Damson Flan

What you need It is damson time and the neighbouring farms are almost giving them away. My Mother, who would have been 87 last Tuesday, used to make quiches and lovely fruit flans on Fridays, and at this time of year it was obviously done with damsons.This one is quite a quick one to make.

What you need: 

• 300 g spelt flan dough spread to fill a 30 cm flan tin (100 g butter is rubbed into 200 g spelt wholemeal flour mixed with 1 level tsp salt and two tbsp vanilla sugar. Then work about 200 ml of water into the crumbs, adding water while kneading until the dough is firm and doesn’t stick to your hands; lazy alternative: buy it already spread. There is very good organic stuff around.)
• 1 kg damsons, more if you have them, halved, stone removed
• 2-3 generous tblsp ground almonds or hazelnuts,
• 4 tbsp cane sugar
• optionally 1 heaped tsp cinnamon powder
• juice of ½ lemon
• Optionally: whipped cream and plum schnapps for serving

What you do:

1. Line a flan tin with greaseproof paper and then with spread dough, making sure it comes up the sides.
2. Mix 2 tbsp of the cane sugar with the ground almonds or nuts (and the cinnamon, if using) and distribute evenly over the base.
3. Lay the damson halves in concentric circles that should overlap on the base.
4. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 tbsp of cane sugar and drizzle the lemon juice evenly over the damsons.
5. Bake in the preheated oven at 200°, checking after 20 minutes.
6. Serve hot or cold, if you like with a dollop whipped cream and optionally a light drizzling of plum schnapps.