I took this photo the other morning, an autumnal sunrise, I thought it went well with this poem and the fig tart, the branches of our fig tree are bowing to the ground with the weight of the fruit.

Ode to Autumn by John Keats ( I have only copied the first verse)

Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch eaves-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set the budding more
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
for summer has o'er brimmed their clammy cell...........................

There have been no shortage of sunny days here in Lorgues but there has been a terrible shortage of rain, and I have been wondering if the figs in my garden would ever be filled with ripeness to the core. Luckily it rained last week just enough to help those tiny hard green figs to turn into delicous plump purple figs, already to make a tart with. The cottage that I live in is surrounded by almond trees, walnut trees, hazlenut trees, fig trees, fields of vines and many more delights, so I think this wickedly devine and fattening dessert from Provence is just perfect for this time of year. 

So gather your ingredients together and treat yourselves. You will need:

Pate Brise or Short Crust:
200gm plain flour
60 gm of sugar
100gm of butter
1 egg yolk
1 pinch of salt
2-3 tablespoons of cold water

What I do is this. Take out my trusty Magimix, put all the ingredients in it, flour first and water last. Whizz it, but not for too long, take it out all soft and lovely, roll it gently into a ball, sprinkle with flour, wrap it in greasproof and put it into fridge to rest for about an hour . Or of course you can just buy it from the supermarket ready made.

I have used a nine inch tart tin with a loose bottom, which you brush with butter and dust with flour in the customary fashion, heat your oven to 150 or approx 5 degrees, you do not want it too hot for blind baking. Roll out your pastry and prick it a little with a fork not too much. Cut a round of greaseproof paper cover pastry with it and fill with rice, beans or lentils  when used keep for another time. Bake for about 15 minutes. Then remove paper and rice, and bake for a further 5-8 minutes until hard to touch but only slightly browned. Remove from oven.

Whilst the pastry is baking get a bowl and fork and..............
1 small pot of creme fraiche
150g of unsalted butter
1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon of corn flour
1 teaspoon of flour
1 vanilla pod and according to taste, zest of 1 orange
125 gm ground walnuts
15 juicy figs.

Put everything in a bowl together, scraping out vanilla seeds from pod with small knife and mash away with fork. Put mixture into fridge for a few minutes. Then cut the juicy figs in half and a packet of walnuts or some you have just picked yourself, take cooked pastry from oven, spread the creamy mixture into pastry case evenly, press in halved figs all the way around decorate with walnuts To make it extra naughty sprinkle more brown sugar over top and nuggets of butter. Then bake in oven at 250 or 7 degrees for about 20 - 25 minutes. It really is yummy and very easy to make.