Plum's the Word

friends are cute.

It's Friday, and I'm struggling for clever post titles. Blame the sunshine and absolutely gorgeous weather we've been graced with this week. Work and screens keep me inside - I've tried to go outside and play as much as I can, but it gets harder as we get older. Ya know?

Got the pie back on track with a Thursday baking. This will shock no one, but I didn't read the recipe thoroughly beforehand and did not allow the dough to chill for two-plus hours. Ain't nobody got time for that! The bigger mistake made was loosely squishing the dough between a Sil-Pat mat instead of wrapping it in plastic, and it dried out a little. A lot. I broke a sweat rolling out the dough. Also, I took my food processor blade in to get sharpened, so I made the dough by hand with a pastry cutter and it worked just fine.

I upped the recipe to 1.5 times because I wasn't sure how many people would come partake with me. I'm glad I did - I had a little filling leftover, but lots of room to make sure the crostata wrapped up prettily. It took a little bit of searching to find lemon thyme, but I highly recommend it - the flavor with the plums was really tasty.

I've been heading to Findlay Market for their Findlay After 4 events- as an exercise to convince vendors to stay open later, the Market is attempting to drive more traffic for their shops. Take some time on your Thursday (between 4 -6pm) and come down and shop! So far I've bought pie ingredients at Daisy Mae's Market, Dean's Mediterranean Imports, Madison's, Saigon Market, and Colonel De's Spices. I'm pretty sure the local ingredients and small business purchases make the pies taste even better.

Liz and I snagged our pie, some snacks and blankets, and met friends up in Mount Adams for an impromptu picnic and a screening of Singin' in the Rain in the Seasongood Pavilion. It's been really rewarding to share my treats with different groups of people- and saves me from eating entire pies alone (though, let's be real... it was all gone before bedtime. Just that good.)

Tips:
Crostatas are peasant pies - perfect circles are not the aim of the game. Roll your dough in (mostly) a circle, and pile the fruit filling in the middle, leaving plenty of room to fold the crust over. I pressed down the fruit and dough after it was all folded up to spread it out, and it worked beautifully. Don't be afraid of the thyme!

Rustic Plum Crostata With Lemon Thyme, adapted from this recipe
serves 8-10
takes about an hour, hour an a half to put together, plus two hours for chill time, unless you're me.

Here's what you need:

• 1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (40 grams) whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) plus 1 tablespoon (15 grams) sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) plus a pinch fine sea salt
• 1 large egg
• Heavy cream
• 6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 3 cups sliced and pitted ripe red and black plums (about 1 1/2 pounds before pitting)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) cornstarch
• 2 tsp dried lemon thyme, or a small bunch of leaves if you can find it. In which case, lucky you because I looked everywhere!

Here's what you do with it:

• In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, pulse together the flours, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt until blended. In a measuring cup, lightly beat the egg, and add just enough cream to get to 1/3 cup. Lightly whisk the egg and cream together.
  
• Add the butter to the flour mixture and pulse to break up the butter. Do not over-process; you need lima-bean-size chunks of butter. Drizzle the egg mixture over the dough and pulse until it just starts to come together but is still mostly large crumbs.
  
• Put the dough on the counter and knead to make one uniform piece. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill for 2 hours or up to 3 days. (I chilled mine for about 30 minutes while I made the filling and it was fine. Be sure to wrap it, though!)
• Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough out to a 12-inch round (it can be ragged). Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet and chill while preparing the filling.
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• Toss together the plums, all but a tablespoon of the remaining sugar, a pinch of salt and the cornstarch. Pile fruit on the dough circle, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border. Gently fold the pastry over the fruit, pleating to hold it in (sloppy is fine). Sprinkle remaining sugar on top, with the thyme.
  
• Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the crust is golden and the fruit is tender. Cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Remove the thyme branches (some leaves will cling; you want this). Serve warm or at room temperature.