By Paul Cormier, Salamanders of Kemptville
Jeanne Dams is a mystery writer from Grand Bend Indiana with whom I have been exchanging emails. I’m very grateful for her exceptional writing (and her heroine Dorothy) and for sending me her recipe for Plum Torte. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, so if you do, please let me know how it worked out for you.
Plum Torte
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter at room temperature
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 12 small plums, halved, or 3 large ones, sliced
- Topping: lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon
Preparation
- Preheat your oven to 350F
- Cream the butter and sugar together
- Stir the baking powder into the flour, add the butter, sugar and eggs and beat well
- Grease a 9-inch springform pan and put a circle of parchment or foil on the bottom
- Spread the batter evenly in the pan and top with the plums
- Mix some lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon together and drizzle on top of the fruit
- Sprinkle confectioner’s sugar on top to make it pretty
How much sugar you use on the topping depends on the plums. If very tart, be generous with the sugar. If sweet, increase the lemon juice. Use as much cinnamon as you like. Bake for 40-50 minutes till nicely golden brown.
Allow the torte to cool for about 30 minutes before opening the pan and take care; the fruit can stick to the sides and make removal tricky. Serve warm. Jeanne likes to serve it with sweetened sour cream but she says that whipped cream is good too. Also, this freezes well. To freeze, put a 9-inch cardboard round (available in cake-supply stores) covered in foil at the bottom of your pan before spreading the batter. That way you can remove the torte easily and not have the bottom of your spring-form imprisoned in the freezer.
Kindly let me know if you tried this recipe and how it turned out. I’m at pcormier@ranaprocess.com.
