  2. use the knife work arround the stone
  3. set the fruits into two bowls, one for best, one for worst
  4. it took two of us 20 minutes each to do 650g!
  5. add sugar to each bowl to according to your taste

Putting the dish together

  1. place your worst looking fruit into the base of the dish
put fruit in the base
fruit in pastry base
  1. top with your cream filling mixture
top with cream filling
tart filling in lan dish
  1. now top off your dish with your best fruits, skin side up
top with the best fruits
tart filling topped with damsons
  1. bake @180c for 30 to 35 minutes
  2. once done the dish will have browned, risen & bubbling around each piece of fruit
damson & soured cream tart
damson and soured cream tart
  1. allow to cool for 30 mins in its dish, then trim the excess pastry & dust with icing sugar
trim edges & dust with icing sugar
damson and soured cream tart
serve with love...
damson and soured cream tart
...and a huge smile

As a special treat, serve with Cornish Clotted Ice cream, or double cream. You could even serve it with both if you are feeling particularly devilish!

or serve with love...
damson and soured cream tart and icecream plates
...& a dolop of Cornish Clotted Ice Cream!

And an even bigger smile :¬)