Plum Hazelnut Shortbread

Gather up those sweet tart plums that are all over the place right now, and put them to good use in this hazelnut shortbread!  It’s a layer of rich, crumbly shortbread infused with toasted hazelnuts, then topped with orderly slices of plum.  Any fall fruit would be delicious here – and will look pretty as long as you arrange them in some sort of orderly and symmetrical way, but the combo of sweet shortbread with tart plums was pretty tasty. 

The hazelnuts give the buttery shortbread an almost toffee-like flavor.  They also make it a bit more richn and crumbly – in a good way.  The shortbread dough will be sandy and crumbly, but if you squeeze a handful of it it’ll stick together in a clump.  And as you can see, the final product holds together quite nicely.

Orderly lines or arrangements of fruit are always pretty in my book, and the color of the baked plums turned out to be lovely and bright against the rest.  Next time I might even crowd the plum slices even closer together…

Plum Hazelnut Shortbread

• 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, ground to sandy stuff in the food processor
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup (one stick) cold butter, cubed
• 4 small plums, evenly sliced

Toast approx 1 cup hazelnuts in the oven at 350 for 8 minutes, or until golden brown.  Let cool, then pulverize to a sandy consistency in the food processor.  This should yield slightly more than 1/2 cup ground hazelnuts.  Measure out 1/2 cup and use that in the recipe; the rest is extra.
Preheat oven to 375
Combine flour, sugar, salt, and egg yolk in a large bowl. Cube the cold butter and add to the mixture.  Combine everything with your hands or a pastry cutter until it’s all crumbly and damp.  It won’t stick together much, but you’ll know it’s ready when you can grab a handful and squeeze and it stays in a clump.
Press shortbread evenly into the bottom of an 8x8 square baking pan.  Line the sliced plums in some sort of orderly and pretty layer over the shortbread. 
Bake at 375 for 25 minutes, or until shortbread is golden brown on the edges.