J.R. Johnson

Yesterday: a pretty fall day + road trip + Les Fruits du Poirier pick-your-own fruit farm = fun 🙂

This particular farm has the usual apples, pears, raspberries, etc. but they also specialize in the less usual. Not everything was in season, but they also grow fruits like haskap, sea buckthorn, gooseberries, and northern kiwi. Yes, that kiwi! The northern variety is smaller than the imported variety you find in stores, but it is sweeter, with thinner skin and no fuzz, which means it doesn’t have to be peeled. 

We had to look up half of what we saw, either because we didn’t recognize the plant or because we’d never heard of it before (jostaberry?). We used a click to ID app called Picture This (free to use but you have to navigate a maze of “sign up now!” screens, but I’m sure there are others.

The day was beautiful and it was great to get outside and into the country. Recommended.

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Today: baking.

I had some plums waiting for a recipe, and I ran across this one for plum torte. The original was a wildly popular New York Times recipe that ran for years. This version is slightly modified and includes comments to help triangulate your own changes.

Best Plum Torte Recipe – How to Make Marian Burros’ Purple Plum Cake

It’s easy and delicious. There’s a little magic involved. The fruit starts on top but slowly sinks into the batter and turns into a delicious, jammy treat. Of course I added a few minor adjustments.

I made a plum version a few days ago, and today I made a plum with cinnamon, a peach with cinnamon and cardamom, and two mixed berry* tortes with cinnamon and just a splash of Grand Marnier. They also freeze well.

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Fruit Torte

(by way of Food52’s adaptation of Marian Burros’ Purple Plum Cake)

— makes one 8″ or 9” layer

Ingredients

• 120g / 1 C. all-purpose flour, sifted
• 5g / 1 t. baking powder
• pinch salt
• 150g / 3/4 C. sugar
• 115g / 1/2 C. butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 t. vanilla (or somewhat more Grand Marnier)
• ~ 150g of fruit (see note)
• ~ 2 t. sugar and ground cinnamon for sprinkling

Directions

• Heat the oven to 350° F. 
• Prep an 8 or 9-inch cake pan. I used a round of parchment paper and buttered the interior, then dusted bottom and sides with a mix of sugar and cinnamon to avoid sticking.
• Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
• Cream the sugar and butter until very light and fluffy, about 5–7 minutes with my mixer. I recommend mechanical means unless you want to be there all day.
• Add the dry ingredients, eggs and vanilla all at once, and beat until combined, scraping down the sides a couple of times.
• Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Arrange the fruit on top of the batter. Sprinkle the top with sugar and cinnamon.
• Bake 40 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in its pan for 10 minutes, and then remove. Invert onto a cooling rack, then flip back onto another rack to finish cooling.

Notes

— The recipe called for a springform pan but they aren’t my favorite. (Although it would make cooling easier.) I used a 9” cake pan.

— Fruit options: this recipe has worked with every kind of fruit I’ve tried so far. Plums, peaches and pears are all very good. Pit and quarter lengthwise if small or chop into smaller pieces. Berries are also excellent, and I’ve had great luck with frozen blueberries although starting from frozen added a few minutes to the baking time. For any of these options, if the flavor’s flat then season with a little lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon to taste. Grand Marnier is also very good with berries. Just saying.

— One batch of batter weighs ~475g, in case you’re doubling the recipe.

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* In addition to pints of red raspberries, yellow raspberries, pears, apples, and kiwi, we picked up a haskap pie (no judgement, they were baking and it smelled amazing), and a frozen bag of haskap, red and white currants, raspberries, gooseberries, and Saskatoon berries.

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