Sunday 9 June 2013

Plum and Almond Bake

This is another bake that came about by accident... I was testing a recipe that I'm planning to make for a colleagues birthday next week, and ended up with lots of streusel topping left over. Not wanting it to go to waste, I grabbed some plums from the fruit bowl and set about creating a fruity dessert. I think that baked in a square dish, this could easily be cut into bars once cooled and taken on a picnic, but it's nice warm with custard too.

Ingredients:
6 fairly firm plums
1 tbsp caster sugar
Juice of 1 orange
140g cold butter, cubed
100g ground almonds
140g plain flour
175g light muscovado sugar
Pinch of caster sugar

Cut the plums into quarters, removing the stones, and place in a saucepan. Sprinkle the caster sugar over the plums and pour in the orange juice. Cover the saucepan and stew on a low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until the plums have gone soft and the juices have turned syrupy.
Remove from the heat and mash the plum mix with a fork before putting to one side.

Pre-heat your oven to 200c and grease or line an ovenproof dish.
Place the ground almonds, flour and muscovado sugar in a bowl and rub in the cubed butter into the mixture until crumbly.
Firmly press about 2/3 of the mix into the dish, making sure there are no holes and there is an even cover. Tip the plum mix over the base layer, making sure it's spread evenly and up to the edges. Sprinkle the remaining crumble mix evenly over the top, followed by a pinch of caster sugar and bake in the centre of your oven for 25 minutes, until golden and gooey.
If you're cutting it into bars, leave to cool completely before cutting as the plum layer will firm up a bit once cooled. Alternatively, enjoy warm from the oven.

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