This is what I would call ” a one day cake” because that is about how long it normally lasts! Once you taste it you just keep going, you can’t stop. Plum tartness combined with sweet and tender brioche style cake, is just amazing! Yearly, about this time in late summer, as soon as I notice Italian plums on the grocery store shelves, this cake is the first to come to my mind. Dark purple Italian plums are the best, because they are firm and do not give off too much of their juice which would make the cake soggy. Incidentally we were camping last week and as we were touring the surrounding area, we stopped at the road side farm market. It is there that we found some beautiful freshly picked Italian plums.
This raised dough cake originates from Austria although it can be commonly found in German bakeries as well. Truth to be told that it is one of the cakes that I unmistakably connect to the image of German bakeries. Through my childhood I spent many summers in Frankfurt on the Main and I clearly recall irresistible appetizing look of plum squares and plum tarts overflowing the bakery window display. Plum squares come with two different types of dough, yeasty raised dough and butter crumb pie style dough. The raised dough is my personal favorite!
I hand kneaded the dough. As I already mentioned on this blog before; I like the feel of the dough on my hands and I immensely enjoy experiencing the changes and incremental progression in gluten development. It provides me with better understanding of the whole process, what is the process sequence and why, why is something working or why is it not. And that is what excites me the most! My engineering mind working in a high gear you may say.
Once you can do it by hand you can use any power gadget to make it faster and easier.
As I mentioned above this is a brioche style cake which means; it is rich, with high fat and protein content. Any time we see fat introduced to the dough, we have to be aware that fat inhibits gluten development. Therefore it is crucially important to recognize the stage of gluten development before starting to introduce fat in small increments. It can be done the other way too, you can simply mix all ingredients together at once and then just knead until done. However, this may take a very long time, perhaps more than an hour of uninterrupted kneading. Don’t ask how I know that.
The cake can be served warm or cooled at room temperature.
The recipe has been adapted from my favorite book: “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague”.
| Prep Time | 30 minutes |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Passive Time | 1.5 hours |
| Servings |
squares
|
- 40 g fresh yeast or substitute with 3 3/4 tsp active dry yeast or 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 1/2 cup organic milk heated to 40ºC (105ºF)
- 1/2 cup all purpose non bleached flour
- 1/4 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup organic milk heated to 40ºC (105ºF)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp golden Rum
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 60 g unsalted butter softened
- 1 large egg beaten
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose non bleached flour
- 680 g Italian prune plums about 20 plums; cut in half lengths and pitted
- 2/3 cup all purpose non bleached flour
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 75 g unsalted butter cut in 12 mm (1/2") cubes and chilled
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ground cinnamon pinch
- 15 g melted unsalted butter for brushing
Ingredients
Sponge
Dough
Streusel
Additional
|
|
- Add crumbled yeast to warm milk in a medium bowl, let stand for 3 minutes.
- Whisk in the flour and sugar and mix until smooth. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and keep in warm place until it doubles in volume, about 30 minutes.
- In a medium size mixing bowl add flour, sponge, milk, sugar, rum, vanilla and salt. Mix until fully incorporated.
- Turn the mixture onto unfloured counter and knead for 10-15 minutes or until gluten is developed which you will confirm by window pane test.
- Slowly add beaten egg to the dough, about a tbsp at the time. Each time knead the dough until the added egg is fully absorbed before adding more.
- Repeat the same incremental adding process and kneading with the butter making sure the butter is fully absorbed by the dough.
- Shape the soft and sticky dough into a ball, coat it with melted butter. Transfer it to a large buttered bowl, tightly cover with plastic wrap and keep in a warm place until it doubles by volume, about an hour.
- Punch down the dough. Stretch and pat the dough into a buttered baking pan 17" x 12" x 1". Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 5 minutes. If the dough shrinks stretch it again to fill the pan corners.
- Top the dough with rows of halved plums, skin side down. Cover with plastic wrap, keep in warm place until the dough looks raised and puffy, about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 175ºC (350ºF), rack in the middle.
- In a small bowl mix together flour, sugar, butter, vanilla and cinnamon. Using your fingertips prod and squeeze ingredients until crumbly.
- Sprinkle streusel evenly over the plums. Bake until the crust is golden brown, 30-35 minutes.
- Brush the warm crust with melted butter.
- Serve warm or cooled to room temperature.
No Comments