Friday Pie-Day: Plum Pie

Had you ever heard of a plum pie before? Neither had I. But this was definitely a favorite! The spices mingled with this perfectly-ripe fruit to create a delicacy like no other!

We agreed this would be a lovely pie at Christmastime, but plums are soon going to be out of season, so we had to take advantage of these fresh ones now! It was a nice way to usher in autumn.

You will need…

First, I made the pie crust using our handy-dandy recipe. I used the entire recipe but didn’t divide it into 2 balls to make a top and bottom crust. Instead, I just rolled the entire thing out into an extra large circle and let it hang over the edge of the pan (you’ll see why soon).

I de-pitted and sliced up 6 plums, which just happen to have been bought and used at peak freshness. I love it when that works out! Each plum ended up being about 12 slices.

Then I arranged them in the pie pan.

I’m sure it would taste just as good if you just tossed them in, but I went for a more aesthetically pleasing approach.

I just positioned them alternating the skin facing up and down in 2 concentric circles.

Next, I combined the dry ingredients that would thicken up the plum filling. That’s white sugar, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and orange peel, in case you were wondering!

Add in some orange juice and mix it all together…

…Then pour it over the plums!

Now for the pie crust – just fold over the hanging crust leaving a little hole in the center!

Then brush it with milk, sprinkle some coarse sugar all over the top, and toss it in the oven!

A word of caution: make sure there are no holes in the crust (at the fold), or else it will bubble over the sides!

And just look how gorgeous it turned out, mess and all!

The filling was the perfect blend of tangy and sweet – the orange and ginger set off the sugars and cinnamon nicely.

We used a recipe from my Taste of Home pie book, but we were inspired by this photo of the top crust (and a few ingredients) from the plum pie recipe in Prevention magazine. So this recipe is sort of a combination of both of them!

 

It sliced fairly easily, although it was a little soupy.

We served it a la mode with vanilla ice cream! Yum!

Check out all of our family’s monthly pies since 2010!

Spiced Plum Pie (adapted from Taste of Home and Prevention)

pastry for double-crust pie

6 large fresh plums (about 1½ lb.), halved, pitted, and sliced (3¾ cup)

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 T. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. ginger

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup orange juice

1 tsp. grated orange peel

milk and coarse sugar for brushing crust

1. Roll out entire pie crust dough into one large 14 inch circle. Place in pie pan with excess crust hanging over the edge of the 9-inch pan.
2. Prepare plums and arrange in pie crust.
3. Combine sugars, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and orange peel in a small bowl, then add orange juice and stir. Pour mixture over plums in pie pan.
4. Fold excess pie dough over fruit, leaving center exposed. Brush crust with milk, then sprinkle with granulated sugar.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes or until crust is golden and fruit is tender and bubbly. Cool slightly before slicing; serve warm with ice cream!