Mary Jo, a friend of mine has a happy productive fig tree in her backyard this November. To my delight she asked if I would like to have some ripe figs and I wholeheartedly said "yes!". It's unbelievable that these beautiful fuchsia  jewel-like fruits are used to create the beloved fig newton. Thanks to Mary Jo who provided the figs, Matt, Mike, and I got to enjoy a free form fig tart.

I utilized my favorite pie crust recipe, one I have used since 1997 when George Mahaffey's Country Inn: The Best of Casual Country Cooking hit the bookshelves. It's the only recipe that I use on a regular basis that keeps this cookbook with the rest of my vegetarian and vegan cookbooks.

This is a standard pie crust that I use when baking strawberry rhubarb pies, and other fruit and vegetable pies and tarts.  I don't make pies or tarts on a regular basis, however, this recipe produces a never fail white flour pastry dough.

George Mahaffey's Savory Pastry Dough
Country Inn: The Best of Casual Country Cooking, page 12
(This is the exact amount of dough needed to form the fig tart below)

1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1/4 tsp salt
7.5 T unsalted organic butter, chilled, cut in to small pieces
2 T ice cold water

Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Blend in the butter with your clean and dry fingertips. Aim for a nice crumble, until small pieces form. Blend in the ice water with a spoon. Form into a small ball, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator. It will be ready to roll out in about an hour.

A Free Form Figgy Tart with Almond Frangipane
Adapted from Chez Pim
Yield: one 10 inch tart, 5 servings
Mahaffey's savory pastry dough (above)
Almond frangipane to cover the surface of the dough (see Chez Pim)
9 whole figs, stems removed and quartered/halved
Egg white and water for crust

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
On parchment paper, roll out the savory pastry dough to 1/8-1/4" thickness in a 10 inch circle, and spread the frangipane fresh from the food processor to about 1" from the edge. Spread the frangipane to about 1/8" thickness. Lay the figs, skin side down starting from the center and rotate out to the edge (see photo). Fold over the edges in a free form style. Place the tart with the parchment paper onto an aluminum baking sheet. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg white with water over the edges of the crust and place the tart into the oven. Bake for about 45 mins, or until crust turns golden. Remove, cool, and enjoy.