I usually warn people that when we have dinner parties, they will usually conclude not with the fishing of key chains out of a bowl but with a raucous game of charades. It is a favourite game as it requires only a vague amount of general knowledge and people can draw or act out to their heart’s content.
Of course Mr NQN likes to make people do things that they don’t want to do and inevitably there will be Tuulikki trying to act out “meat” or one of the sisters pulling out the name of a famous adult film star out of the hat. One night he wanted to find out who knew of adult film star Jenna Jameson. His sweet, younger brother The Assman suddenly yelled out “Jenna Jameson!” and his mother Tuulikki turned to him aghast. Her youngest son knew who this adult film actress was?
Hands reaching up into the sky she cried “How, how do you know this woman? Did your ex girlfriend make you watch this kind of film???” and we all fell about laughing. We had to explain that her youngest son, her baby, was actually 25 years old and probably came across “this woman” on his own.
There was an unexpected measure of revenge for Mr NQN who pulled out “sugar plum.” Unable to use the Strasberg acting method to portray a plum he resorted to pointing to his bum and cradling his ear trying to show people that it rhymed with bum. People took a torturous amount of time before guessing the correct word and finally arrived at sugar plum.
Speaking of sugar plums, these gorgeous little morsels come around after Christmas every year until April I look forward to them as they are sweet little fruit that are made that much more magical through their association with The Nutcracker. These are not to be confused with other sugar plums which are a dried fruit and nut confection that is also lovely. Tear drop shaped, they have a dark maroon or green skin with a golden yellowy sweet flesh and an apricot sized stone in the centre.
Sugar plums
After plans were made for an impromptu picnic, I awoke early on the Sunday and decided to make some small vanilla custard sugar plum tarts to take with us rather than buy something. The custard I used was based on the sweet vanilla custard in Portuguese custard tarts as it is sweet and thick and I used up the last of the Carême puff pastry that I had in my freezer. They were done quickly and the thicker pastry was crunchy and buttery and shattered against the softness of the baked fruit and the sweet, thick vanilla custard.
And it didn’t involve any obscene acts or bum pointing!
So tell me Dear Reader, are you good at games or are you more of an observer? And what fruit are you really enjoying from this season’s bounty?
Sugar Plum Tarts
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
Makes a dozen tarts
- 375g/13 ozs puff pastry (I used Carême which comes as a thicker pastry)
- 2 eggs (or 3 egg yolks if you have spares)
- 4 tablespoons caster or superfine sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornflour or cornstarch
- 200ml full cream milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 12 sugar plums
- small amount of butter for greasing pan
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar to dust
You will also need a cupcake tray or 12 small ramekins
1. Grease the cupcake tray holes with butter so that the tarts don’t stick. Then cut out the pastry using a round or fluted pastry cutter-you may want to double up on the sheets if you are using a puff pastry like Pampas which is thinner than Careme. Re-roll scraps to make more rounds. Gently push these rounds into the cavities of the cupcake tray making a concave pastry dish. Place the tray in the refrigerator to rest.
2. Make the vanilla custard (this can be done ahead of time). Place the eggs, sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan and whisk well to combine. Then add the milk and slowly heat, stirring constantly to ensure that the custard doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan and also to create a smooth consistency. Add the vanilla and remove from heat once thick and voluptuous-it shouldn’t be runny at all.
3. Preheat oven to 200C/400F. When ready, take out the cupcake tray from the fridge and dollop in the custard -not too much so that it overflows as you are going to place a whole sugar plum in the centre. The top with the whole sugarplum (you don’t need to pierce it or peel it unless you want to). Bake for 20 minutes.
4. A little tip I have for getting these out: as soon as these are baked and you remove them from the oven, run a sharp knife around the edge to push back the custard which can really stick to the tin when it cools. Dust with icing sugar and serve with a cup of tea or coffee.
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
What is NQN up to now?
NQN on Facebook
RSS
80 Comments | Add your own
What a funny story, Lorraine. I have an equally interesting and embarrassing story to share about my younger brother. He was downtown driving with 3 of his friends in his car. They were all university students. My brother needed to ask directions so he pulled over in a seedier part of town and asked the nicest looking lady of the evening for directions. She sashayed over to the passenger side and leaned in, immediately pointing to my brother, “I know you!” Well, you can imaging what happened next. The guys burst into uncontrollable laughter. Yes, she did know my brother, she was in his engineering class at university. She makes extra money this way. But it was still fun to tease him about it.
Hahaha Mr NQN is so creative and funny! I never would’ve guessed it was Sugar Plum
I’ve actually never really seen or had these Sugar plums hehe ~
Would love to try this though and I love how they are so easy to make ~
As for playing games…i’m not really good at them and Mr Bao is so competitive that I just like to be the observer hahaha
Lorraine, this is an inspiring post! I fell off the reading track for a while laughing… I am reading your interview with Anthony, and am very eager to comment on it. So check out later that post too.
I just love love love the name. And they look divine too. Scrumptious.
Love love love. x
There are so many types of plums! I had never heard of sugar plums before.
Love love cherries when they are in season. I was recently introduced to the game of mahjong – so much fun!
Fabulous! Those tartlets are so tempting and really pretty.
Cheers,
Rosa
Ha ha Mr NQN sounds like a character. A lot of meals at our place turn into games eventually…cards, pictionary, scrabble etc. These cute sugar plums look all the sweeter embedded in the cute little tartlets!
I do like charades but only if the company of close friends! This tart looks amazing!!!!! Plums are axing this year, we have heaps in the fridge…..
oh these look beautiful. Great combination with the custard filling instead of a frangipane.
I’m far too competitive for casual games. I also don’t have the patience. I wish stone fruit was in season. It’s coming, just not fast enough for my taste.
how elegant are these!!! just delightful!
Too funny! These look so dainty and pretty. Love games, your dinner parties sound fun! My favourite fruit at the moment are lychees and raspberries. These sugar plums look delightful too.
These are just so gorgeous!
I tried those sugar plums for the first time this summer season. They are delicious. I hope they are about next Christmas.
These are gorgeous. I am definitely more of a game observer or I just clean up the kitchen!
Hmm, I wonder how one would mime The Nutcracker? Hee hee … the tarts look delicious!
Oh, these little plus are so cute. I have never seen them before. And the tarts look great as well.
I come from a family of competitive game players–we all loved all sorts of card games and others, but am now married to someone who absolutely doesn’t “get” the whole idea. Bummer!
Mangoes are just starting to come into season in Mexico. Yum. My very favorite fruit.
These just scream “come and eat me”. So I think I will!
These look delicious. Speaking of – Delicious (the magazine) has a plum cake recipe on the front cover this month. I have been itching to try it out!
K xx
Ooh, simply gorgeous Lorraine! Plums always make me think winter, even though they’re more a summer fruit here…
Lorraine these Plum tarts look so patisserie! You always take the mystery out of cooking. These tarts are so easy to make and I’m sure taste absolutely delicious.
I like to make apple and pear tarts. Pears are in season now and so I have poached some of them. We eat the poached pears and I also keep some to make different types of desserts including tarts.
I ate almost a whole punnet of sugar plums yesterday evening – much as I’d love to churn something like this out of my kitchen, I’m not sure I’d have the montal fortitude to stop myself eating all the sugar plums first!
These are beautiful tarts indeed, Lorraine, and gorgeously photographed, too. I’ve never seen these sugar plums, though. I have a very prolific plum tree, but it’s finished now – what we didn’t get, the birds took.
What a lovely little tart. I’m quite good at games, although I don’t think I’d come up with Jenna Jameson. xoxo Mum
Wow, these look stunning. Very fancy and so tasty. They look like a really great Winter treat and a beautiful use of plums – which I really enjoy in desserts!
I would love to play charades with my family but unfortunately I have faces pulled when I even suggest paying monopoly – it takeshita long or my favorite scrabble – you know words we don’t
I have never seen these plums in the shops down here
I love love love games! Whenever we go to the coast with my family 5pm is game time. Board games are my favourite.
Sugar plums are all over the markets at the moment. They’re so cute. All I can ever think of is ‘and visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.’
Cranium is a great game, it combines trivia, charades, playdoh, and pictionary into one, awesome!
I want to know how your mother in law knew who the adult actress was as well!
Lovely little tarts, my dads pet name for my daughter is Sugar plum.
Sounds like dinner parties at your place would be a blast =) Love the look of these plum tarts – although I might try to find a way to remove the pit before baking these off…
these are so cute and i dont see how “ear” rhymes with sugarplum? haha..
Hi Betty-the ear means “sounds like”
Good beginning to the day: you have made me giggle right down the column
! These plum tarts do look very pretty and I do love sugar plums: indeed all plums! Personally am a board game player if I do indulge – charades I remember more from houseparties in England. They seemed to conclude every evening’s dinner and both my husbands hated them! And don’t tell me bunches of keys are still thrown into bowls at the end of the night: I thought that was my generation 
! And, yes, how did Tuulikki know a particular name? Ha! Oh, fruit in the summer: mangoes for sure 
!
Oh how cute! I was imagining they would be sliced or cut into wedges, but this is such a better way to present the plums. Gorgeous!
Freestone white peach for me!
LOVE their summer sweetness and versatility!
Highlights childhood memories for me!
Perhaps it had to do with “four generations handed down” family recipe!
As have an A-N-I-M-A-T-E-D personality!
Charades is the perfect fun game for the “food actress” in ME!
I thought you would be far too young to contemplate that key game, carry on sticking to the tarts for thrills.
I’m more of an observer I have to say – one day I might put my game theory knowledge to use!
This is my fav fruit season right now – I love peaches, nectarines, plums, mangos…:> I wish this season’d never end…
Incredible recipe – pastry with rich custard and fruit. I just saw a sort of similar Slovenian dessert, minus the plum (or bum!), plus whipped cream. Your version is more decadent.
I like to direct the games and let everyone else participate. Drawing and acting are not in my skill set. But I can be motivated by prizes. Beautiful looking tarts Lorraine. I love those little sugar plums too. When Alfie sees them at the greengrocer’s he always asks me, ‘Are those the sugar plums that danced in the children’s heads in Twas the Night Before Christmas’? And it’s so difficult explaining the difference.
With the promise of these waiting for me, I would indeed engage in a game of Charades. But I know now I shouldn’t play Charades with my 20-something children.
These are so pretty! I used to be pretty good at games, but recently my four year old granddaughter was killing me at concentration:)
More of an actor , I am!! I always say I should’ve directed films! But having said that, I arrived home today from Harris Farm Fruit market with a kilo of these delicious sweet plums & saw your recipe! You should’ve seen the smile on my face! Making them tonight while the fruit is fresh! Thanks Lorraine!
I’ll never be able to eat a sugar plums without thinking of a bum, lol. Lovely recipe!
The words “sugar plum” always makes me pucker up a bit, and my mouth water. It envision something sugar-dusted, sweet yet with a spritz of tartness. Your tart is all that and more!
I like board games and stuff like that, but when it comes to sports games, I’d neither watch nor participate.
Adorable!
—Lorraine,
these Sugar Plums are delectable & charming. I’d love to make these little gems for a dinner party.
Exquisite. Truly.
“Jenna Jameson!” How did those dudes know who she was??!!
Xxx
simply hilarious! We also love to play charades and now my elder daughter, who is 7 and is an active and very very enthusiastic player, is fast becoming a pro at acting out things
.
Your tarts look fab!
Sugar plums on puff pastry sounds amazing! how I love fruits in tarts and such.
and those photos make them all the more inviting!
Your sugar plum tarts look fantastic Lorraine! I’ve been enjoying figs and blood plums this season, and beautiful yellow nectarines.
These cakes look delicious! I bet they disappear in no time!
Plums are absolutely one of, if not my actual, favourite summer fruits
These look incredible!
As for games, if it’s sport then I’m an observer, but if it’s a word game or board game, I WILL OWN YOU.
these look absolutely divine
This sugar plum tarts not only look delicious, they look SO PRETTY!!! I like the whole plum on top. Makes the huge difference no the entire look of the tart. Cuuuuuute!
How beautiful are these? I love getting involved in games, although at parties you’ll often find me in the kitchen instead
Sugar plum reminds me of Tchaikovsky. Hehehe.
I’ve read Jenna Jameson’s biography, but I don’t really remember any details about her life.
I’m probably on my own but I adore William Bartlet pears. They are my favourite fruit of all time!!
Oh, these are such adorable little desserts – and so elegant!
I love sugar plums, even just the name, sugar plums. Very funny about Mr NQN and family game antics, hehe.
Dear Lorraine,
I have always found sugar plums to be kinda crunchy when I prefer my stone fruits a little on the softer side so I can imagine the delights of a soft delicate plum with some flaky pastry.
I am shamefaced to say that I have never heard that sugar plums was actually a type of plum – I thought these tarts were name because they had plums and were sugary – always learning something here – they sound delicious – and I would love to be a fly on the wall at your charades games
I’m classically terrible at charades; my mind goes blank. These tarts look classically divine though.
all I have to say, at such a late commenting stage..ha ha..is that your plum tarts are gorgeous…xo
Perfect little angels, Lorraine!
I can’t wait to give them a try when we get plums again… I love the way they stick their little heads out from all the custardy goodness.
The charades make me laugh… it’s even funnier when some sermonizing old folk gets a name like that by accident. So many red faces!
Oh, gorgeous, gorgeous, scrumptious tarts and I am going to have to steal the idea! I’ve been craving my own Portuguese Cream Tarts again and I just love the idea of adding these beautiful plums. Never knew they were called Sugar Plums. Are they the same as Damson? Or are these what the French call Prune Plums? Either way, stunning. And I love some games…and ain’t too bad at ‘em.
So pretty!
My Dad had a sugar plum tree, amongst all the other fruit trees in our backyard, when I was growing up. I must admit they are a great size and shape for throwing at siblings and when a tree is laden and you have already had your fill the plum ‘fights’ were a regular when we had to collect those that had fallen to the ground.
I prefer them when they still have a little bit of crunch to them and think they suit the tarts wonderfully.
This season I have enjoyed the cherries from Tasmania, they came late Jan/Feb and were plump, juicy and delicious.
These look super cute Lorraine!
The sugar plums are gorgeous and the tarts with them sound so heavenly delicious!
Oh my, I’ve never had a sugar plum! These tarts and your photos look stunning. I love the simplicity and the colours
LOL….
I can imagine what the MOM expressions as my mom can be really full of strange facial expressions when such things happen…
Beautiful recipe Lorraine, how creative….
I had never connected the Sugar Plum Fairies to an actual fruit until now (silly silly me). The day after I read this post my local fruit and veg shop had sugar plums right out the front and on special…so I bagged myself some and I’m making it my mission to make these for dessert
What a lovely last minute dessert to make, wow! We used to play charades all the time, really have to start again. It really was a lot of fun.
The plum tarts look gorgeous! I like that you have used puff pastry. Lovely!!
I had a good laugh at the charades episode
I wish sugar plums were in season now. Sigh. That looks delish
I never saw a sugar plum before, that fruit is absolutely new for me…!!!
Oh how I wish we lived on the same continent — charades at your house sounds like so much fun, darling! I am also enamored with sugar plums because of the Nutcracker…I’m bookmarking these little lovelies!
i’m pretty fierce at games, but sometimes i’ll just observe since i get ridiculously competitive.
these tarts are adorable, lorraine–nice job!
you have the brightest ideas for baking! i didn’t even thought of putting puff pastry in muffin tins! this is the reason i love reading blogs — i learn many new things daily!
by the way, i’m phasing out my folie a deux blog for this new blog now, Tartine and Apron Strings. hope to see you there!!!
cheers,
jen
nice tart the plums look like pears !!Pierre
One Trackback/Pingback
[...] Quite Nigella – Sugar Plum Tarts. I don’t think I’ve ever come across sugar plums; do we get them in New Zealand? I hope [...]
Post a Comment