Plum Kuchen

Since I have a wonderful Plum tree that supplied us with an abundance of plums, I was given a delightful recipe for Plum Kuchen. Serve it with ice cream or whipped cream, which ever you prefer, but try it. You will love it!

Plum Kuchen

Pastry:

1 ½ cups flour
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp sugar
5 tbs butter
½ cup sour cream
extra flour for dusting

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease an 11-12 inch tart pan with a removable bottom.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sour cream and continue cutting into the mixture. I used my Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook. Either turn out on board and kneed by hand or allow your mixer to do it for you, until the dough takes shape.
Dust the dough lightly with flour and form into a flat round cake. Press the dough into the tart pan, pressing the dough up to the top of the fluted rim.

Filling:

1 pound of plums
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
2 tbs butter
2 tbs sugar

Cut the plums into flower shapes as follows: Beginning at the stem end, make a lengthwise slice ¾ of the way down each side of the pit. Cut the “back” seam so the plum halves remain connected on the bottom. Slit the top of each half so that the plum forms a flower shape, making four pettles connected at the round bottom.
Arrange the plums on the pastry, skin side down, forming concentric rows.

Combine the brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter, and sprinkle that over fruit.

Bake tart for 25 minutes or until the pastry is set and the fruit is tender. Cool, remove from tart pan and slide onto platter. Cut into wedges and serve with softly whipped cream.