POSTS TAGGED : fruit

Torta di Susine (Plum Cake)

Torta di Susine (Plum Cake)

I may have mentioned before that I have a bit of an obsession with cookery books, there is nothing I enjoy more than an evening reading through various books and planning what I might make. One of my favourite food writers is Tessa Kiros. I discovered her books when I went to Florence on a school trip! I was wandering around Sienna and buying as much food as I thought I could squeeze into my suitcase to bring back. In one little eaterie was a copy of ‘Twelve’ a Tuscan cookbook Tessa Kiros. The thing I love most about her books is their simplicity. I’ve since bought ‘Apples for Jam’ and ‘Falling Cloudberries’

Anyway, today I made a simple plum cake from Twelve. I’m not going to print out the full recipe as I really want you to buy the book ( it’s on page 212).
But you put plums in the bottom of the tin


you whisk the sugar, vanilla and eggs together until they are pale and fluffy


You add the flour, baking powder, melted butter and milk and mix to make a batter which you pour over the plums before adding the rest of the plums on top and sprinkling with sugar


And after an hour this is what you get


Not pretty and perfect but really rather delicious

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Plum crumble

Plum crumble

I LOVE crumble. There is something very comforting about it, especially when it’s in a big bowl with some custard ( and I often give myself permission to cheat and buy ambrosia ready to heat custard) My favourite crumble is Plum crumble.

You will need
For the filling:
A punnet ( or two) of plums
A little butter and some soft brown sugar
Halve and stone the plums and arrange them in a large fairly shallow dish. Dot a little butter over the plums and sprinkle over some soft brown sugar to taste


Put in the oven at 180c for 20 minutes to soften

For the crumble topping:
100g hazelnuts
75g butter
175g flour
110g Demerara sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Put all the topping ingredients in a food processor or mini chopper and blitz


Put the topping on the softened plums and return to the oven until the topping is golden brown and the plums bubbling underneath.


Serve with custard

Apple crumble

I use a mix of about 5/6 cooking apples and 4 eating apples ( usually cox or braeburns) peeled and sliced
I add 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves and 1 teaspoon cinnamon to the apples and about 25-30g brown sugar and mix well.


I make the same crumble mix as above but often replace the hazelnuts for almonds and add a little more cinnamon to the mix

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Damsons, pears and plums

Damsons, pears and plums

There is something exciting about being given plentiful fruit from friends gardens. This weekend I had several bags of damsons, pears and plums and so got to researching and planning. I settled on damson jam and my first go at making muffins.

Damson Jam

My ingredients:
Approximately 4lbs damsons
ΒΌ pint water
4 lbs sugar

My method:
So I make jam the way my mummy taught me and I don’t remove the stones first ( that would frankly be a nightmare!)
1. I put the damsons into a pan with the water and simmer gently until the fruit becomes soft. I find it helpful to press the damsons with a wooden spoon to encourage them to break up and release the stones.
2. When the damsons have broken down it is then fairly easy to remove the stones as they come up to the surface.
(some people put the stones back in the pan in a muslin bag to help with the level of pectin but on this occasion I didn’t need to)
3. I then add the sugar and stir until it has dissolved.
4. Now is the time to bring the pan to the boil and boil rapidly for about 10 minutes until the jam sets when tested. ( I test it by putting a spoonful on a cold plate and checking if it sets when cool)
5. Now is a good time to remove any stones you missed earlier that have now appeared at the surface.
6. I then remove any scum on the surface before potting the jam and sealing it whilst still hot.

This makes approximately 6lbs of jam

Plum and Ginger Muffins


I’ve recently bought some lovely muffin wrappers so I used these for my two batches of muffins.
This recipe came from the Waitrose website http://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/s/spiced_plum_and_yogurt_muffins.html
The recipe was simple and easy. I didn’t have any stem ginger in so I left that out and added a little extra ground ginger. The yoghurt helped to keep the muffins moist but light.

Pear and Ginger Muffins

For this batch I used the recipe in Nigella Express. I didn’t make any changes and it worked well.

I probably shouldn’t boast but my mother in law texted me today to say that my muffin making experiment was a success – they were the best she had ever had! Compliment indeed!

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