Yum Yum, Plum Plum

Mmm...there's nothing like edible treats. Especially when making them helps you use up food that would have otherwise just rotted.
We had a large container in our refridgerator filled with mini-plums (they were called "Italian Prunes). You can use any kind of plum you want for this recipe, but I found these ones to have a really nice cherry-like taste and consistency after they had cooked.
I don't have a beautiful picture for you, because the pie was eaten and mutilated within a few hours, but I guarentee it was delicious. I stole this recipe from some website, but I tweaked it so I'm claiming it as my own! :)

Here is what you need.

Crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup salted butter (slightly chilled)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons salted butter (room temperature)
Optional: 1/3 cup of chopped nuts

Filling:
5 cups plums, pitted and sliced
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Heat your oven to 370 F
To make the crust, in medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder. In a food processor (or mixer) blend your butter until it's somewhat smooth (some texture is fine). Then add your eggs, vanilla, milk, and lemon zest and blend all those ingredients. Gradually blend the dry ingredients into this mix. If the ingredients didn't mix all the way, hand kneed them until the dough comes together. Then stick it in the fridge to chill for an hour or two.

To make the topping, in a medium bowl add the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest (and nuts if you're using them). Then add the butter and mix it all together with your finger tips until well blended and crumbly. Set this aside.

To make the filling, put your pitted and sliced plums in a large bowl. In a separate, medium sized bowl mix the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well blended. Then pour over your plums and mix until evenly coated. Set aside.

Now you can put it all together. Roll out your pie crust to about 1/4 of an inch thick. Its pretty handy to do this on wax or parchment paper so it doesn't stick to anything and you can just flip it into the pan. The pan you'll need for this will need to be 9-inches in diameter. So if you're buying special pie tins, make sure you get the correct size. Anyway, flip the dough into the pan and carefully pat down the edges (you don't want to thin them, just lower them). If you're feeling brave you can put edges on your pie, but they tend to burn for me.
Pour the pie filling in and evenly cover with the crumbly topping. Pop it in the oven for about 40 minutes (check on it after 35 minutes because ovens vary). Let it cool for a while and then dig in.

As a side note, if you're like me you will for some reason have enough dough leftover to make another pie. Well, I wasn't up for making another pie, so I just rolled these up into little balls and placed them on a cookie sheet, popped them in the oven for about 10 minutes. They're yummy little snacks because this dough is so sweet. If you're feeling adventurous you could make a little thumb print in each cookie and stuff a piece of sweetened (just sprinkle them with sugar and a dash of cinnamon) or dried fruit in the middle or just cook them with the imprint and plop your favorite jam on it later. Or, you can just cover them with whipped cream and eat them like that. It's all edible and delicious. Experiment.

Just so you know, this recipe can be used with cherries or apples as well.

Enjoy!