Plum, Hazelnut & Blue Cheese Pie

This was a good idea in theory: a plum & hazelnut pie, made savory through the addition of blue cheese. But I made some terrible errors in judgment. As a result, I believe we ate a total of four slices, and the second two were pretty reluctant. Not a success.

Prune Plum Pie with Hazelnut Topping

This is an interesting one: half-sweet, half-savory. I made this with frozen italian prune plums from the tree in our backyard's late-summer bounty. By the time they were thawed they were more prune than plum, with a deep, rich, wine-like flavor. My toasted-hazelnut topping wound up being a bit of a letdown (though I want to make sure anyone reading this is aware that toasted salted hazelnuts on their own are the most delicious snack ever in the history of the world. They just didn't shine in this context.) This pie wound up being a good dessert... but an even better breakfast. I'm going to try this recipe again soon, with blue cheese added, and make it explicitly savory.

Apple-Plum!

As must by now be pretty obvious, we collected a lot of plums from the plum tree in our yard. Thus, when it came time to make a pie for friends Jonathan and Jenny, I followed the recipe for purple plum pie that I've been using, but mixed in about half apples and some extra spices.



The results were pretty good! I added lots of extra cinnamon, some extra nutmeg, and some ground cloves. And one large apple, sliced thin, went in with the frozen plums. The result was a bit like plum pie and a bit like apple pie.

My crust, though I followed Carolyn's magic pie crust technique, wasn't perfect: despite prebaking, the bottom was still a bit soft (though, the following day, cold from the fridge, it was just fine... so maybe the problem was serving it still-warm), and the streusel-ish top came out a bit mushy. Also, I completely forgot to decorate the edges, and overall this is a pretty ugly-looking beast of a pie. But the flavor was just fine, and the ugliness didn't seem to bother anyone too much. Any warm home-made pie tends to look pretty good with some vanilla ice cream on one side and a fork on the other...

All this plum pie is probably getting boring for the two of you who read this regularly, but fear not: apple-pie season approaches, as does pumpkin-pie season, sweet-potato-pie season, and, oh yeah, creative savory pie season. Yum.

One last note: if you're a Portland resident, be aware that I just purchased a special plastic pie carrier. Suzanne was a little doubtful as to whether I would actually need to carry pie places: I protested that I want to give people pie and this will make it easier.

This means that all you have to do is ask, and I will bring you a freaking fresh-baked pie (and, for that matter, if you want me to make something in particular, as long as it's in season I'll do it). So ask for some pie. Because you deserve it.

Figgy Flop-Tart

You wouldn't know it from looking at the (pretty luscious) photos, but this fig & plum tart was a complete and utter failure. So much so that Suzanne and I could barely get through a slice apiece, even in the name of research.

Purple Plum Pies, Plural

This week: two plum pies.

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.

Plum Kuchen Tart

I still haven't decided for sure if tarts count towards my pie-a-week project, but since Suzanne was returning from a week away, and the plum tree in our backyard is nearing a complete ripeness explosion, I decided to surprise her with a plum pie, and the recipe that seemed most like what I was looking for was a tart. A Kuchen tart, to be precise. More below: