Rustic greengage, almond & caraway galette

Plums, it's taken me a while to learn to love them. I think it's the memory of heaps of wasp riddled  Victoria's in a childhood friend's garden that put me off for so long. Their lawn became a war zone during late summer with each venture outside becoming a mission fraught with danger as airborne armies drunk on fructose chased sticky fingered children back from the ice cream van. The variety of plums available never ceases to amaze me, from the mouth puckering tartness of sloes (as kids we used to sit in our 'camp' and dare each other to eat these), to the (only slightly) sweeter damson and the multitude of domestic varieties with their different hued skins. One I really love is the greengage with it's emerald colour and sweet scented flesh. To be honest, I prefer these as Nature intended but they also cook very well and there's something about this 'back to school' time of year that demands a fruit tart with cream to go with your cup of afternoon tea. This galette is based on a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi, utilising his cream cheese pastry, you can find his original blueberry version in the Guardian.

Rustic greengage, almond & caraway galette

140g spelt flour

large pinch of baking powder (maybe two)

1 tbsp golden icing sugar

pinch of salt

85g butter, cold, cut into small cubes

65g cream cheese

½ tbsp vinegar (cider, white wine or brown rice vinegar)

300-400g greengages, stoned and halved

zest of half a lemon

2 tbsp ground almonds

1 heaped tbsp flaked almonds

2 tbsp demerara sugar

1 tsp caraway seeds

dash of milk

Stir the flour, baking powder, salt and icing sugar together to combine and then rub in the cold butter using your finger tips until the mixture looks like breads crumbs. Add the cream cheese and vinegar to form a ball of soft dough. Wrap this up in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F whilst you prepare the fruit. Mix the halved plums with both the ground and flaked almonds, the lemon zest, sugar and caraway seeds. Cover a large baking tray with baking parchment and roll out your chilled pastry to a rough circle about half a centimetre thick. Place the fruit mixture in the middle of the pastry and cover all but the last 2-3cm of the pastry. Fold over the edge roughly, no finesse needed, this is meant to look a bit rustic. Brush the edges with a little milk (I used almond milk) and place in the oven for 30-35 minutes until golden. Serve warm with plenty of crème fraȋche, or custard, or ice cream or whatever takes your fancy.