Gather your ingredients, the milk heated slightly and add the yeast and stir to bloom.
Measure out the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl and split the butter stick in half.
We will use half for the dough and the other half for the Streusel.
Pour the milk into the flour and blend in.
Add the butter in and stir lighty.
Grate Lemon zest with a microplane, hand grater or a vegetable peeler and dice it finely with a knife.
Bring all the dough together, and knead for a few minutes to develop some gluten.
Let rise for about 1 hour; punch down and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile prepare plums and custard toppings.
Don't let the rising time put you off.
Waiting an hour for the dough to rise wasn't an inconvenience in Grandma's kitchen.
There were plums to prepare and plenty of other morning chores to be done while the dough was rising.
If you're in a hurry, you can always make a baking-powder version,
but the yeast dough gives this Kuchen a character all its own
Cover this and let it double in size.
Meanwhile prepare the fruit. filling and topping.
Cutting the Plums
The Italian Plum or the
Zwetchgen |
The pit comes out easily called a freestone. |
The Damson, or Pflaumen is a more common
plum to find in US grocery stores.
The problem is the pit clings so it is a bit more
tricky to get out.
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You can dig it out with a spoon or small paring knife
but a melon baller is a great tool also.
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Cut the plum halves into nice slices not too thin and not too thick.
if the plums are a little sour you can add some sugar and vanilla to balance the flavor.
You can pretty much press the dough into a greased glass 13 x 9 baking dish.
Cover and let it rise for until doubled.
Now it is ready to either put the fruit on dough or a trick we learned is to prebake this till it is
browned on top.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, and pre-bake the crust for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.
It gets a better oven raise this way, and browned.
If you pack it with the fruit and the custard to begin with and then bake it the crust hardly raises at all.
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You have a beautiful sturdy sweet crust to build your kuchen on.
Lay the plums in rows on top of the nice crust.
The custard just takes a few seconds to put together
Let's make the Streusel topping.
Crumb Topping or Streusel
1/2 cup (75 gr) Flour
1/4 cup (50 gr)Sugar
1-2 teaspoons (10 gr) Cinnamon
3-6 tablespoons (28 gr) melted Butter
Streusel is a flexible garnish
Some like it drier, some like it
sweeter
Let's mix up the Streusel.
I dedided to go with 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 6 tablespoons melted butter.
Here is a close up of the Streusel put together.
Now it's time to put on the custard and the Streusel.
Cover the plums with as much custard as you want.
What I like is that it seeps into the crust and makes a nice texture
after a few days
Then sprinkle crumbs and continue baking at 350° for 30 minutes longer.
the custard is set. I used the lighter streusel for this.
a You can bake a Plum Kuchen in any shaped pan, a springform pan, a sheet pan or a pizza pan even.
Here you can roll it out on a sheet pan.
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Casserole dishes like Corning Ware work perfect.
Plum Kuchen in a Springform Pan
Plum Kuchen Pizza
This is actually baked like a pizza on a pizza stone.
This is one of my favorites.
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