Treat of the Week: Plum Galette

A galette is a French pastry with rolled, crusty edges.  You can think of it as a flat-bottomed bag which is filled with fruit.  Or—you could just call it a tart.

Here’s this week’s treat—a plum galette or rustic tart which my mother made for us this weekend.  Isn’t it stunning?  I mean, truly, truly lovely?  As good as it looks, it tastes even better.  I love these rustic tarts with their delicate, rolled crusts.  I adore the uneven way that they cover the filling.   Here, my mother has dusted the crust with cinnamon and sugar—giving it a spicy sweetness and a delicious texture which complements the buttery crust and tender plums perfectly. 

The plums have been carefully sliced and arranged—leaving the skins on.  The flavors of the meat of the fruit and the skin blend perfectly, combined with the other ingredients, to create a beautiful symphony of taste.

I do tend to get carried away when I talk about desserts.  I just get so excited.

My mother served this rustic tart with fresh, stiffly whipped cream into which she infused some sloe gin—giving it a great taste and a lovely, pale-pink color.  Slow gin is flavored with blackthorn berry—a cousin of the plum with a very similar flavor.  So, the complete package was sheer perfection.  In fact, you could say, it was plum perfect.