EX-PAT'S PFLAUMENMUS-ERSATZ - PLUM BUTTER MADE FROM PRUNES

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts (folgt noch)






















Nothing better than a slice of freshly baked bread with butter and jam, especially with Pflaumenmus - spiced German plum butter - one of my favorites. Pflaumenmus is made from Italian plums, cooked for many hours to a dark mush, and seasoned with cinnamon and a hint of cloves.

Plum butter tastes similar to apple butter, but noticeably tarter and more intense. Pflaumenmus - or Powidl in Austria - is not only a tasty spread for sandwiches, but, also, often used as sweet filling in dumplings or pastry, especially in Austria and neighboring countries of the old Hapsburg empire.

Bohemian Hazelnut Torte with plum butter (the dark layer)

Married to a Vietnam vet, I can get plum butter and other German delicacies at the commissary in Bangor. But if you have neither access to a military base, nor to a German deli shop, and don't want to go through the lengthy process of making the real thing from scratch - there is an easy way out: DIY-Pflaumenmus-Ersatz!

When I wrote my blog post for Bohemian Hazelnut Torte I was wondering what kind of substitute could be used for plum butter. The best of all husbands suggested apple butter, and it comes fairly close, but is somewhat milder. Then I thought of the dried prunes I like snacking on, looked at ingredients in some Pflaumenmus (from the scratch) recipes, and got to work.

Ingredients for Pflaumenmus-Ersatz

This is what I came up with: a combination of the mellow acidity of balsamic vinegar and the fresh zing of lemon juice for tartness, brown sugar and maple syrup (or only brown sugar) for sweetness, and cinnamon and a hint of cloves for spices.

The prunes have to be soaked for several hours (or overnight), so that they can be easily pureed, using either a food processor or an immersion blender. The plum butter substitute tastes better the day after it's made, so give it a 12-hour rest in the fridge to allow the flavors to blend.

Not only good for baking - we had Pflaumenmus-Ersatz with pancakes and maple syrup for brunch: delicious!


PFLAUMENMUS-ERSATZ - SUBSTITUTE FOR PLUM BUTTER
200 g dried prunes
3/4 cup/180 g water, boiling
40 g/5 tsp. balsamic vinegar
4 tsp. lemon juice
4 tsp. dark brown sugar (or 1 tbsp. brown sugar and 1/2 tbsp. maple syrup)
1/8-1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon (to taste)
pinch ground cloves

In a small bowl, pour boiling water over prunes. Cover, and let sit for several hours (or overnight) to soften.

Place softened prunes with soaking liquid in bowl of food processor (or blender). Add balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, brown sugar, maple syrup (if using), cinnamon and cloves, and process until mixture is smooth.

Season with more lemon juice, brown sugar (or maple syrup) and cinnamon to taste. Transfer plum butter to a jar or bowl, cover, and allow to rest for 12 hours, until flavors have blended.

ALMOND PLUM CAKE - SWEET AND TART IN HARMONY

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts (folgt noch)


















I missed a few ABC baking projects (there was always something else going on), but our "pack leader" Hanaâ's September pick, King Arthur Flour's Almond Tarts featured almonds, and nuts are my favorite baking ingredients.

There was one problem, though - my husband doesn't care for strong almond aroma, and complains every time I use more than a few drops almond extract. And what is an almond tart without almond taste?

My birthday cake has always been a plum cake, in early September, when they are just ripe. When I first came to Maine, I couldn't find Italian prune plums, the best kind for baking - too tart for raw consumption but delicious when cooked.

Fortunately that has changed, and now, soon as I see them at our supermarket, I grab a few pounds -  it's time for my plum cake. And what could better offset a sweet, almond-y filling than a combination with tart, flavorful plums?

A few other tweaks to the filling: I reduced the sugar by 25%, using a mix of white and brown, and substituted some of the white flour for whole wheat. For my husband's sake, I added only half of the almond extract.

My Almond Plum Cake turned out just as I had hoped - a blissful marriage of tart, juicy plums with marzipan-like sweet almond filling: the BEST PLUM CAKE I EVER HAD!

De-licious - the best pum cake I ever had

ALMOND PLUM CAKE  (adapted from King Arthur Flour)

CRUST
99 g/3.5 oz sugar (1/2 cup)
113 g/4 oz soft butter (1 stick)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
130 g/4.6 oz all-purpose flour
47 g1.7 oz whole wheat pastry
74 g/2.6 oz almond meal (3/4 cup)

FILLING
57 g/2 oz soft butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 tsp. salt  (I used only 1/8 tsp.)                                       
75 g/2.6 oz sugar                                           
75 g/2.6 oz light brown sugar
14 g/2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. almond extract                      
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
3 eggs
124 g/4.4 oz almond flour (1 1/4 cup)
ca. 600 g/21 oz plums, pitted, and halved

CRUST:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Beat together sugar, butter, salt, and extracts. Add flours, stirring to make crumbs that cling together when squeezed.

Using a tamper or a flat bottomed cup measure to press the crumbs into the pan

Press crumbs into bottom and up the sides of a 9"/23 cm springform pan, and prick crust all over with a fork. Place crust for 15 minutes in the freezer.

Bake crust until it is just beginning to brown on the edges, 22 minutes. Let it cool on a wire rack (don't turn the oven off).

The almond filling is very easy to make

FILLING:
Beat together butter, salt, sugar, flour, and extracts. Beat in eggs, then add almond flour, stirring just to combine.

Distribute plum halves over the par-baked crust. Pour filling evenly over the plums.

The almond filling covers the plums almost completely

Bake the cake for 40-43 minutes, until the top is lightly browned. Let it cool in the pan on a wire rack.

To serve, remove the ring of the springform pan and transfer the cake to a serving plate. (I usually don't bother to remove it from the bottom of the pan).

In all its glory: Almond Plum Cake

NOTE: The almond plum cake keeps very well, even after 3 days at (not very cool) room temperature it tasted still good!

If you would like to join the Avid Bakers and take part in our monthly challenge, click here. New members are always welcome!

APRICOT-PLUM GALETTE - A CURE FOR "PIE ANXIETY"

Apricot-Plum Galette, juicy and tangy

Apricot-Plum Galette, a fruity, tangy dessert, was our Avid Bakers' Challenge for August. It came just right for these hot summer days.

Abigail Dodge, author of "The Weekend Baker", calls a galette the "friendliest of all pies": ideal for people suffering from "pie anxiety". There is no double crust to deal with, no complicated lattice weaving, no edge crimping - not even a pie plate is needed.

Though I like the combination of plums and apricots - and both were available  in our supermarket - I didn't suffer so much from pie phobia, as from filling anxiety. Apricots and plums are usually only half ripe when you get them, and you never know whether they will soften into juicy goodness or mealy sourness. 

I bought my two pounds of fruit, and placed them, together with an apple, in a brown bag, hoping they would ripen in time for the challenge. 

Making the crust was no problem. Following Hanaâ's advice, I froze the cubed butter, instead of just refrigerating it. I substituted a fifth all-purpose flour for spelt flour, to have a little bit of whole grains in the crust.

Rolling the dough, transferring it into the sheet pan - no great challenge there, and no slightest twinge of pie anxiety. 

After their three days of hobnobbing with the apple, I found the apricots and plums softer and sufficiently sweet, so I didn't add any additional sugar. I forgot the lemon juice in the mix, so I belatedly drizzled a bit over the top.

The galette looked very appetizing when it came out of the oven - only the crust had cracked in several places and the pie sat in a puddle of juice!

And then came the only glitch - Abby Dodge wants you to lift the slightly cooled galette with two spatulas on a plate. This action, exercised with a metal peel and a bench knife, ended in a broken pie. 

The congealing juice stuck to the parchment paper, and the sticky surface made easy gliding impossible. The parchment paper was pushed together in wrinkles, and the galette broke apart.

Re-assembled galette, the damage is hardly visible

 I got the pie out, don't ask me how, and assembled the broken pieces on the plate, so that the galette looked almost like new. I didn't attempt to glaze it, not wanting to disturb my poor pie anymore.

But, in the end, who cares, when the the taste is right. And it WAS right! Plums, apricots and ginger made an awesome combination, and the crust was delicate and flaky. 

You'll find the recipe in "The Weekend Baker", by Abigail Johnson Dodge. She calls her recipes "irresistible" and I wholeheartedly agree. And to make this galette entirely "stress-free for busy people", I would next time line the baking sheet with aluminum foil, and move it with the pie to the platter.

And, after reading other Avid Bakers' posts, I realize that leakages rather seem to be the rule in rustic galettes, not a failure. Even master baker Joanne Chang commented in Fine Cooking: "It’s all right if some of the juices escape from the tart and seep onto the pan." 

But I still thought about how to minimize those leaks, and asked my knowledgeable daughter Valerie  what she would do.

It's great to have a chef in the family

She recommended "Bakers' Secret Weapon" - a layer of cake crumbs on the crust to soak up excess juice. Or mix the fruits with the sugar several hours before using, strain them over a bowl, and then cook the juice in a sauce pan until reduced to syrup. 

Another way to achieve a leak free crust is a French pastry bakers' technique, called fraisage. After transferring the dough to the work surface, you smear the crumbly mass repeatedly with the heel of your hand, until it is cohesive. Cook's Illustrated explains that this procedure creates long, thin streaks of butter between layers of flour and water, resulting in a sturdy, but very flaky dough.

If you would like to join the Hanaâ's Avid Bakers, take up the monthly challenge, and have the fun - here is your link:

September Birthday Cake - Geburtstagskuchen im September

There's no doubt about it - Pflaumenkuchen (German Plum Cake) is my birthday cake. In the beginning of September the first prune plums show up on the market just in time for my birthday.

My birthday party was always arranged by my grandmother, my Omi, who invested all her love and imagination in coming up with games and other entertainment for me and my friends. She definitely was my role model on how to make a child's birthday party a huge success!

"Hide-and-Seek" (in the dark), "Choose-the-Right-Candy", "Say-Whom-You-Love" and "Unwrap-the-Chocolate" (with fork and knife!) were some of the games that raised excitement and noise levels to heights that called for quiet intervals of soap bubble blowing, or story telling, to calm down all the boisterous little guests.

Of course my grandmother also baked my birthday cake, a large sheet brimming full of prune plums resting on a bed of sweet yeast dough, generously sprinkled with almonds and cinnamon sugar. I loved that cake, and could eat a lot of it (though not quite as much as on those memorable occasions when my cousin Thomas and I would compete at gobbling up Omi's famous yeast dumplings!).

Nowadays, if I do not have to entertain a horde of hungry cake monsters, I bake a smaller plum cake version, either with a short or a streusel crust, in a springform pan. They taste as good as the large yeasted cake - especially with Gifford's award winning vanilla ice cream...

Es gibt keinen Zweifel - mein Geburtstagskuchen ist Pflaumenkuchen. Anfang September tauchen die ersten Zwetschen auf dem Markt auf, gerade rechtzeitig zu meinem Geburtstag.

Meine Kindergeburtstage wurden immer von meiner Omi ausgerichtet, die all ihre Liebe und Fantasie einsetzte, um sich Spiele und andere Unterhaltung fuer mich und meine Freunde einfallen zu lassen. Sie war definitiv mein Vorbild dafuer, wie man einen Kindergeburtstag zum Riesenerfolg werden laesst!

"Mops im Dunklen", "Bonbontipp", "Sage, wen liebst du?" und "Schokoladen-Auspacken" (mit Messer und Gabel!) waren einige der Spiele, die Spannung und Laermpegel auf Hoehen trieben, die ruhige Intervalle mit Seifenblasen oder Geschichtenerzaehlen erforderten, um all die kleinen, laermenden Gaeste wieder zu beruhigen.

Natuerlich backte meine Omi auch meinen Geburtstagskuchen, ein grosses Blech voll Pflaumen auf einem Bett von suessem Hefeteig, grosszuegig mit Mandelblaettchen und Zimtzucker bestreut. Ich liebte diesen Kuchen, und konnte eine Menge davon essen (obwohl nicht ganz so viel wie bei den denkwuerdigen Gelegenheiten, wenn mein Cousin Thomas und ich uns um die Wette mit Omis beruehmten Hefekloessen vollstopften!).

Heutzutage, wenn ich nicht gerade eine Horde hungriger Kuchenmonster zu fuettern habe, backe ich eine kleinere Pflaumenkuchenversion, entweder mit Muerbeteig- oder mit Streuselboden, in einer Springform. Sie schmecken ebenso gut wie der grosse Hefekuchen - ganz besonders mit Giffords preisgekroentem Vanilleeis...