Thursday, October 22, 2009

Yummy Plummy Crumble



This summer in Halifax, we've been enjoying a lot of delicious plums.  Yellow ones, sugar plums, and the delicious Italian prune plums that are so good preserved, crisped and tarted.

I made this Martha Stewart Plum Crostata earlier this summer, replacing the Port with a simple syrup I made from boiling the plum pits (which always end up with so much flesh: I am so bad at halving and pitting fruit!) with the sugar and water until it reduced to 1/2 a cup.

I made a version of this plum preserve recipe this summer.  We opened the jar earlier this week, and it is so good: tart with a taste of honey.  Extra good on buttered toast!

So when I saw prune plums at the market last week, I snatched them, knowing they'd probably be the last of the season.  I combined a recipe posted by Orangette for the fruit with this simple plum crisp recipe from Gourmet for the crisp, trading out the butter for a combination of Smart Balance and Special Hazelnut butter.  Paddy likes to mix hazelnut butter with honey to make a delicious spread for toast.  We had just a quarter cup left, so I mixed that with the Smart Balance.  Here's my masterpiece.



Vegan Plum Crumble with a hint of honey
Takes 2 hours
Makes 9 servings

Plum Filling
2 pounds Prune Plums, halved and pitted
2 Tbsp. light brown Sugar
2 Tbsp. raw cane Sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Crumble
3/4 cup raw almonds (or sliced)
1/4 cup Smart Balance (or butter)
1/4 cup Nut Butter (I used Hazelnut, Almond would work too)*
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt

Grease a 9x9 baking pan with Smart Balance.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees fareinheit.

On baking tray, toast almonds until golden, 10 minutes for the sliced almonds, 15 minutes for the raw almonds.  Let Cool.

Mix all the ingredients for the plum filling until combined.  Pour into baking dish.

In a bowl, combine 1/2 cup oats, all of the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt, and mix until combined.  Work in butter (substitute) and nut butter until the mixture resembles crumble topping.

Once the nuts are cool (smash the whole almonds if you used those, either in a mortar or in a plastic bag with a heavy jar), add those and the remaining 1/4 cup of oats to the rest of the crumble topping.  Mix to combine.  Spread evenly onto the plums.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until the crumble is browned and the plums are done (Stick a fork in a plum, if it's soft, it's done!).

We enjoyed ours last night while watching the Edith Piaf film La Vie en Rose.  Thank god we had this plummy crumble to remind us there is goodness in the world.  That film is sad.

*  Paddy thinks his Special Hazelnut Honey Butter is approximately 60-66% Hazelnut Butter and 33-40% Honey.  I forgot to reduce the amount of sugar I used in the Crumble Topping to compensate for the honey.  It turned out ok because the plum filling remains very tart in this recipe.  I think I will keep the crumble topping this sweet when I make this again next summer.

3 comments:

  1. you might be confused by the pictures. They are of the leftovers! I made the crumble in a 9x9 pan on Tuesday, and heated it up last night in a loaf pan.

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  2. Hi Radhika,

    you will be happy to know that Trip and I will be making your vegan(ish) crumble topping tomorrow (with apples instead) for our non-dairy kosher Thanksgiving...

    We are not using smart balance because it has whey in it so that does not work with meat for our meal... I'll let you know how it goes.

    I also made the cardamom nut brittle tonight that we made once for a Sugar Fest at 21 E 2nd St. So glad you will be here in NYC soon!

    miss and love you!

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  3. There is whey in smart balance?! I had no idea. I would recommend Almond oil as a substitute. It's what I used in those vegan cookies I made when you visited us in Philadelphia.

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