A few days ago I decided to challenge a fellow blogger, chelf, to a little food challenge. There are no set rules for the challenge except that we have a common ingredient, in this case, Plums. I decided to go with a clafoutis inspired pie.
Plum custard pie
Pie dough
2 egg yolks
pinch of salt
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom
100 grams of butter, cubed
200 grams of white flour
33ml shot of vodka to bind
300 grams of dried beans (only used as a weight).
Combine all ingredients except butter and flour and whisk them together for a few minutes to bind. Add butter and flour, combine in a food processor (or by hand if you don’t have one, it’s fine). A quick trick for rolling it out is to place it in a plastic bag and then flatten it out with a rolling pin. Cut the bag apart and place into a lightly buttered pie pan, form. Pierce the bottom many times with a fork to keep it from rising in the oven. Place baking paper over the pie dough, and cover the paper with about 300 grams of beans to weigh it down (seemed easiest).
Preheat oven to 200C, bake the dough with the paper and beans for 15 minutes, then remove the beans and baking paper, and bake the dough for 5 more minutes, then remove.
The theory is that alcohol evaporates quicker than water, thus making the pie crust more flaky and light. Or so the myth goes… :)
Pie filling
250 ml of cream
50 ml of milk or water
1 vanilla pod
1 tsp ground cardamom
3 eggs
50 grams of granulated sugar
350-400g of plums, seeded, halved
Whisk eggs and sugar together to bind. Combine all other ingredients except plums, seeding the vanilla pod and adding it to the cream. Bring the liquid to a boil and then place off the heat. Slowly pour mixture into the eggs and sugar mixture, creating a light creamy sauce. If it feels too watery, you can heat it over a pot of boiling water for a few minutes to add some heat so it starts to thicken.
Place the plums into the pre-baked pie crust, open side towards the bottom. Pour over the custard mixture and continue baking at 200C for about 20 minutes, until the egg custard puffs up / rises. Take outside and cool on a wire rack.
You can eat it warm, or chilled. Bon apetit!
And you can also look at chelf’s Plum crumble, which also looks delicious!
