Cakes & Bakes: Spiced plum crumble

Our garden has an abundance of fruit at the moment; especially apples, damsons and plums. The plums are beginning to go over and rot on the tree, but that’s OK – butterflies, wasps and other insects have been feasting.

Every time I walk past the tree, on my way to the compost heap or washing line, I grab a couple of the low-hanging fruits. A quick snack on the move! Yesterday, I took a colander out into the garden and picked as many of the just-ripe plums as I could reach. I had in mind to make a spiced plum crumble.

The fruit was given just a hint of flavour with some mixed spice. You could try, instead, a smidgen of cinnamon, clove or ground ginger, or leave the spice out entirely – whatever is your taste preference.

I like a chunky crumble topping that doesn’t go all wet & claggy from the fruit syrup. Simply squeeze handfuls of the mixture in the palm of your hand and gently prise them apart until you get the size of morsel you prefer. Adding oats and hazelnuts to the flour/butter mix helps create the crunchiness and gives a nutty taste. Chopped almonds, Brazil nuts or pecans will work equally well.

It’s such a hearty, comforting, autumnal dessert; served piping hot with a pouring of creamy custard or dollop of cool, thick cream… mmmmmmm!

Save my spiced plum recipe to Pinterest to try later!

Spiced plum crumble

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Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Ingredients

For the plums

1 kg/2.2lbs plums; washed halved & de-stoned
100 g/3½oz Demerara sugar
½ tsp mixed spice

For the crumble topping

125 g/4½oz plain flour
125 g/4½oz rolled oats
50 g/1¾oz hazelnuts; roasted & roughly chopped
50 g/1¾oz Demerara sugar
pinch of salt
100 g/3½oz cold butter cubed

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6

For the plums

Put the plums, sugar and mixed spice into a saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. This should take no more than 10 minutes
Spoon the mixture into a large, oven-proof casserole dish. Set aside while you make the crumble mixture

For the crumble topping

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, hazelnuts, sugar and salt
Rub in the cold butter until the mixture is lumpy
Turn out the mixture on to the spiced plums and spread evenly over the top. It's not important to cover the entire surface
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour - until the topping begins to turn a golden brown colour

Serve with thick pouring cream or hot custard

Keyword crumble, fruit crumble, plums

Price Points: Plum trees

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a bunch of saplings for sale outside the entrance to our local supermarket they were all priced up at £5.00 – bargain! I had a look at all the labels and amongst the apple, pear and cherry trees I spotted a single Victoria plum tree. I thought to myself that I’d return a bit later on in the day to buy it.

Needless to say, I popped back mere hours later and it was gone – I lost my chance! Anyway, a couple of days ago, I was back at the supermarket to pick up a couple of things and there were a couple of plum trees back in stock. I picked one out on my way in – I walked all around the shop with it – I wasn’t going to miss out again.

It said on the label that it’s self-pollinating (self-fertile), however, I did a bit of research online and apparently having other compatible plum trees nearby helps improve fruiting. ‘Compatible’ simply means another variety that flowers at the same time.

I’m torn between ‘Black Amber’ and the dual ‘Bleue de Belgique’/’Reine Claude d’Oullins’. The former only gets to 1 metre tall – perfect for a small garden like ours. However, the latter gives you two completely different varieties on a single tree; again, a good option for our limited space.

Plum ‘Black Amber’ (mini fruit tree): £12.99, Van Meuwen
Dual plum ‘Bleue de Belgique’ + ‘Reine Claude d’Oullins’: £17.50, Bakker
Plum ‘Opal’: £24.99, Thompson Morgan

Cakes & Bakes: Plum pie

British Pie Week has rolled around once again – an annual event in which we enjoy getting involved in wholeheartedly!

I use the week as an opportunity to make a kind of pie that I’ve never made before. This year, it’s a home-made plum pie.

I used one of my favourite sweet pastry recipes that I borrow from Dorie Greenspan, pairing it with a James Martin spiced plum filling recipe from in a 2008 copy of BBC Good Food Magazine.

I’m not the world’s biggest fan of cloves, but it works amazingly well with the plums.

A drizzle of pouring cream or ladle-ful of custard over the top or on the side… a perfect cold weather pudding!

Click here or on the image below to pin the recipe for later!

Plum pie

2017-03-07 16:33:00

For the pastry

400g/14oz plain flour
120g/4oz icing sugar
pinch of salt
250g/9oz very cold butter
2 egg yolks

For the filling

750g/oz ripe plums stoned & thickly sliced
140g/oz golden caster sugar, plus extra
½tsp ground cloves
1 heaped tbsp cornflour

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For the pastry

Put the flour, icing sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine
Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut in coarsely - you'll have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pea-size pieces and that's just fine
Stir the eggs, just to break them up, and add it them little at a time, pulsing after each addition
When the eggs are in, process in long pulses - about 10 seconds each - until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds
Just before your pastry reaches this clumpy stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change, so listen out
Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Very lightly and sparingly - make that very, very lightly and sparingly - knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing
Butter the pie dish and press the dough evenly along the bottom and up the sides of the dish and over the rim. Don't be stingy - you want a crust with a little heft because you want to be able to both taste and feel it. Also, don't be too heavy-handed - you want to press the crust in so that the pieces cling to one another and knit together when baked, but you don't want to press so hard that the crust loses its crumbly shortbread-ish texture
Freeze the pastry for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking
Preheat the oven to 175ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 4
Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminium foil and fit the foil tightly against the pastry
Bake the pastry for 25 minutes, then carefully remove the foil. If the pastry has puffed up, press it down gently with the back of a spoon
Bake for another 3 to 5 minutes. Allow to cool before adding the pie filling

For the filling

Put the plums, sugar and ground cloves in a pan
Simmer until the sugar dissolves and the plums are juicy (8-10 minutes)
Combine the cornflour with a little of the syrup, then mix well into the fruit
Boil for another few minutes, stirring until thickened
Allow to cool completely
Roll out the remaining piece of pastry into a round and, using the rolling pin, carefully lower the pastry over the filling
Press the pastry lid into the pastry bottom either with your thumbs or a fork. Trim the excess and brush the top with a little beaten egg
Make a slit in the pastry lid to allow steam to escape
Bake at 175ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 4 for 20-25 minutes or until crust is brown and juice just begins to bubble through the slit in the crust
Allow to cool for a few minutes before slicing & serving

Notes

Serve with pouring cream or hot custard

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Preserved plums

Justin’s parents’ neighbours have a few different fruit trees in their garden. In the past couple of years, we’ve had some of the harvest. Last year we made spiced apple chutney, the year before apple cheese. This year, we picked almost 5 kilos of plums – the sweetest, ripest plums we’d ever tasted!

We both ate half a dozen each in a couple of days but we would never be able to work our way through many before before they began to get over-ripe. I’d already made jars upon jars of fruit jam & jelly this year, so I turned half into spiced plum chutney and half into plum jam.

I used recipes from the good old Cordon Bleu Preserving recipe book for both.

The job of stoning was a monotonous, boring job but the resulting preserves were well worth the toil!

When the chutney was cooking the house was filled with the most delicious smell – I wish I could bottle that alone!

Here’s the spiced plum chutney recipe:

1⅓kg/3lb plums
1tbs ground ginger
1tbs ground allspice
2tbs ground mustard seeds
2tbs dried chilli flakes
10 cloves
30g/1oz salt
425ml/¾pt white malt or white wine vinegar
450g/1lb soft brown sugar

Wash & stone the plums and put them in a pan with the ginger, allspice, mustard seeds and chilli flakes
Tie the cloves in a muslin bag and add to the pan
Add the salt and 300ml/½pt of the vinegar
Simmer gently until the plums are soft (about 3 hours)
Put the sugar into a large measuring jug/basin with the remaining vinegar and leave to dissolve. Add to the plums when cooked
Bring to the boil and allow to boil gently until thick (about another 2 hours)
Pour into warm, sterilised jars and screw down immediately
Leave for 4-5 weeks before using

And here’s the jam recipe…

2.75kg/6lb plums
300ml/½pt water
3kg/6½lb granulated or preserving sugar

Wash the plums, cut them in half and remove the stones
Tie half the stones in muslin
Place the fruit in a preserving pan with the water and cook gently until tender
Add the sugar and heat gently until dissolved
Add the bag of stones
Boil rapidly for about 25 minutes or until the jam sets when tested
Remove the bag of stones and pour the jam into warm, dry sterilised jars. Cover and tie down

It’s a deliciously sweet accompaniment to morning croissants.