Zwetschgendatschi - Bavarian Plum Cake

After a very eventful, but fun wedding weekend, I'm very excited to bring you this recipe from the NPR website. Gesine describes this zwetschgendatschi (aka the most fun thing to say ever) - Bavarian plum cake - as the perfect bite of plum, and I couldn't agree more. The crust is like a big, crumbly, buttery sugar cookie - and the extra dough makes a delicious crumbly topping.

I think that's one of the things I like about this most. For most crumb-topped desserts, it requires a separate step, which I sometimes just don't have the energy for. But, not this one. The plums disintegrate a bit and form a jam-like topping. It's heavenly.

I also learned during this whole process that you can make your own sweetened condensed milk, which doesn't include any milk, which strikes me as odd - but I'm not questioning it because I hate when a recipe calls for a small amount of a random ingredient.

This is definitely a dessert I would serve room temperature with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream. It's surprisingly quick to make, and is absolutely gorgeous. I love the contrast between the deep, dark purple of the plums. Anyways, here's the recipe. Enough rambling!

Recipe adapted from Gesine Butlock-Prado on NPR

Ingredients:
1 c. flour
1/2 c. cornstarch
1/4 c. white sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. cold unsalted butter, cut in chunks
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk (or 1 1/2 Tbsp of mixture [1 egg white, 1/4 c. brown sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 Tbsp flour, 1/8 tsp. baking powder, 1/8 tsp. salt])
1 tsp. vanilla
19 plums

Directions:

1. Mix flour, cornstarch, white sugar and salt in a bowl. Rub cold chunks of butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse cornmeal.
2. In a small bowl whisk egg yolk, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients until a dough forms.
3. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface. Press the dough into disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch fluted tart pan with nonstick cooking spray. Crumble the majority of the dough into the pan and press it into the bottom and up the sides until there is at least 1/8 inch of dough on the bottom and all sides. 
5. Cut the plums in quarters and remove the pits. Arrange on top of the crust. Crumble the remainder of the dough on top of the plum. Bake for about 45 minutes until the crust is golden brown.