Plum Crisp

When I announced this month’s Kitchen Bootcamp challenge, I thought I would have no trouble at all baking up an assortment of fruit desserts. We joined a local fruit CSA this year, so I’ve had plenty of fresh and local fruit on hand.  The only problem (if you can really call it a problem) is that we’ve been eating most of the fruit before I even have a chance to bake with it. I suppose that’s not such a bad thing.

So, when we received last week’s fruit share, I decided to set aside the plums for some baking.  I knew we wouldn’t miss them too much since we had a lovely assortment of peaches and nectarines to snack on during the week (among other things). Plus, I’ve made plenty of desserts with peaches throughout the years, but I haven’t done much baking with plums, so I thought it would be fun to try something new.

I decided to keep things fairly simple and I made a plum crisp. I thought the slightly tart flavor of the plums would go nicely with a sweet crisp topping, not to mention a scoop of ice cream. I started with the apple crisp recipe featured in The New Best Recipe and went from there.  Instead of all purpose flour, I decided to use some whole wheat pastry flour instead.  I also mixed up the spices a bit and opted not to add additional sugar to the fruit filling.

As with most crisps and crumbles, you can’t really go too wrong.  Though, I was pleasantly surprised with how crisp and golden the topping on this particular dessert turned out. The topping was just sweet enough to balance out the tart plums.  And, as I expected, both my hubby and I enjoyed it with a nice scoop of ice cream on top.  Of course, I couldn’t get him to stop calling it a “plum crumb” but I suppose that’s OK.

Plum Crisp
Serves 4-6
(Adapted from The New Best Recipe)

• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
• 1 cup walnuts
• 4 cups pitted and chopped plums

Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Lightly grease a baking dish or a shallow baking pan and set aside.

To make the topping, combine the pastry flour, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt in a food processor. Pulse a few times to evenly mix all of the ingredients.  Cut the cold butter into chunks and add to the food processor.  Pulse the mixture until it resembles wet sand.  Add in the walnuts and continue to pulse until the walnuts are chopped and incorporated.

If you haven’t prepared the plums, do so now (and refrigerate the topping so that the butter stays cold while you work).

Place the plums in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.  Add 1/4 cup of the prepared topping and stir it into the plums.  Sprinkle the remaining topping over the plum mixture.

Bake for 30 – 35 minutes. Then, increase the oven temperature to 400°F and bake for an additional 5-7 minutes, until the topping is a deep golden color and the filling is bubbling. Serve warm.

Please Note – The links to The New Best Recipe provided in this post are Amazon affiliate links.  If you purchase this cookbook (or another item) after  clicking on my link, I receive a small percentage of the sale price, which helps to keep My Kitchen Addiction up and running. Thanks!