Plumble

Well I'm still waiting for the rain to stop in order to take some proper photos of grilling and burger related things, so I thought that in the mean time I'd post something else to keep you lot enthralled. This is a super simple dessert, awesome to throw together for irritatingly unannounced guests and welcome company alike. It works great with most any juicy fruit, however my Polish roots leave me partial to plum which is currently in season.

Easy Plumble

crust:
-1 cup almond flour
-1 1/3 cup 9 grain mix
  (or rolled oats if you can't find any)
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-3/4 cup butter
-3/4 cup sugar
-1 egg
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp cardamom

filling:
-4 large plums
-3 tbsp sugar
-2 tbsp flour
-1 tsp vanilla



Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees and get going on the crust. Combine all of the flours and 9 grain mix in a large bowl with the baking powder, salt, sugar, and cardamom. Melt the butter and whisk together with the egg. Add the wet stuff into the dry stuff and mush it around until you get a crumbly dough. Set it aside and grab your plums for the filling.

Wash and cut the plums into slices. They can be kind of a pain in the ass to get off of the pit, but it's worth it. Mix the plum slices with the flour, sugar, and vanilla. No, you don't need lemon or anything to enhance it - the tartness of the plums will be enough.

 Next: the assembly. Line a round 9" cake pan (or whatever you have handy) with parchment paper. I'm really lazy and tend to just crunch a big square of parchment down into the circular pan. There's no need for cutting out round shapes to fit or anything. At this point you smush down half of the crust mixture into the pan, leaving a slight lip around the edges which will eventually help keep the plums in place. Then dump in the plums and spread the slices around as evenly as you can manage. Finally, pinch off knobs of remaining crust dough to cover the damn thing.

As you can see, my dumb ass can't differentiate between plum varieties at the grocery store. Meh.

Stick it all in the oven for about 45 minutes (or until the crust has browned a little) and let cool for at least 10 minutes. At this point you can take the plumble out by inverting it onto a plate, and then repeating the practice onto your serving vessel of choice. Mmmm, lethargo-tastic.

Borgasm: part I

No, the title does not refer to a Star Trek porno - this is about burgers. Yesterday was a milestone for me: I hosted my first burger bbq. I know that sounds like an incredibly lame first, but let me explain. I always like doing things like satays, chops, and marinated veg on the grill because you end up feeding your guests things you've made. Something about just buying buns and frozen patties to turn out onto a grill seems like such a cop out to me. I'm not trying to hate on bbqs I've been to in the past, there's a time and a place for everything, but these shortcuts weren't happening at my first goddamn burgerpalooza. I figured that if I was going to do a burger spread, I would do it right. Over the next week I'll be posting tidbits which went into making the thing of beauty posted just above this paragraph. First off, the buns:

 In 2009 the New York Times ran a saliva-inducing article titled "The Perfect Burger and All Its Parts", which included a great recipe for light brioche buns from Comme Ca in Los Angeles. They were surprisingly easy to make despite the fact that I had to triple the recipe for my shindig. Also, I'm a shit baker - did I mention that before? If I can make them, you sure as hell can. They're fluffy, slightly sweet, and rich enough to make it matter but light enough to add cheese without wanting to vomit. In essence, far superior to any store or bakery bought burger bun I've ever tried. My way, exactly the way I did it, is written below and varies a bit from the published recipe in both method and measurement. If you don't trust my shifty eyes the original instructions are here

Light brioche buns
(makes 8 buns)

-1 cup warm water
-3 tablespoons milk
-2 teaspoons active dry yeast
-3 tablespoons raw sugar
-2 large eggs
-3 cups bread flour
-1/3 cup all-purpose flour
-1 1/2 teaspoons salt
-3 tablespoons unsalted butter
-egg wash  
  (1 egg beaten with a couple tablespoons of water)
-seeds to top


First mix the water, milk, sugar, and yeast in a cup and set it aside to foam up - 5 minutes should do it.

 While your yeast is waking up you can mix the two flours and salt together in a large bowl. Next Melt the butter and beat the melty goodness with the two eggs. Add the butter and eggs into the flour along with the contents of your yeasty cup. Mix it all together with your hands/wooden spoon/whatever until a dough forms.

 At this point you want to turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and knead+slap the crap out of it for 8 minutes. Then ball it back up, return it to the bowl, cover the bowl in plastic wrap and place it in a warm spot to double in size (the first rise). The original recipe says two hours, but I got away with it in an hour thanks to a warm July afternoon.

two batches - one before and another after the second rise

  Once the dough has doubled in size, split it apart into 8 equal balls and place them on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Cover once again with plastic wrap  for another rise; it really helps to lightly oil the plastic to keep it from sticking to the dough. Deja vu: the original calls for a 2 hour wait but I only needed 1.

 Pre-heat an oven to 400 degrees, and place one rack in the middle and another at the very bottom. Place a pan filled with water on the bottom rack. While the oven heats up, brush your buns with egg wash and sprinkle on some seeds if you like. I used poppy and sesame seeds.

Bake the buns until they brown nicely, about 15 minutes. Be sure to turn the pan around half way through baking to ensure even browning. Once baked, cool on a rack and get ready to make some killer condiments.

In the next post I'll follow up with roasted jalapenos, rosemary carmelized onions, and of course: home made BACONNAISE.