Plum & Almond Crumble Slice

Plum & Almond Crumble Slice

It's described as a buttery tray bake, full of new season fruit and spice.

I made it for my turn at afternoon tea at work and it went down a storm together with the Mint Aero Cookies.  One comment was "I'd pay good money for this !"

250g pack butter, very cold
225g caster sugar
300g ground almonds
140g plain flour, plus 25g
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
approx 6 plums, stoned and cut into 6ths
50g flaked almonds

Heat oven to Gas 4/180ºC. Grease and line with baking parchment a 20cm x 30cm baking tin.

Put the butter, sugar and almonds into a food processor, pulse until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Remove half of it and set it aside.

Add 140g flour to the processor and whizz until it forms a dough. Tip into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

To make the filling, put the butter sugar mix that you set aside earlier into the processor saving a few tbsp for the topping. Add the eggs, cinnamon and baking powder and whizz to a soft batter.  Top the shortbread base with this then put the plum pieces on top of this.

Bake for 20 minutes then sprinkle with the remaining crumble mix and the flaked almonds.  Cook for another 20 minutes until golden. Leave to cool in the tin before slicing.