Spending time with my family in France this summer meant baking many fruit tarts. It’s a habit rooted in my upbringing, and at this time of year we enjoyed abundant local quetsches and mirabelles.
So we did—joyfully and plentifully.
Tarte aux mirabelles
I fell in love with quetsches, mirabelles and Reine-Claude—varieties of plums—many years ago in my grandfather’s and uncle’s orchards in northeastern France, when I was still a child. These local plums are central to what a French summer in Lorraine feels like in late August, after the harvest when hay bales and straw bundles dot the fields.
Oh, the silly games my cousins and I played among the fields and in hay-filled barns. This visit I loved reliving those moments with Lulu. When my high school friend R. and her twins came to visit, we couldn’t resist finding a field.
And then we played—covered in hay.
My grandfather and several uncles were farmers. Their land always had quetschiers or mirabelliers that produced a generous crop each summer. At the season’s peak, the kitchen hummed with activity: my mother, grandmother and aunts turned fruit into jams, liqueurs and fruits preserved in syrup. Freezers were rare back then, so preserving was the natural choice.
And they baked a lot of fruit tarts.
It was common to find a fruit tart cooling on the counter, waiting for unexpected guests. I felt lucky whenever I was one of those guests.
I’ve never found true mirabelles in the US, but I’ve seen plums similar to quetsches—often labeled Italian plums or under other names, which can be confusing. They’re in season now, and I was happy to find some at a nearby market.
So, following tradition, I baked a tarte aux quetsches—to stretch out the pleasure of picking fruit from the tree and playing in the hay.
At home, we prefer our fruit tarts lightly sprinkled with sugar and otherwise simple. My sister-in-law makes them beautifully. You can make this tart with mirabelles the same way.
For the pastry:
- 70 g quinoa flour
- 30 g millet flour
- 100 g brown rice flour
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1.5 teaspoons xanthan gum (optional)
- 100 g cold butter, diced
- 1 large egg yolk
- 5 or more tablespoons cold water
*Xanthan gum helps with binding when there is no gluten.
For the fruit:
- 1 kg quetsches (small Italian plums in the US)
- 50 g blond cane sugar, plus more to sprinkle
- 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
- Zest of 1 organic lime, finely grated
- 30 g almond meal
Steps:
- In a stand mixer bowl, combine the flours, salt and xanthan gum (if using).
- Add the cold butter and mix on medium until the mixture forms crumbs.
- Add the egg yolk, then gradually add cold water until the dough comes together and clears the bowl.
- Form a ball, dust lightly with flour, cover and chill for a few hours or overnight.
- Roll the pastry and line a 12-inch tart pan. Prick the base with a fork and chill, covered, for at least one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 430°F (220°C).
- Halve the quetsches and remove the pits. Make a small slit at the top of each half without cutting them apart completely.
- Mix the sugar, vanilla seeds, lime zest and almond meal in a bowl. Sprinkle three-quarters of this mixture over the chilled pastry base.
- Arrange the fruit on top and sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture over the fruit.
- Bake about 30 minutes, until the crust is light brown and the fruit is juicy.
- Remove from the oven, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar and let cool completely before serving.