I think I may have been overcome with cider fumes when I came home from the apple orchard with not just the apples and cider I drove out there to get, but a half peck of plums.
Plums remind me of climbing the trees at Missy's house and eating them up there in the branches.
Last spring, or was it summer? I got this cookbook and I am counting on it to provide me with something to do with these plums other than eat them plain. For dessert tonight, I tried the Vanilla-Spiked Plum Galette. I made it exactly as I was told, with no substitutions or shortcuts. Sometimes I have Betty Crocker delusions, but certainly not Julia Child delusions, and I think I can improvise or make changes to recipes. And many times I rush through recipes, or rather, rush the recipe along, not taking the time I sometimes should.. Sometimes this works fine but more often I am left to wonder why it all didn't work out so well. I get ahead of myself and then realize, too late, that I forgot something.
So, I specifically went out to buy the fine sea salt and vanilla beans that the recipe called for, but were not in my cupboard. Luckily I found them both in the regular old grocery store without too much searching. (I did have to ask for the manager's help, but this turned out to be a good thing because 2 other people in my aisle needed him, too, so I actually helped a lot of customers today.) And I took my time and did all the steps in order.
The results were delicious, even though my galette dough (which I would describe as a sturdy pie dough) was not tough enough to hold in the fruit juices and the kitchen got a tad smokey. And the baking sheet is not really pretty to look at and may need to soak for several days to get all the black baked on juices cleaned off. I will try correcting the galette dough issue and make this again, though.
My Hero and I decided the results were tasty enough to have a second piece, and I decided that mine would be perfect with a cup of hot tea. It was.
One really nice thing about this is that there is little sugar added, letting the natural sweetness and flavors of the fruit come through.
The recipe, however, barely made a dent in my plums. Thankfully there is a recipe for a Stone Fruit Slump, and one for Stone Fruit Tea cake and one for Stone Fruit Upside-Down Cornmeal Cake....
Love,
Kim
