Prune and Almond Tart

I've always liked almond tart with apricots or pears but it's an especially nice way to enjoy the humble prune. You'll need about 125gms of prunes or 16 to be precise about it.
French D'Agen prunes (moistened with a little Armagnac from the region) are considered the best and if you can get them do they'll be worth the expense, if not don't worry whichever prune get you'll need to remove any stones and give them a splash of burnt brandy (pour a measure of brandy into a warm pot or pan and light it to burn of the harshness of the alcohol) leave the prunes to soak in ths and cool before using. I used a little 'Sloe Sherry" on Californian Prunes, if you don't use alcohol strong tea goes well with prunes.
Now that we've got the prunes sorted, we've got the rest of the tart to complete, for the base use a half batch of our Sweet Pastry recipe, refer to Novembers list.
For the filling we'll use Franipagne for this recipe refer to Januarys list.

Assembling the tart.
Preheat your oven to 170°C/320°F
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface should be about 3mm thick and use to line a 23cm/9" tart tin there should be a slight over hang on the lip of the tin,this can be trimmed later. Line this with parchment paper and place a handful or two of baking beans into it. Blind bake for 10-12 mins until golden brown round the edges.you should have the smell baking filing the kitchen.
Remove from the oven take out the parchment paper and beans(keep for future uses).
Let the pastry cool then spoon in the frangipane mix.Gently push the prunes into the top of the filling.
Place the tart into the oven for 25~30mins until golden brown, just firm to touch in the center.Remove from the oven when done. Leave to cool,trim the edges with a sharp knife, dust with icing sugar.
Eat while still warm with vanilla ice-cream or sweetened greek yoghurt, or leave to cool completely and keep in an airtight tin and enjoy as a treat with a cuppa' over the next few days.