The Real Sugar Plum

I am a big proponent of traditional foods on holidays, but I always try to add in some new things here and there to make it interesting.  If the thought of having only the same pies for Thanksgiving this year makes you feel like you're stuck in a rut, give this plum cake a try.  Not only is it still very fallsy, but it's refreshing, surprisingly light and can be prepared a day in advance.  In fact, it's actually better the next day.

Coming from a German background has given me a great appreciation for "peasant" fare; hearty, simple, and using the foods available during the season.  This is one of those type of dishes.  The plums that are used for this dish are called Italian prune plums in the few stores that I've been able to find them in here, but where I come from in Germany (Rheinland-Pfalz) they're called Quetsche and they are a staple fruit during the tail end of summer and throughout fall.  My Opa used to make Slivovitz, a Slavic plum brandy, with them and my Oma made Latwerg, an extremely thick plum butter that needed to cook for three days.  My mother and I still make the Latwerg, but sadly we never did get to see my Opa make the Slivovitz.  On the day of my graduation my mother presented me with a bottle that he had put up the year I was born.  It was amazing....but could burn the hair off a rhino at 20 paces.  The only one brave enough to have a second shot straight after the first was my sister, and she couldn't speak above a hoarse, raspy whisper for a few hours afterward.   I don't think I have ever mentioned this before, but I am so glad I have the heritage that I do, it is amazing.

This recipe makes three 10 inch cakes so adjust according to your needs.

Quetschekuche
dough (adapted from a recipe in The Best Of Baking):
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup warm milk
2 packages active dry yeast
4 2/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
4 eggs
canola oil

topping:
9 pounds Italian prune plums

granulated sugar

For the dough:
Mix sugar and yeast with warm milk (between 110 and 115 degrees) and set aside to proof for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice....uh, oops, this isn't my Useless Superheros slash page....mix flour and salt together in a large bowl.  Heat oven to 220 degrees and turn off heat.  Stir cooled butter and eggs into yeast mixture and pour liquid ingredients over flour mixture.  Bring together into a ball, adding flour if too sticky.  I made this on a fairly humid day and ended up adding about another 3/4 cup of flour before a nice soft dough was achieved.  Knead briefly into a smooth ball.  Place ball in an oiled bowl, spread a little oil on the top, cover with plastic wrap and put dough into preheated oven to rise.

For the topping:
While the dough is rising it's time to get your plums prepared.  I forgot to take pictures of this process so I'll try to explain it for anyone who has never done it like this.  Hold the plum with the stem side up, seam towards you.  Using a sharp paring knife cut along seam until the plum is cut down one half.  Carefully open, like you would a book, without tearing uncut half.  Slide the tip of the paring knife between one side of the pit and the plum if it doesn't want to come loose on its own.  Remove pit.  At stem end, cut about a third of the way down on the uncut side to more easily open the plum.  Make two slashes about a third of the way down on each plum half to produce the characteristic points seen in the picture.  Repeat with remaining plums.

Lightly grease three round 10 inch tart pans.  Remove risen dough from oven and preheat to 350 degrees (if you are using dark tart pans, reduce the heat of your oven to 325).  Punch down dough and separate into thirds.  Press each third evenly into each of the tart pans.  Starting from the outside, lightly press prepared plums into dough in concentric rings, points facing up.  Sprinkle liberally with sugar.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until dough is golden and plums are a little wilted.  And don't worry if you have a "plum juice puddle", it's perfectly normal.  It will be reabsorbed by the plums as well as the now golden dough without making the cake soggy.  Sprinkle a little extra sugar over the plums as the cakes cool.  Cool completely and serve at room temperature. 

π

After a few months of taking care of too much stuff in real life, I am finally back to post more recipes and occasionally talk about World of Warcraft (just to put it out there, I hate Baleroc).

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and as we have done the past few years, we're going to celebrate with my BFF Jill and her family.  This means copious amounts of food and Harry Potter.  This year's Harry Potter aspect will consist of watching The Deathly Hallows.  Though it hasn't been mentioned, I'm pretty sure it'll be a viewing of both parts.

The food aspect is much more involved.  Both April and I do the cooking and this year's list is staggering; turkey, turkey gravy, turkey noodles, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, potato salad, roasted asparagus, corn, cornbread biscuits, cranberry relish, and anything else that April added to her stuff that I didn't have on my Big List.  And those are just the things for dinner.  We're also doing appetizers and desserts.

With desserts come the pies.  This year I'll be making pecan pie, chocolate tart pie, and the ever ubiquitous apple pie and pumpkin pie.  Today I'm going to share the recipes that I use for these last two because the apple pie is, well, perfect, and I finally perfected the pumpkin pie (which was quite by accident).

Old-Fashioned Apple Pie (From Martha Stewart Living, November 2005)
4 pounds cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges

3 tablespoons lemon juice

5 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon half and half

sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large bowl toss apple wedges with lemon juice and set aside.  In a small bowl mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.  Sprinkle flour mixture over apples in thirds, tossing after each addition.  Fill one deep dish or two regular 9-inch pie shells evenly with apple mixture; dot evenly with butter.  Whisk together egg yolk and half and half, brushing rim of pie crust.  Take top crust and drape over filled pie shell.  Brush top of crust with egg wash and press over hanging crust up to form a rim.  Cut four slits into the top crust to allow venting.  Sprinkle top with sugar.  Bake pie for 20 minutes at 400 degrees and then turn heat down to 350 and bake for a further 35 minutes. 

Pumpkin Pie

1 - 4 pound sugar pumpkin, roasted and flesh mashed*

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl carefully whisk together all ingredients listed until thoroughly combined.  Pour mixture evenly between 2 deep dish pie shells.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until centers are almost set.  Cool completely before serving.

Just as a side note, I did not make my own pie crusts.  I used frozen deep dish crusts for each pie and then picked up a package of rolled pie crust for the tops of the apple pies.  I'm just like that sometimes, and pie crust and I have never really seen eye-to-eye in the first place.  You can make your own, if you're so inclined.

*You can use 4 cups of the canned solid pack pumpkin in place of the mashed pumpkin, but if you decide to mash it yourself, here's how to do it:  Cut the pumpkin in half with a large knife.  Scoop out seeds and place halves cut side down onto a tinfoil lined baking sheet.  Roast in a 350 degree oven for about an hour to an hour and a half.  The outer shells will have a bit of give to them when they are ready.  Remove from the oven and turn cut sides up.  Allow pumpkin halves to cool completely then scoop out flesh and either puree in a food processor or take the less advanced method and mash it with a potato masher.  Either one works well.