Frangipane Torte
by Patricia Bauer-Slate, Sweetish Hill Bakery

"This has been a great year for plums" was Patricia Bauer-Slate's endorsement for her dessert recipe when we called Sweetish Hill to help finish our Labor Day menu.

Bauer-Slate's dream plum is the mottled-red Elephant Heart, but she notes that an alternating combination of red and black plum slices makes a very appealing look, too. Above all, look for fruit that's soft to the touch but not mushy, because the sweetness comes in the final days of ripening.

"I'll be at work on Labor Day," she predicts. She'll likely host a pot luck dinner with friends, many of whom will be teachers who've had the day off, and everyone will toast the end of a not-so-endless summer.

Isn't that what Labor Day is all about?

Frangipane Torte
from "A Baker's Twenty Favorite Recipes" [self-published by Sweetish Hill, Inc.]
by Patricia Bauer-Slate

6-8 servings

Dough:
1 pound cold unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon salt
4-1/2 cups cake flour

Filling:
6 tablespoons butter
8 ounces marzipan, room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
rum, optional

6 plums, sliced into 4-6 pieces
1/2 cup apricot jelly, for glaze

Dough:
Cream butter and sugar in a mixer until smooth and slightly fluffy. Mix in egg yolks and vanilla on medium speed until fully incorporated. Add salt, then add flour in thirds on low until dough forms a ball.

Note: All-purpose flour may be substituted for cake flour.

Filling:
Cream butter. Crumble marzipan and mix into butter until blended. Mix in eggs and rum, if desired. Mix in flour.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan. Roll one-third of the dough into a 16-inch circle to 1/4-inch thickness (freeze the remaining dough for future use). Roll dough circle around rolling pin for easier lifting. Place into springform pan and press against sides about 2 inches high. Fill with filling and refrigerate.

Lay plum slices around top of torte. Using a fork, press down on any dough that shows above the fruit, until it is even with the filling.

Bake for 30 minutes. Heat glaze, and brush onto torte while still hot.

After torte cools, remove the sides of the springform pan to serve.

Notes:
Use only one-third of the dough. For ideas on what to do with the rest of this multi-purpose dough, pick up a copy of "A Baker's Twenty Favorite Recipes" at Sweetish Hill or Book People.
A cookie sheet may be used instead of a springform pan--form an edge like a pizza crust, and don't spread filling or fruit to edge of crust.
Plums may be used unpeeled.