Puff Pastry Plum Tarts with Spiced Honey

For these puff pastry plum tarts I wrapped slices of fruit in pastry and baked them until they were golden brown on the outside and full of juicy goodness on the inside. A drizzle of honey and a dollop of mascarpone cream later, and you have an adorable and tasty dessert you don’t have to share.

Fresh, sweet plums nestled in puff pastry and drizzled with spiced honey. Sound delicious? It is! How about adding a dollop of mascarpone whipped cream alongside? Now we’re talking!

Hello, all!

Recently, when I was at the farmer’s market, they had some Italian plums for sale. I don’t eat plums all that often, but there was something about the small, walnut-sized plums that spoke to me. And told me to make a dessert.

What can I say? I need to to listen to these thoughts! They are the thoughts of new recipes. 🙂

So, I brought those plums home and looked at them as they ripened on my counter. It took a couple of days, but then I had it!

Plums, puff pastry, spiced honey, and mascarpone.

Not that it was that easy! I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I get an idea, then I make the idea, and the heavens open and it’s all perfect first try out. Nope! Sometimes it is and I’m just sitting there saying WOW and then madly writing it down, but usually there is a testing and refinement phase. For this one I was really set on having the mascarpone in the tart.

However, it turns out that it isn’t a good plan.

At least not without stabilizers in the recipe, which I’m keeping it in mind for the future and some experiments with eggs and other ingredients and lower temperatures.

I still wanted mascarpone, though, so I changed gears and pulled out a great recipe I have for mascarpone cream. I used this recipe in my Poached Pears with Mascarpone Cream and it’s just as great sweetened with spiced honey as it is with the pear poaching liquid. Yum!

And the spiced honey probably sounds familiar if you’ve been following my blog, since I recently made spiced honey in my Fig Appetizer with Brie. As with the mascarpone cream, I changed it up a bit to fit the flavors here, but it was such a perfect idea for these puff pastry plum tarts, that I saw no reason to reinvent it!

One thing that didn’t change while I was testing was the idea that these were going to be small, single serving tarts, instead of a larger tart I would cut up to serve.

I had just used my muffin tin to make Gluten-Free Apricot Upside Down Cakes, so I thought I would wrap the plums into little satchels and use the well of the tin to keep everything neat and shape the tarts. That worked beautifully and I love how they have kept their rounded shape. It makes it fun to break into them when you start eating.

Does anyone else love little desserts as much as I do? I hope so! 🙂

If you try my recipe for Puff Pastry Plum Tarts, I would love to hear from you in the comments with your experience and rating! And I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.

– Happy Eating, Annemarie

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Puff Pastry Plum Tarts with Spiced Honey

Pull out your muffin tin for easy clean up and wrap plum slices and spiced honey in puff pastry to make these puff pastry plum tarts. Bake until they are puffed and golden, then drizzle with a little more spiced honey, and serve with mascarpone whipped cream.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time55 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: fruit tarts puff pastry, plum tarts

Servings: 12 tarts

Calories: 375kcal

Author: justalittlebitofbacon

Ingredients

Spiced Honey

• 3/4 cup honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 2 tsp orange zest

Plum Tarts

• 1 inch package puff pastry, 2 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 sheets, thawed
• all-purpose flour
• 18-20 Italian plums, or 4-5 medium sized plums

Egg Wash

• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp milk

Sugar Topping

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cardamom

Mascarpone Cream

• 1 cup mascarpone
• 1 cup heavy cream

Instructions

• Make the Spiced Honey: Mix together the honey, cinnamon, cardamom, and orange zest in a medium saucepan. Warm the honey over medium low heat until the honey is hot and liquid. Remove the honey from the heat and let it cool. The honey can be made the day before - once it's cool, transfer it to a sealed container and set it aside.
• Make the Plum Tarts: Preheat the oven to 375F.
• Grease a standard 12 well muffin tin. Unfold one of the pastry sheets. Dust it liberally with flour and give it a quick roll with a rolling pin to flatten it out. Then divide the sheet into 3 strips. Roll each strip until it is about 4 1/2 inches by 12 inches. Cut the strip in half to make two 6 inch long pieces. Repeat for the remaining strips to make 6 pieces in total. Arrange each piece into a well of the muffin tin so that it lines the well. Take out the second pastry sheet and do the same for it.
• Slice up the plums and divide them among the 12 pastry pieces in the muffin tin. Dab the corners of a pastry piece with water and then pinch the four corners together and also pinch the seams to make a nice package. Repeat for each until you have 12 sealed tarts.
• In a small bowl, mix together the egg and milk for the egg wash. And, in another small bowl, stir together the sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom. Brush the tops of each tart with egg wash and then sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the sugar topping.
• Put the assembled tarts in the freezer for 10 minutes. Then bake the tarts for 25 minutes in the oven. When they are done, let them sit for about 1 minute, then carefully scoop each tart out of the tin onto a cooling rack. Don't wait too long - any juices that escaped the tarts will stick the tarts to the tin if they are left in the tin.
• Make the Mascarpone Cream: In a medium bowl, whip the mascarpone with 1/4 cup of the spiced honey. Set that aside. Pour the cream into a large bowl and beat with a mixer on high until you have stiff peaks. Add the mascarpone to the cream and beat it together.
• To serve, drizzle the tarts with some of the spiced honey and then scoop a dollop of mascarpone alongside. Tarts can be served warm or room temperature.

Notes

• Prepping the Puff Pastry: Thaw the puff pastry in the refrigerator overnight before using. Puff pastry will keep for 2-3 days in the refrigerator.
• Fruit Variation: This recipe is also great with apricots. Apricots are generally the size of a medium plum, so use 4-5 of them in the recipe.
• A Bit of Advice: The tarts aren't going to be all that pretty after you seal them up. Don't worry! They will look nice once they've baked.