vanilla bean

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

Time: 1hr
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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

I realize that many of you lovely readers of Food on Fifth and fellow bloggers travel to, or are currently vacationing in, exotic locations around the globe while so many other blogger friends live in cities and countries far & wide. Celia is in New Zealand visiting family, Roger actually lives in France, Tina is based out of Frankfurt, Germany but can be found in so many truly exotic spots it can make the mind reel. Selma resides in London & Cheryl in Glasgow and Meg might be blogging about Verona one day and Virginia the next. My recent travels were of a more humble nature, yet iconically American.

A couple of weeks ago my well-traveled friend, Terry, and I purposefully took a road trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. Deep in the Ozark forest is a wonder to behold, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. We will return to this thread later…..

Have you ever eaten an Arkansas Black apple? From a road side stand in Harrison, Arkansas I bought a half bushel basket of these very crispy, deep red, right on the edge of black, apples. They are long-keeping apples and are said to turn almost black when stored.

Last week after our return I gave away bags of these beauties to friends who love to cook. Jill at Jill Cooks Here took home a bag and Nancy at Good Food Matters just made a terrific seasonal cake with her bag.

These apples are very crisp and do not get mushy when cooked, but hold their shape and keep a bit of crunch when used in cakes & pies. I like this quality very much.

Maple syrup, brown sugar & cinnamon.

A crust using the seeds of a whole vanilla bean, almond meal & Kerrygold butter.

Filled and loosely….I like to think artistically….latticed.

Sugared top golden browned.

“Still Life with an Arkansas Black Apple Tart”

Best eaten warm from the oven.

Arkansas Black Apple Tart

Servings: 6
Time: 1 hr 30 mins
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tart

Ingredients for Crust:

the seeds from one vanilla bean
1 3/4 cup almond meal (I used Bob’s Red Meal/Gluten Free)
1/2 cup gluten-free flour + extra for rolling out the dough (King Arthur or Bob’s Red Mill)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 sticks cold/12 tablespoons butter grated or cut into small pieces (Kerrygold is my favorite)
2 tbsp cold plain greek yogurt

Ingredients for Filling:

5-6 Arkansas Black Apples, cored, peeled & sliced, or other seasonal local apple with a crispy, tart flesh
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg or any ground nutmeg
1/4 cup real maple syrup
2 tbsp cold butter cut into small pieces
1 whole egg well beaten for wash
Granulated Sanding sugar for dusting over the top before baking

Directions for Tart Crust:

Put the 1 3/4 cups almond flour, 1/2 cup gluten-free flour, the vanilla bean seeds & the 1/4 tsp sea salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times.
Add the cold butter & pulse a few times.
Add the cold yogurt & pulse until a sticky dough forms.
Scrape dough from the processor bowl, shape into a ball, wrap with plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes. This can be made the day before as well.
Lightly grease a springform pan. Press 2/3 of the chilled dough into the bottom and halfway up the sides of the pan. Set aside.
Roll the other 1/3 of the dough out on a floured board and cut into lattice strips. Use as much flour as needed as this dough is very soft and tender.

Directions for Filling the Crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl toss the apple slices with the juice of half a lemon. Sprinkle with the nutmeg and dark brown sugar and toss again.
Drizzle with the maple syrup and toss well.
Arrange the apple slices in the tart crust snuggly. Top with the butter pieces.
Place the dough strips over the top of the apple filling in a “lattice” pattern. As you can see perfection was not my goal, but I did want it to look pretty.
Brush lattice top with egg wash and sprinkle generously with the sanding sugar.
Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the apples are bubbling and the top crust is golden brown. If the crust browns to rapidly then cover the entire pan loosely with foil.
Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Best served warm and of course would be extra good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Scenes from a road trip….

A couple of hours into our trip we had to stop at Billy Tripp’s “Mindfield” in Brownsville, TN…now an official Roadside Attraction!

I always like to stop and wander about. A West Tennessee cotton field is a contemplative place.

Heading into the Ozarks on a cloudy day.

Bentonville, Arkansas. Home of Walmart. Old ad..a store wide selection of timely values.

Bentonville is also home to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Sam Walton’s daughter, Alice, the powerhouse behind this beautiful space is an interesting read on Google. A stunning space for both it architecture, designed by Moshe Safdie, and its remote location, it houses American art spanning 5 centuries of artists from Colonial times to the present.