Plum Rosettes on Shortbread

Recently I've watched a few movies which inspired me to cook certain dishes. One such movie was Ratatouille, which I've watched in HK and it made me checked out the recipe as soon as I returned to Singapore. But being a "carnivore", I was unsure if I would like a dish that only used vegetables, so I dropped the idea of cooking ratatouille.

Not long ago, I've re-watched my favourite movie, Eat Drink Man Woman, and again, I felt like trying out some challenging Chinese dishes. But after flipping through some cookbooks, I've decided that such complicated dishes are best left for the professionals. (wink!)

And last night, I was in the cinema watching Waitress, a nice show featuring some delicious looking pies. After the show, I went home and looked for pie/ tart recipes, and I managed to find an interesting one from Carole Walter's Great Pies & Tarts.

Plum Rosettes on Shortbread are tartlets that used shortbread dough as base, instead of the usual tart dough. As I used plums with two different colours; and the green and red slices look pretty on the shortbread.

Plum Rosettes on Shortbread
(Adapted from Great Pies & Tarts)

Ingredients:

Shortbread
2 cups plain flour
6 tbs rice flour
6 tbs caster sugar
1 cup butter, cut into 1/2-in chunks

Tartlets
1 large egg whites, beaten
5 or 6 plums
2 tbs caster sugar
1/2 cup apricot preserve
1 tsp water

Method:
1) Cream the butter with electric mixer until soft. Add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time. Cream until light in color. Blend in half of of flour mixture.
2) Add in another half of the flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon, mix the batter just until the mixture starts to form a mass.
3) Place the dough on a floured surface and knead for a few times, or until smooth.
4) Shape the dough into a 15 cm disk, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes.
5) Remove the dough from the fridge, roll into a sheet, 3 to 4 mm thick. Using a fluted 7-cm cookie cutter, cut 18 rounds of dough and place them on baking sheets.
6) Brush the top with egg white and chill in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes.
7) Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.
8) Wash and dry the plums. Cut the plums in half, remove the pits and cut cross wise into thin slices.
9) Arrange the plum in overlapping slices, until the entire top is covered.
10) Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until the edge of the shortbread is slightly browned. Remove from oven, set aside.
11) Heat up the apricot preserve with water in a small saucepan. Bring to boil.
12) Brush the tops of the tarlets with the preserves. Serve.