Racing through Costco recently I spied bags of a red fruit I did not immediately recognize…Cherry Plums….small, mottled red, looking like cherries on steroids or lilliputian plums. I grabbed a bag for later investigation.
These ping-pong ball size stone fruit taste more like very spicy sweet plums than cherries. You, reader, may know all about them, but once again I realize there are so many edibles in this world that I have not encountered…even in my part of the world….even at Costco!
Cherry plums are noted for their sweet, spicy flavor and are most commonly used for jams and preserves as well as for baking and are grown most commonly in the Middle East.
Pitted, sliced and sugared before being baked in my vanilla, brown sugar crust. Some stone fruit can totally collapse when baked in a pie as you know, but these Cherry Plums kept their shape and did not become mushy, but softened to the just-right stage.
Cut fruit swaddled in the vanilla-sugared crust then baked until golden brown and slightly caramelized.
It’s been a hard news week, a sad news week, a dramatic news week. Make something good happen in your world…even if it’s your kitchen world. It can be simple or grand, fancy or plain. Just make something good.
A Galette of Cherry Plums in a Vanilla Bean-Brown Sugar Crust
Ingredients:
- 15 to 18 Cherry Plums, pitted and sliced
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- zest of one lemon
- For crust: 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons raw sugar, divided
- pinch of salt
- 12 tablespoons cold butter cut into small pieces
- vanilla beans scraped from one vanilla bean
- ice water as needed to mix crust dough
- one egg mixed with a bit of water to brush on finished crust
Directions:
- Toss cherry plum slices in a bowl with cornstarch, granulated sugar and lemon zest until well mixed. Set aside.
- Put all-purpose flour in food processor bowl along with 2 tablespoon raw sugar, a pinch salt & vanilla beans. Pulse just to combine.
- Add cold butter pieces to the flour mixture and pulse a few times until flour is grainy looking.
- Slowly add ice water by tablespoons with processor running just until dough begins to come together to form a ball. Turn off processor and scrape dough out onto a work surface dusted with flour. Gather dough into a ball, flatten, wrap in plastic and chill for 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Roll chilled dough out to a circle (not a perfect circle) about 14″ in diameter. Fold in half and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and unfold.
- Pile cherry plum slices in the middle of the dough circle and fold edges up over the fruit leaving the middle open.
- Brush crust with egg wash and sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons raw sugar.
- Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until crust is golden brown and fruit is bubbly and just beginning to brown on the edges. Adjust time according to your oven. More or less.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
Note: This Galette can be made with apples, pears, plums, cherries, peaches or any berries using the same recipe.
Teresa Blackburn http://www.teresablackburn1@mac.com