At the beginning of fall, plums are a frequent topic of conversation in the Czech Republic and Švestkový koláč or Plum Tart is a great way to make use of fresh plums.
This time of the year, they are everywhere you look. The plums. If you’re in Moravia, you could see barrels in many plum orchards and inside of them, plums are fermenting to become slivovice later. Many people also prepare the traditional plum jam povidla to be later used in koláče, buchty or dumplings, and fresh plums are used in desserts as well. Today, I’d like to show you how I make a plum tart. It’s called švestkový koláč in Czech and it combines all three staple flavors of traditional Czech desserts – plums/povidla, poppy seed and quark cheese (tvaroh).
This recipe is often found on food blogs baked in beautiful round pans but I bake it extended over a large rectangular baking tray that fills the whole oven or in just a little smaller rectangular trays with high edges.
Švestkový koláč – recipe
Ingredients
Dough
- 280 g/0.6 lb of fine flour (hladká mouka, see Czech Flour Guide)
- 180 ml/0.4 lb of milk
- 1 tbsp of dried yeast or half a cube (21 g) of fresh yeast
- 3 tbsp of sugar
- 50 g/0.1 lb of unsalted butter
- pinch of salt
Poppy seed filling
- 200 g/0.44 lb of ground poppy seed
- 5 tbsp of sugar
- 1 tbsp of ground cinnamon
- 500 ml/1.1 lb of milk
Quark filling
- 500 g/1.1 lb of tvaroh or other fresh cheese you can find
- 5 tbsp of sugar
- 1 egg
Streusel
- 1/2 cup of coarse flour
- 1,5 cup of caster sugar
- 100 g/0.22 lb of cold unsalted butter, diced
Other
- 500 g/1.1 lb of plums, cut in half
- grease and flour for the pan/tray
How to make Švestkový koláč
Before you start, smear the baking tray with grease and coat in flour to prevent the tart from sticking to the tray. And because this dough will not rest to rise, prepare the fillings and streusel before the dough.
Put all the ingredients for the poppy seed filling in a saucepan, bring it to a simmer and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Take it off the heat and let it cool down. For the cheese filling, mix cheese with sugar. And for the streusel, put all the ingredients in a bowl and press them with your fingers until everything’s well combined and the streusel crumbles nicely. You can find more details and photos to the streusel in this recipe.
In a small bowl, combine warm milk, 1 tsp of sugar and yeast. Stir, cover and let the starter become foamy.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, then add the starter. Knead the dough and spread it on the tray immediately. I don’t roll the dough out, I just flip it in the middle of the baking tray and then gently push it with my fingers to the sides.
Spread the cheese filling over the whole dough, then poppy seed filling on the cheese layer. Place the plum halves inside up on the poppy seed layer, arranged in rows. The halves should touch each other, there should be a plum in every bite. The last layer will be streusel, sprinkle it generously on top of the tart.
Preheat your oven to 180°C and bake švestkový koláč for 45 minutes.
