Purple Plum Torte

Saturday morning breakfast. 

Purple plum torte from the New York Times food section.  This recipe has been on my radar for years, perhaps decades.  It is, apparently, the most popular recipe to ever be printed (and reprinted and reprinted and reprinted) in the New York Times.  And, like many other things that I should have started making YEARS ago, I finally see what all the hype is about.  

My enthusiastic helper.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought to make this cake, torte, whatever you want to call it.  It’s made an appearance on just about all of my favorite food blogs and websites over the years and of course, in the Times. Recently, I bought The Essential New York Times Cookbook by Amanda Hesser and there it was again. The recipe calls for Italian Prune Plums - which I rarely see - but since we are smack dab in the middle of plum season, I thought I might finally make the cake with whatever plums I could find.

Then, last Friday, I walked into the farmstand by my office, and the first thing I saw was a sign for Italian Prune Plums. On sale! It was destiny.

Ready to go into the oven.

I made the recipe in two 6-inch cake pans.  I love my 6-inch cake pans because, with the exception of this little number, we can never finish a full-sized cake.  Also because we probably shouldn’t. Most recipes that call for an 8 or 9 inch cake pan can be cut in half to make a 6 inch cake.  Or you can easily make two 6-inch cakes and save one for later (cakes freeze well), give one away, or let your husband dig into one while the other stays pristine for the dinner party you planned on serving it at. I cannot tell you the number of times Paul has tried to convince me that it’s ok to serve a dessert with a slice missing. NOOOOOO.

In this case, I didn’t end up needing my 6 inch cake pans because, somehow, we polished both of these plum cakes off in a weekend. What can I say? It’s a versatile little torte. Reminiscent of a coffee cake, and similarly good for breakfast or an afternoon snack, but also good with ice cream, creme fraiche, or whipped cream as a full blown dessert. It’s also really, really, easy to make. So I see its popularity, the payoff is really quite big for the effort involved.

I read somewhere that it is best to let it rest for several hours or overnight to let the plum juices release into the cake before digging in. This sounded reasonable to me, so I made it on Friday night and we enjoyed it for breakfast on Saturday.  It was jammy and delicious.  I finally understood what the big deal was. I know I’ll be making it again soon and I’m sure it will be delicious even if I can’t get Italian Prune Plums again until next year.

So it's not the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, but wait until you taste it. 

Purple Plum Torte

The Essential New York Times Cookbook by Amanda Hesser

Ingredients

• ¾ to 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup unbleached flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 24 halves pitted purple plums
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar
• Juice from ½ a lemon
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon cardamom

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and eggs and beat well.

3. Spoon the batter into a springform pan of 8, 9 or 10 inches (or two 6 inch pans). Place the plum halves skin side up on top of the batter. Sprinkle lightly with sugar and lemon juice, depending on the sweetness of the fruit. Sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, depending on how much you like cinnamon. I added cardamom as well because I’m a cardamom junkie, especially with stone fruits.

4. Bake 1 hour, approximately. Remove and cool; refrigerate or freeze if desired. Or cool to lukewarm and serve plain or with whipped cream. (To serve a torte that was frozen, defrost and reheat it briefly at 300 degrees.)

The aftermath. Worth it. 

Bacon-Wrapped Date Inspired Tart

Does your block party? Our block didn’t have one this year, probably because there aren’t that many young kids on our block.  Or, because we would be the obvious ones to organize it (since most of the young kids on our block are ours) and we didn’t.  I do, however, love a good block party and I’m glad that we live in an area where they exist.

Block parties weren’t a thing in any of the neighborhoods I lived in when I was growing up but I think they must be especially fun to experience as a child. From the simple pleasure of being able to actually run in the street (even if it is just one day a year), to having a bounce house, face painting and an excuse to run amok with all of the neighborhood kids while your parents are busy chatting and grilling burgers to notice what you are up to. It seems like a kid’s dream come true.

I give you Exhibit A. at the start of her three-course dinner which included: strawberry ice; vanilla ice cream; and a chocolate cupcake to round out the meal. Party on!

A couple of our good friends’ have an amazing block party every year. There are a ton of kids on their block and the parents are extremely organized when it comes to throwing their annual block party. They’ve got a schedule that includes a children’s lunch, a DJ, carnival games and raffle prizes, face painting, a bounce house, a talent show, a potluck dinner, a band, wine tasting and a bags tournament. They even have an ice cream truck.  They also have really nice neighbors who are always welcoming when we crash their events.

When crashing events, I like to come prepared with some kind of offering.  As I was brainstorming ideas for a dish to bring to the block party I kept thinking that I wanted to bring something that :

1. feeds a crowd,
2. is easy to transport, hold and eat,
3. is good at room temperature, and
4. keeps well.

I knew that slab pie or tart of some kind would do the trick, but I was having such a hard time deciding on what to put in or on it.

So I started to make a list of crowd-pleasing hors d'oeuvres and appetizers. You know, the stuff that everyone seems to like when it’s served at a party or event. The stuff you end up ordering at restaurants when you have a big group who can’t seem to agree on anything. My list went something like this: caprese salad (too difficult to eat, doesn’t really keep well or look pretty after a while); hummus (too boring, although I do love hummus); jalapeno poppers (best eaten when hot and not very kid-friendly); spanakopita (a possibility) and then I came up with this one...bacon-wrapped dates. I love bacon-wrapped dates, especially when they are stuffed with goat cheese.  Does anyone not like bacon-wrapped dates? I knew I had a winner.

One of the benefits of this choice was ease of execution, which, let’s face it, I am all about. The older I get and the more experience I have cooking for others, the less daunted I am by recipes with multiple steps or a lot of ingredients.  Still, I’m a big believer in simplicity and that a lot of times, simple is not just simple, but also superior in taste.  So, once I made a decision, it was beyond easy for this little tart to come together.  

Bacon Wrapped Date Inspired Tart

• 1 sheet puff pastry (10” by 15”)
• 8 oz goat cheese (chevre)
• ½ cup grated parmesan
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon of water (egg wash)
• 12 dates, roughly chopped
• 6 slices of bacon
• ½ cup chopped pistachios
• Honey or balsamic reduction for drizzling on top

Preheat oven to 375F.  Cook bacon for 8-13 minutes until a lot of the fat has rendered but bacon is not yet crispy.  The time this step takes will depend on thickness of your bacon.

Set bacon aside to cool in between two paper towels to collect any extra fat.

Turn oven temperature up to 400F.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the goat cheese, parmesan, thyme, garlic and lemon zest and whip until texture is a smooth and spreadable consistency. Add a little cream or milk if necessary to make the goat cheese mixture easy to spread.

Roughly chop bacon.

Unfold one sheet of puff pastry and crimp edges like you would a pie to form a border. Spread goat cheese mixture evenly over the puff pastry all the way to the border.

Top with bacon and dates.

Brush edges of the tart with egg wash.

Oven-ready

Bake on a rack set in the center of the oven for 20-30 minutes or until tart is evenly browned all over.

Set on a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Top with pistachios and drizzle with honey or balsamic reduction before serving.

Sliced and in transport (on my lap in the car).

Real Irish Soda Bread

I just wish you could smell this! 

I recently came across this re-creation of a 19th century recipe for Irish Soda Bread on my favorite food website and of course I had to try it. As a brown bread lover, I usually use coarse whole wheat flour for this type of bread but curiosity, combined with not having any around compelled me to try it with all-purpose. The result was fantastic. The crust was nice and crisp, not what you would suspect from a quick bread. Like brown bread, this was substantial, the kind of bread you could eat with a soup or stew and call a meal. Yes, the crust loses its crunch after being stored for a day or so, but a toaster solves that problem. I ate a few slices of this bread fresh out of the oven slathered with butter and sprinkled with sea salt.  For the next day or two, I ate it toasted for breakfast.

As you can tell from the recipe this bread is the definition of quick. My oven barely had time to preheat before I had my shaped loaf all set up in my dutch oven and ready to go. And isn’t it pretty?  I still love my soda bread brown but I can tell I will be making this again.

What I loved even more than the recipe was all of the banter in the numerous comments to the accompanying article entitled “Irish Soda Bread, as it was Meant to Be” regarding the authenticity of using white flour for this type of bread instead of the coarse whole wheat flour which would produce what we call "brown bread". While there seemed to be little controversy over the fact that most soda bread in Ireland doesn’t contain sugar or dried fruit, the use of all-purpose flour in this recipe seemed to create quite a stir. The issue of whether or not white flour was more popular than whole wheat in the mid-1800’s and to whom it was available is discussed at length in the comments.  A few of the folks commenting seem to have significant knowledge on the topic of Irish food history.  If you are a food and history nerd like me, you might enjoy it.

Aside from eating soda bread, we were celebrating our Irish heritage last weekend at the Irish American Heritage Center's summer festival in Mayfair.  We decked the kids out in their Irish soccer uniforms (courtesy of our cousins) and enjoyed some food, music and Irish dancing. Isla was particularly captivated by the Irish dancers. Who knows? We may have a budding Irish dancer in that one.  If you have never been to the Irish American Heritage Center, you really should check it out.  They have a pub that is open most nights, a gift shop, event spaces, performances, a library, Irish dance classes and more. I highly recommend a visit.  

Watching an Irish dance performance.