It wouldn’t be autumn in my world without plum cake. Pflaumenkuchen, Zwetschgenkuchen, Zwetschgendatschi … whatever you want to call it, it’s a very common autumn dessert or snack to coffee-time in southern Germany. This time, I made one a little different, with the addition of cardamom. I love cardamom too and the combination with the tart italian plums is fantastic.
Browsing Tag
desserts
One of my all-time favorite fruits are figs — I even have a Pinterest collection called “Getting Figgy with It” — so seeing they are in season, I decided to make Almond Figgy Bars. Very buttery, with sticky fig jam and sliced figs and a barely noticeable bit of cinnamon. First of my autumn styled treats.
I was lucky enough to be given some lovely local honey the other day. I love honey, and any time it is local, all the better. So, with a bit of said honey, I decided to make these Honey Oatmeal Scotchies — oatmeal cookies sweetened with honey and butterscotch chips. Very nice snack — or maybe to go into lunch boxes if kids are going back to school (big IF there, right?)
Mirabelle plums are one of my favorite fruits, but they are actually quite difficult to come by in the US. They are very small (in some cases, not much larger than a cherry) and have a fairly short shelf life. They are also a trademark yellow. I made do this time by finding similar small plum (a little smaller than a golf ball) but I had some mirabelle jam, which I put under the fresh plums on these crumble bars. They are quite juicy, a little tart and very yummy.
I am calling this creation a “Olive Oil, Almond and Sweet Plum Cake” but what it actually is is what happens when you take two of Joanne Chang’s Recipes from Flour Love — the Plum Frangipane Tart (page 230) and the Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Grapes (page 297) and combine them. Turns out, it’s pretty spectacular as a combination — it’s mostly the Olive Oil Cake recipes, but instead of grapes, I used tiny sweet plums. I’m guessing it would also work really well with cherries (pitted) or gooseberries as well. At any rate, glorious inspiration for an otherwise unforgettable Monday.