Purple Plum Pie

This turned out pretty delicious. Our backyard plum tree is exploding with ripe plums and we've been using as many of them as possible: jam, chutney, plum sauce, plum liqueur. (And of course plum tart from the week before last). So plum pie was the logical next step. This was a randomly Google find of a recipe, originally from http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Purple-Plum-Pie, but using Carolyn's magic pie crust techniques.




As you can see, the dough immediately turned out lovely, much different from my previous attempts (which is fascinating, because Carolyn's approach really isn't all that different from Mark Bittman's, but the results are apparently much better, yielding a more pliable dough and a much flakier crust):

You can see above, if you look closely, the marbling of the butter. The overall consistency was also much thicker and more pliable than in previous pies.

I did screw up by neglecting to measure the salt. Carolyn had casually tossed some salt in without measuring, leading me to think I could do the same. (I was in a hurry). Bad idea: the crust came out noticeably saltier than planned. Still pretty delicious though. As mistakes go (and there are always mistakes in my cooking), it's not so tragic.

(While I'm revealing Things I Did Wrong, I should point out that I tried to follow Carolyn's instructions for making delicious rolled-up-pie-dough cookies, but by miscalculation/inattention, I underbaked them drastically, resulting in sad little rolled-up raw-dough morsels).

The plum filling is tossed with lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar, and starts looking and smelling delicious pretty much immediately. Here's what it looked like in the raw shell:

Then the recipe calls for a streusel-like topping, which seemed strange (looked mushy and too floury) but tasted great (crispy and sweet... I also sprinkled a ton of cinnamon on top after taking this photo, and cinnamon is pretty much always a great addition to anything in my book).

Lastly, the baking. 

Then, the endless cooling period!

The filling turned out lovely, tart and cinnamony and richly fruity. The outer crust was amazingly good: flaky and buttery as a croissant. The bottom crust, however, dissolved until it barely existed. I'll need to work on that part next, in my ongoing quest for the Perfect Pie.