Hazelnut Plum Pie Recipe (Tarte aux Prunes)

We harvested our last batch of plums from the garden this week. I've been the only one who enjoys eating them fresh due to their sour-tasting skin, even though the flesh is tremendously sweet.

With the remaining fruit, I made a rustic plum pie. I layered hazelnut-flavored butter cream at the bottom of the pie shell and covered it with halved, peeled plums. I then covered the whole pie with another disk of pastry dough that I pricked using a lattice-dough pastry tool. Serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a hot cup of tea and you're all set for your next tea party with your girlfriends!

Maple Pecan Fig Tart

We harvested our last batch of Black Mission figs from the garden today. I've been wanting to share them with our friends, and so I made two dozen mini-tarts this afternoon.

I adapted the almond cream that I use in my tarte amandine recipe, but instead of almond I used pecans because I think pecans complement figs really well. To sweeten the figs and pecans, I drizzle warm maple syrup. The result is a true taste of autumn.