A few weeks ago I noticed a new entry in our local market: greengages! These small, round, green plums are in season in August/ September and taste superbly. Here in the UK, it is sometimes difficult to find seasonal fruit that actually has some taste, but with greengages, it was love at first bite!
While I do enjoy eating them alone, I wanted to use them in one of my recipes. I thought of a galette, a sponge cake, but aimed at something even easier. So I opted for puff pastry tarts, using a ready-rolled puff pastry sheet, and prepared a quick cream patisserie (although for a quicker version, ricotta with a bit of honey would work well too) and added only a little bit of icing sugar to the fruit, as they were naturally sweet already. Yum!
Greengage Puff Tarts with Cream
Ingredients
For the Cream
Instructions
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Start with the cream. Pour the milk in a saucepan. Add the vanilla bean paste and the peel of half lemon. Place it on the hob and heat it (do not boil). In the meantime, mix the eggs, cornflour, and sugar in a bowl, using a whisk. When the milk is hot, remove the saucepan from the hob, remove the lemon peel, and slowly add the egg mixture. Combine well with a whisk and cook over low-medium heat for 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Cover with cling film and set aside. Leave to cool down.
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Preheat oven at 180C (160C fan). Slice the greengages (alternatively, you can simply cut them in halves) and place them in a bowl.
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Unroll the puff pastry sheet and cut it in 6 squares. Place a tablespoon of cream in the middle and spread (leaving 1 cm border). Place the greengages in the centre.
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Fold the edges of the pastry inward to enclose. Press the edges with a fork. Brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg or milk and sprinkle with icing sugar.
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Bake for 20-25 minutes and serve warm.
