Windfall plum cobbler recipe

There's a decorative plum in the public square near our house which produces tiny, tedious, black plums. They're maximum 1 inch diameter. What's the best dessert to make with fresh plums? Plum cobbler, maybe. The plebian dessert eater in the house voiced his hearty appreciation, so it's not just me who thinks this is one of the best plum desserts ever.

In the fall, I spent many hours toting many pounds of black walnuts from a disused tree oddly located a mile away. Black walnuts are native to North America, so to find such a treasure trove here in backwoods France delighted me. This morning, I spent a good hour shelling 1 single cup of black walnuts. They make you prove your love, those rock hard shells which hold one of the most overlooked dessert ingredients and flavorful nuts available to man. If you've not eaten a black walnut, or only ever had it in ice cream (admittedly delicious), I can't recommend highly enough that you revisit that wonderful nut. And you don't have to spend a morning shelling them. They have machines for that. You can get them for around $1 per ounce, which is well explained if you know what sort of work goes into getting black walnuts from tree to table. Source below.

I've literally just eaten this cobbler, and all I can say is, WOW! The flavor pairing of black walnuts and plums was absolute genius (if I say so myself). Since black walnuts are so underused, this dessert will stump a lot of people. They'll say, 'it's wonderful, but what is the flavor?' So, without further ado:

Recipe for Fresh plum cobbler with black walnut topping. Naturally, you could use regular walnuts if you (gasp!) don't like (?) black walnuts. But you'd miss out on the very special flavor pairing. Black walnut sources: Black Walnuts, 8 oz.$7.90 Or Black Walnut Flavouring$2.25. Useful for making cakes or sauces.

Serves 4:
Topping:
1/2 cup black walnut pieces
2 ounces (1/2 stick) butter, cold
1/2 cup sugar, minus one tablespoon
1/4 cup all purpose flour
pinch salt

Filling:
2 cups plums, pitted and halved/quartered (they cook down well, so it's not a big deal) This will be around a pound, but it's pretty forgiving.
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon flour

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 F

In a mini food processor, pulse nuts and sugar together until there are no remaining big pieces of nuts. (Smell it - that's the beautiful black walnut fragrance!). Add the flour, cut the cold butter into 1/2 inch pieces and put in with the rest. Pulse until the butter is mostly broken up, but don't over mix. Set aside.

In a bowl, put all filling ingredients and mix well. Spoon into 4 ramekins or one small gratin pan or similar. This amount won't be enough for even an 8x8 dish. Place the topping on each - don't pat it down, it will take care of that. *Important* Use a baking sheet under the ramekins or pan. The boiling over properties of juicy plums are incredible. Bake until the filling is bubbling well and the topping is golden brown, around 20-30 minutes.

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream. I prefer the second, because I don't love things that are too sweet.

Poached apricots

The vast majority of fruits are better, or at least as good, fresh as they are cooked. But there are exceptions - quince aren't even edible without cooking (they won't kill you but it's like chewing wood) and sour cherries are a chore to eat out of hand but make excellent pies and especially, sweetened dried cherries. Other fruits are perfectly fine when fresh but become sublime when cooked. That's how I feel about apricots.

Fresh apricots are...okay. Their flavor is very muted even at the peak of ripeness. It's my opinion that the best thing you can do with a fresh apricot is cook it. Today I'm making poached apricots to serve with a lemon-ginger scone of my own creation, though one could certainly use the poached apricots in dozens of desserts. I was inspired by the cornmeal apricot cake in Regan Daley's phenomenal dessert cookbook In The Sweet Kitchen. What makes this dessert cookbook stand out is not the recipes or pictures, though they are wonderful. The first half of the book is a baker's resource, with pan conversions, flavor pairings, and ingredient explanations, along with kitchen tool explanations and recommendations. I've worn my copy out reading and re-reading the ingredient and flavor pairing sections, deciding what to do with my windfall apricots, plums, or hazelnuts.

After poaching, I'll reduce the syrup and store them for a few days. When the time comes, I will serve them with lemon-ginger scones. And people will swoon over my apricot dessert. For real.

Ginger-maple poached apricots recipe

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh apricots
1/2 cup maple syrup (don't use grade A - it has the lightest flavor)
1/2 cup sugar
About 1 ounce fresh ginger root
Lemon
Water

Instructions:
Wash and half the apricots into a bowl. Discard pits.
Peel and slice the ginger into 1/8-1/6 inch thick slices. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the outer zest from the lemon. Keep the rest of the lemon to make lemonade or something.
Put maple syrup, sugar, ginger, and lemon peel into a small saucepan. Add 1 cup of water, stir to dissolve sugar. Add apricots to pan, then add enough water to just cover the apricots.
Turn on heat very low - the idea is to keep the liquid just under a simmer.
Cook for 30 -45 minutes, until the apricots are still intact but soft. Remove apricots to a jar.
Boil remaining liquid with ginger and lemon peel until it's reduced to 1 cup plus a bit. It should be a pleasantly thick syrup.
Strain the syrup through a strainer and pour over the apricots, then keep them in the fridge until use (up to 3-4 days).

Coming soon: my lemon ginger scones - good with these apricots as a shortcake style apricot dessert, or on their own with lemon curd or butter.