When I was 17 I had an opportunity to tour Germany for a month with a German friend and his mother who was anxious to look up her roots in the four quarters of Germany.

I have a particular memory of travelling to Duderstadt which was a small town just near the Eastern border and being brought under cover of darkness to the border where the East German guards were perched high in sentry boxes, armed with rifles and sweeping no-mans land with searchlights.
It is perhaps of the deep impression made by that sight that I remember being brought back to two elderly Aunts of my friend’s afterwards and being fed a most delicious tart which was called Zwetchgencuchen.

Fast forward some 44 years and yesterday Síle and I were at a Vide Grenier in Bedarieux.
There one stall holder had a basket of small purple/ green plums with a sign on them offering a taste for nothing and a kilo for €1.50.
They were delicious, both tart and sweet and I thought they would make terrific jam for breakfasts.
I asked M. what sort of plums they were, "Quetsch” he told me, "they are commoner in Alsace than here."

I little bell rang in my mind and I remembered the Zwetchgencuchen in Duderstadt.
Surely a Quetsch must be the French for a German Zwetch, a little Googling and I discovered that indeed it was.

Furthermore I discovered in at least one web site a recipe for the tart fed me all those years ago by the German Aunties.


Zwetchgencuchen
Plum Tart from Germany

Pate Sucree:
200g Flour
100g Butter
1 Tablespoon Caster sugar
1 Egg

Filling;
1 Kilo of Plums
2 Tablespoons Caster sugar
200g Crème Fraiche (Low Fat is fine)
2 Eggs
2 Tablespoons Caster Sugar.


First you want to stone the plums, ideally you just cut into them half way and remove the stone leaving the plum like an open book. (It doesn’t matter if you find this difficult, it will work ok with half plums.)


Then make the Pate Sucree either my rubbing the flour into the butter by hand or in a food processor and then binding with the egg.

Let this rest in the fridge for about a half hour and then and use it to line a tart tin 25 cm wide.

Now lay the plums upright along the edges of the pastry gradually working to the middle so that it looks like a lotus flower.
Now sprinkle with the two tablespoons of caster sugar.
Beat together the cream, eggs and caster sugar and pour into the tart over the plums.

Preheat the oven to 170C, 325F, Gas 3.

Cook at this temperature for about 35 minutes until the custard is set.

Eat warm or cold.