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. 

Spring is Here: Breakfast on the Grill

Future Women's Irish National Team players

Isn’t it great when the good weather finally arrives? In Chicago we really have to wait for it, but we are so, so grateful when it comes. I hate that the kids are cooped up for so many months and that I feel like I’m on a never-ending hunt for indoor activities that do not involve technology. Our backyard is a postage stamp and in the five years we have lived in our house we have managed not to fix it up at all, despite our best intentions. Still, we’ve got a small garden, a sandbox and a soccer goal.  What more could you ask for? Awesome neighbors. Yep, we’ve got those too, so we’re good.

This weekend wasn’t super warm but it was sunny, and nice enough to be outside for most of the day.  Our Cousins returned home to Ireland on Saturday and we were sad to see them go. The morning after they left, immediately after Isla woke up she ran downstairs to find them.  She came back up in tears after realizing that they were really gone.

But, before they left we had a big Irish breakfast courtesy of my father-in-law and the Irish Boutique. Winston’s sausages, Irish bacon, white pudding, black pudding, eggs, beans, hash browns, and pancakes and strawberries.  Paul was inside making the pancakes and because it was nice out, I decided to do all of the meats and the eggs outside on the grill. Recently, we’ve been using our grill for more than just your typical burgers and sausages. Grilling whole chickens, a turkey breast and now, breakfast. I haven’t tried it yet but I want to make fried chicken on the grill too, since I refuse to deep fry anything in the house.

I love the days when we can eat dinner (or breakfast) outside and stay out until bedtime. I love not having to clean up the stovetop - because I’m I freak about making sure the stovetop is always clean (even though nothing else is). I also love how cooking outside gets the kids outside and gets us all talking and playing and moving more. It may be a little premature but I’m already thinking about ice cream weather and what flavors we should make this year.

She likes black pudding! 

Baked French Toast: Made with Muffins

If there is one thing I hate, it’s waste.  Food waste is the worst. Re-purposing food is a big part of my life because let’s face it, not everything works out the way I hoped it would. That brings me to muffins. Now that Eve is eating solid food she seems to enjoy feeding herself rather than being spoon-fed. So, last week I made her a batch of super-healthy protein muffins - with whole wheat flour, chia seeds, eggs, almond flour, all kinds of good stuff. She loved them.  Great.

See what I mean? CRUMBS!

What I didn’t anticipate was the mess she would make with them! Muffin crumbs everywhere. Everywhere but in her mouth or tummy I suspect. Since I put so much love and nutrition into them I didn’t want to see them go to waste - sucked up in my vacuum or in the garbage after I finally got sick of vacuuming. On a mission to save them, I came up with the idea of making baked french toast, basically bread pudding, with protein muffins instead of bread. It was so easy to do, I just cut up the muffins and soaked them in my standard combination of liquid ingredients for french toast.  I threw the whole thing in the fridge overnight and, in the morning, baked it at 350F until it was cooked through.  Let me tell you...it was a winner. With the whole family. Nothing wasted, and BONUS, all of those eggs = even more protein for my growing little ones.

Muffins, ready to be re-purposed.

I started with 4 eggs but added another one which is why the recipe calls for 5. It's a judgment call really.*

*"It's a judgement call really." This should be my motto. Who am I kidding, it is my motto.

Muffin chunks go into the egg mixture.

After soaking, a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar and it's ready for the oven. 

Even though I came up with this recipe out of necessity, I would definitely make it again. Sometimes the humblest of dishes are the most comforting.  Bread pudding was created for the same reason, to make use of stale bread. Despite it’s humble roots, these days, bread pudding makes an appearance at even the fanciest restaurants.  But I love what it represents.  

For the kids I cut small pieces of the pudding and serve with syrup for dipping. We call it french toast bites. 

Baked French Toast: Made with Muffins

Baked French Toast (the breakfast way of saying “Bread Pudding”) is a great dish to make if you are having people over for brunch.  You can follow the recipe below using muffins, bread, even croissants. If you aren't cooking for kids, add a little Bailey’s to the mix and it would be great for your St. Patrick’s day spread.

5 eggs

⅓ cup half and half or milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-3 tablespoons maple syrup (depending on the sweetness of your muffins)

½ teaspoon kosher salt

6-8 muffins

Cinnamon and coarse sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350F.

Add first 5 ingredients to a baking dish and whisk until fully combined

Cut muffins into small pieces and add to egg mixture tossing with your hands or a large spoon and making sure all of the muffin pieces are covered in egg mixture.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and coarse sugar and bake about 40 minutes or until cooked through (start checking for doneness around the 30 minute mark).