It's embarrassing really. I've been on this earth for decades and decades and have never known that prune plums existed. Holy smokes...have I been missing out on this small, gorgeous fruit.
Still, I confess that I have never been much of a plum eater. Why you ask? Well, I never liked the fact that I couldn't tell when they were juicy-ripe. In addition, they are small, so you need to have more than one or two...and if only one is really good, or neither is very good, then I'm kind of going to lose my interest. Also, the pit's stranglehold on the fruit has never pleased me. I had a few close calls as a kid with putting a half-eaten plum into my mouth to extricate the fruit from the pit only to have the whole thing propel to my throat for one-scary-experience!
What I did/do like about a plum, however, was/is the thin, tart skin. Contrasted with the sweet pulp this was/is a plus.
There above lies our history: Plum and Me.
Fast forward to this season's abundance of Prune Plums and the great deals that my local Shoprite was promoting in August and early September. Always attracted by a good deal, I was drawn to the bin of plums and noticed how small they were! 'Why bother?' I thought. A quick search on my iPhone persuaded me to buy a few. Read NPR's take here.
I do love a good crisp and so decided to try a scaled down recipe featuring these tiny orbs. The results were wonderful. I used and modified this recipe.
Notes
1. Since I was experimenting, I halved the mentor recipe to achieve the yield stated below. In the future, I will making the full recipe. It is that good!
2. I purchased 7 prune plums that weighed in just shy of 7 ounces. Once sliced, this was enough for 1 1/2 cups. So I added 1/2 cups of blueberries to give me 2 cups of fruit.
3. There is no need to use ramekins. Any oven safe dish will work. Just make sure that it will hold the volume of ingredients you have.
4. Oh, good news! Prune plums don't like barnacle-clingy seeds either. They release theirs without hassle :)
Prune Plum Crisp
Yield: Three 6-ounce ramekins
Filling:
2 cups sliced prune plums
1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
wee splash of vanilla
a pinch of cinnamon
Topping:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
wee pinch of salt, optional
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350º F and butter the three ramekins.
2. In a medium bowl, toss the prune plums (remember I had to add a few blueberries), flour, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon together.
3. Place a third of the fruit mix (eyeball) into each buttered ramekin.
4. In the same bowl, combine all the topping ingredients. Mix with a fork until crumbly.
5. Distribute one-third of the mixture to the top of each ramekin. Use your hands to help disperse the crumbs evenly.
6. Bake uncovered fro 40-45 minutes or until topping is crispy-looking and golden.
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