This tart is a flat tart. It requires no tart pan and no blind baking. You don’t fold the edges as in a galette. There’s no lattice-work or fluted rims as in a pie. In fact, this flat tart has no rim at all. The pastry simply lays flat on a baking sheet. It’s as stress-free as baking gets and it’s a pretty tart too. The discs of fruit are laid out in concentric circles. Some people call this arrangement a pinwheel tart. I’ve made similar versions with apples and berries. Sometimes I’ve called these tarts “fruit pizza”. But the term “pizza” confuses the SEO gods, so I prefer “flat tart”. Yellow Plum Flat Tart with Almond Meringue.
I intended this flat tart to be a pluot flat tart. I intended to make and eat this flat tart on a Sunday afternoon. If I bake I usually bake on a Sunday.
But I did not make this Yellow Plum Tart with Almond Meringue on a Sunday. I made it on a Saturday, and I posted it on a Sunday. But, (and this is the important part) I shopped for it on a Friday. The reason that’s relevant is because had I shopped for it on a Sunday I would have gone to the Hollywood Farmers’ Market and bought pluots instead of yellow plums for sure. I’ve had my eye on an Amelia Saltsman Pluot Pinwheel Tart recipe from Bon Appétit for some time now (7 years!). However, had I stuck with my Sunday shopping routine I’d never have learned the tale of the illegal yellow plum.
Illegal Yellow Plums
That’s right. Plums can be illegal. Well, yellow plums. In fact, yellow plums are banned in all 50 states in America. Making yellow plums more tightly regulated than raw milk or marijuana!
If yellow plums are illegal how the heck did I find them at a large-scale chain grocery store in full view of law enforcement officers? Does this Yellow Plum Flat Tart make me some sort of fugitive? Should we scream “lock her up” when we see the produce manager who sold me the supposedly illicit plums? More importantly, why are yellow plums illegal? Is there some kind of recall? Are they hallucinogenic, or worse carcinogenic?
Nope, the answer lies somewhere in the legalese of lawyerly gobbledygook. Yellow plums are a protected-origin fruit. Specifically, yellow plums that bear the name “Mirabelle de Lorraine”. These tiny, delicious plums are only grown in Lorraine, France, and, thanks to import laws, they can only be grown in Lorraine, France. I guess U.S. legislators aren’t willing to stipulate the designation, so that means even the import of yellow “Mirabelle de Lorraine” plums is illegal.
For me, it all started at Ralph’s grocery store on Ventura Blvd in Studio City, California. Nowhere near Lorraine, France. I went in because I recalled seeing beautiful yellow stone fruit there. To my way of thinking if you find it in a grocery store and it isn’t a plum, or a peach, or a nectarine then it’s most probably a pluot. After all, apriums are just too weird for Ralph’s grocery store. Whole Foods, maybe, Ralph’s no.
So I went to the checkout and proudly handed over my bright yellow fruit to the cashier. He looked at them and asked, “what are these?”
I love it when clerks ask me to tell them how to do their job. So I smugly answered, “pluots”.
“Pluots?” he said as he pulled out his little reference guide (flip, flip, flip). He could not find pluots listed anywhere. He charged me for apricots and obviously couldn’t be bothered to make the distinction. There was line forming and I can get shy around strangers so I let it go at “apricots”.
But I didn’t let it go for long. When I got home I googled pluot and soon discovered my golden fruit was certainly not a pluot. Pluots are speckled and have gradations of red and purple. Next, I googled Aprium. Nope.
That’s when I punched in the words “yellow stone fruit” and learned the tale of the illegal yellow plum.
So how did illegal yellow plums end up at a grocery store without proper identification? Well, my guess is if they’re grown in California, and if they refuse to call them “Mirabelle de Lorraine”, they can sell all the yellow plums they like. All I can say is they make a heck of a sweet flat tart. GREG
Yellow Plum Flat Tart with Almond Meringue
Print This Recipe Yield 6–8Source Adapted from Amelia SaltsmanPublishedThis recipe can be used with other types of stone fruit.
Ingredients
- raw pastry dough (enough for a single crust pie)
- flour (as needed for rolling)
- 1 large egg white (at room temperature)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup ground almond meal (also called almond flour, or simply ground almonds)
- 4–5 yellow plums (see note)
- 2 tablespoon melted butter
- 2 tablespoon turbiado sugar
Directions
Prepare the pastry round: Place sheet of parchment on parchment-lined, rimless baking sheet; sprinkle with flour. Roll out crust on the sheet to about a 13-inch round. Using pot lid or a dinner plate as a guide, trim dough to about an 11 or 12-inch round. Discard trimmings. Chill the dough on the baking sheet while you make the meringue.
Make the meringue: Using an electric mixer, beat egg white in medium bowl until foamy. With machine running, gradually add granulated sugar, beating until firm peaks form (it might take a while). Turn off the machine and fold in the almond meal by hand.
Make the tart: Set 1 plum, stem side up, on work surface. Working parallel to the pit, cut 1/8‑inch-thick rounds off both sides. Repeat with remaining plums.
Spread meringue over crust leaving a 3/4‑inch border all around. Arrange plum slices, slightly overlapping, in spiral pattern atop meringue, beginning at outer edge and working toward the center, turning any end pieces cut side up. Choose your pieces wisely, and lay them out attractively. Finish with 1 perfect plum slice in center. Chill the assembled tart for twenty minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425°F.
When ready to bake: Remove the tart from the refrigerator and brush melted butter over the pluots and exposed pastry; sprinkle tart with turbinado sugar. Bake tart 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 400°F and bake tart until edges of the fruit begin to brown, about 15 more minutes. Cool tart slightly on pan. Loosen with a spatula and slide onto a serving plate. Serve warm or at room temperature.
You may have bought a Shiro plum, they are yellow but a Japanese plum, not European, and legal.
I’m going to ridiculously excited if I ever happen upon some yellow plums in my neck of the woods! Loved this post, Greg and I love your no-fuss, flat crust on this tart 🙂
I’m delighted you remember my pluot pinwheel tart, thank you! As for your plums, I don’t think those are mirabelles. Mirabelles are teeny; cutting them into rounds would require teeny tools, many, many plums, and a high frustration threshold. But it does make a juicy story.
I love it when you bake, especially when you put your life on the line for the sake of a good tart. Love the idea of a flat tart… will try it soon!
What a story, Greg, I just love it, illegal plums! How fantastic that the French are so stuck on their special plums…I can see champagne and cognac but plums? I love that they sit on a bed of almond meringue, how fluffy and decadent…almost like a giant macaron. And the colour is awesome too.
Banned fruit? I had no idea! Always learn something new from you — like this terrific recipe. Great fruit pizza. Flat tart. Whatever (heck with SEO!!).
I think your grocery store and you are safe as I don’t think you had illegal plums. We had a beautiful Shiro Japanese yellow plum tree in our orchard in New Hampshire and I have a feeling that is what you bought. They are absolutely delicious just as I’m sure your tart was.
That tart looks worthy of getting arrested.
I love mirabelles, they are so juicy and sweet. Your tart looks great.
Stress free baking, this looks like my kinda tart. Less work with all the benefits! This is beautiful and funny you mention pluots, I just ate one! Interesting bit on the illegal yellow plums, who knew? I see them often at one or two markets down here.
Nice little dessert. Just knowing their called illegal makes me like them more.
Greg, we’ve been eating these yellow plums all summer (from our local Gelson’s) and they’re our favorite! So sweet and crsip! I had no idea about the Mirabelle de Lorraine plums. I can’t believe I don’t even know what Gelson’s is calling them, but you can bet I’ll be checking asap. They are truly delicious and your tart is perfect.
Looks like they were freestone. Harvested some yellow plums off neighbor’s tree here in the Columbia River Gorge and we have to eat them off the pit. Wouldn’t fly here–more for jam and eating! Boy does this tart look easy and fun and gorgeous and delcious!
Call them what you will, and purchase them where you might (by the way that’s my neighborhood market. You were just a stone’s throw from my house — pardon the pun.), it looks like you have produced one heck of a lovely summer tart. Bravo!
I have a pile of green plums on the counter waiting to be used up today! I had no idea the yellow ones were contraband!