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I picked about 8lb of plums last night whilst tea was cooking... am going to make plum jam for Christmas presents, but also going to make plum crumble...

Does anyone know how to cook plums for crumble? I've got the actual crumble stuff, but am not sure whether to skin them etc before cooking?

Any ideas?

Cheers!

OverWyreGrower, I took the lazy route, mainly as all my plums are very small (nothing larger than a ping pong ball).

I just poached mine in a heavy syrup (125g/4oz sugar to 300ml/½pint water) kept stones in and skin on. Some I then saved to eat cold (great with yogurt or ice cream) some when into a crumble. All in all very successful, especially as we didn't even know we had plum trees .

I just cut them in half, remove the stone, put them in a dish add some sugar and water, then put the topping on and cook

Hello there, I cut them in rough quarters and de stone them and then either poach them in a tiny bit of sugared water or just bake them for a bit in sugared water before putting the crumble on top and further baking.

I guess the main reason for me cutting them open is to check there is no plum moth, as although I use the hormone treatment it still gets in to the odd one, and I'm not too fond of maggots!

Other than jam, have you got any other ideas what to do with plums - do you know if you can freeze them, and whether you would need to cook them first?

How about Plum and Coffee Streusel
Ingredients:
Streusel:
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. softened butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Mix all above ingredients together, well.

Batter:
16 halved & pitted, plums
1/4 cup granulated white sugar (for coating plums)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 cup soft shortening
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk


Directions:
Gently mix plum halves with 1/4 cup sugar until fruit is evenly coated. Combine the sifted flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Sift into mixing bowl. Cut shortening into dry ingredients with pastry blender. Add egg, beaten until thick and lemon colored. Combine with milk. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spread half of batter into buttered 9x9x2" baking dish. Sprinkle with half the streusel mixture. Distribute 16 plum halves evenly over the surface, spread remaining batter over the plum halves; cover with the remainder of the streusel mixture and top with the remaining plum halves. Bake in a 350 degree over until done, about 50 minutes.



Makes 16 generous squares. Wrap any leftover coffee cake in foil to keep fresh for eating cold or heated the next day.

I love food.
Sal

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Aunt Sally

Molly...

Have been searching BBC Food and UK TV Food and found:

Tuscan Plum Tart

Autumn Plum Crunch Cake

Plum Vodka

Not sure about freezing.

Was going to ask, if I cook the plums as if I was going to put them in a crumble, can I just freeze them to defrost and bake with at a later date?

Shelley
x

Thanks for the links - fab! My understanding is that you can cook them and freeze them to use later, so we can have plum crumble all year round - horray!

Bit of cinnamon in makes loads of difference to the crumble. Bootiful to coin a phrase.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

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