Pflaumenkuchen

aka plum cake for those of us in the English speaking world.  Fall has to be just the best of times especially when its like this year and we have day after day of hot sunny weather right through the end of September.  I can’t say that the heat makes me feel like venturing into fall cooking but thankfully the heavens opened up the last few days.  Between the weather turning and my mom arriving with 5 bags of ripe plums, I was finally kick started.  When I lived in Germany, I remember having this amazing plum “thing” that was made on a cookie sheet.  It was not too sweet and came out of the oven oozing goodness.  Having gifted a number of the plums, I was faced with cooking them sooner than later and as my Dad is here and he has a sweet tooth I was looking for something to bake.  Now first let me say, I am not a baker and desserts and baked goodies are few and far between in this house so I needed outside help.  I searched the net and found pictures that looked promising but no recipes that looked right.  I sent an email to Monika of http://www.monikas.country-living-in-the-city.de to ask if she had a recipe and even though she was on holiday in Spain she kindly replied. However, no recipe.  In the end, I appealed to a colleague in Tübingen, whose mother had already sent me a great starter on German Christmas cookies and again she came through. So here is Frau Behrmann’s Pflaumenkuchen. I have to admit that I was intimidated the minute that I saw the word yeast! Happily, I can say it was yumilicious.

Frau Behrmann’s Plum Cake

For the dough:

• 1 packet of yeast
• 75 grams of white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla or 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• 200 ml of warm milk
• 300 grams of flour
• 1 egg
• 1 pinch of salt
• 75 grams melted butterPlace the flour in a mixing bowl and create small wells with your fingers.  In a separate container stir the yeast into the warm milk.  Next pour the milk and yeast into the flour wells.  Cover and let stand for about 15 minutes.  Next add the rest of the ingredients and gently knead together into the dough.  Again cover the bowl and let it stand about another 15 minutes or until the dough is about doubled.Prepare a cookie sheet (with sides) by greasing it with butter.  Next roll the dough out onto the pan ( used my fingers to stretch and spread it)

For the topping:

• Depending on the size of your cookie sheet you will need about 4-6  cups of plums, sliced in half, pitted.
• Place them on the dough, cut side up and nestled closely together (see photo above)

For the streusel topping:

• 150 grams of flour
• 100 grams of sugar
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar or about 1/4 teaspoon
• ground cinnamon to taste ( I use about 1 tablespoon)
• 150-200 grams of butter softened but not meltedMix all ingredients with a fork, mix until crumbled and spread over the plums

Bake at 350 for about 20-35 minutes.  When the crust is brown and you can test with a toothpick and it comes out clear its time to eat!