Feeling Christmassy yet?

Mulled Plum Frangipane Tarts

This is another gluten free recipe but feel free to make with sweet shortcrust pastry, the filling is delicious and despite there being three stages to do, each takes minutes to prepare and none are too complicated. 
While these are baking the house is filled with the smells of mulled wine and almonds and for those not able to eat regular pastry, I think this is a very good sweet pastry substitute and has gone down very well with those who can tolerate gluten..

Ingredients

For the Mulled Plums

2 glasses red wine, I used Cabernet Sauvignon
75g brown sugar
1 stick cinnamon
2 cloves
2 star anise
pinch grated nutmeg
1 orange
1 lemon
Punnet of plums, about 12

For the pastry

175g fine ground brown rice flour
100g cornmeal
75g ground almonds
150g butter
75g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
cold water to bind

For the frangipane

100g softened butter
100g icing sugar
100g ground almonds
2 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp reserved mulling syrup

Method

• Add all the ingredients to a saucepan except the plums and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Halve and de-stone the plums, add these to the mulled wine mixture and continue to simmer gently for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the plums to cool in the syrupy wine mix.
• Make the pastry. Combine the flour, ground almonds, cornmeal, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor to resemble breadcrumbs. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the eggs. Bring the dough together and add a small amount of cold water if needed to make a firm dough.
• Wrap in clingfilm and leave in fridge for up to an hour to chill.
• Remove plums from wine mix and reduce on a low heat for 10 minutes or until reduced to a thick syrup. Slice plums thinly and put to one side.
• Roll out the dough between 2 sheets of clingfilm until a few millimetres thick. Lift gently with a palette knife and transfer into a bun tin. Cook in a pre-heated oven for 10 minutes.
• Make the frangipane. In a bowl mix together the butter and sugar until fluffy, add ground almonds and 3 tbsp of the reduced wine syrup and mix until thoroughly combined.
• Add frangipane to each pastry case and add slices of the plums gently on top. Place in the oven for a further 12-15 minutes.
• Finally brush the tops of each tart with some of the remaining syrup and leave to cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cold with lashings of whipped cream.