I’ve always thought of plums as more of an autumn fruit than a summer one, but with this uncharacteristically cool and wet summer that we’ve been having, this sort of dessert has never seemed more appropriate! If you’re in Sydney you’ll know what I mean, and the long range forecast doesn’t look much better with rain predicted almost every day in the next month. I made this crumble on Sunday afternoon, just before we got a gusty southerly change and a huge summer storm swept through.
But while the weather has been average, the plums have been just gorgeous this year. When thinking about what to pair them with in a dessert, I kept coming back to Pedro Ximénez sherry. I had a little leftover from Karen’s cake, so I thought I’d give it a try in a crumble. And, happily, it was delicious.
Just look at that colour! So gorgeous. If you don’t have PX handy, a nice Port would also work well I think. I used a combination of black plums and sweet dainty sugarplums, but feel free to use whatever you find at the market. There are some beautiful varieties available, some sweet and others a little more tart.
For the crumble itself, I was inspired to try one using pecans as in the beautiful plum feature from the latest Donna Hay magazine. I had never tried using pecans in a crumble before but they were gorgeous with the plums!
And while the season lasts, here are a few of my favourite plum recipes from the archives
– Little Plum and Brown Butter Cakes
– Honey Parfait with Grilled Plums
– Plum, Brown Sugar and Lime Sorbet
Plum and Pedro Ximénez Crumble
Serves 2-3
• 5-6 plums, depending on their size (I used a mixture of black plums and sugarplums)
• 2 tablespoons raw sugar
• ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
• Seeds of half a vanilla bean, scraped
• ¼ cup Pedro Ximénez sherry, or Port
Crumble (adapted from Donna Hay)
• 2 tablespoons raw sugar
• ½ cup pecans, roughly chopped
• 30g butter, melted
• ¼ cup plain flour
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F). Cut plums into eighths (or halves if using sugar plums) and stir to combine in a bowl with raw sugar, cinnamon, vanilla seeds and PX. Place into an ovenproof baking dish.
To make the crumble, place the sugar, pecans, melted butter, flour and cinnamon in a bowl and mix well to combine. Scatter crumble over plum mixture and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until mixture is bubbling and crumble is golden. Serve warm, with ice cream.