Tag: Plum

Irish Plum Pudding

In the 11 years I’ve been writing posts for this blog, I have never posted on Christmas Day!

This year, I decided to finally rectify that and bring a recipe for a Christmas Pudding. Plum Pudding is quite a misnomer (at least to us Americans) – it does not include any plums, and pudding is actually a cake, not a custard-like substance. The method of cooking the plum pudding was new to me too; you actually steam it on your stovetop rather than bake it!

This recipe for Irish Plum Pudding is adapted from a cookbook I have owned for a while (Christmas Flavors of Ireland– paid link), although, I have to admit, I think I royally Americanized the recipe into something different. So, here’s my American Not-Plum Bundt Cake!

Note: You’ll need a 6 cup bundt pan (paid link), and a pot large enough to fit the bundt pan inside (I used a large pot I use to make tomato sauce).

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1 cup golden raisins
  • 1/4 cup dried figs, chopped
  • 1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
  • 1/4 cup candied cherries (paid link), halved
  • 2 tablespoons candied orange peel, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons candied lemon peel, chopped
  • 1/3 cup spiced rum
  • the juice and zest of 1 orange
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup stem ginger (paid link), finely chopped
  • 1 apple, peeled, cored, and grated
  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 cup plain breadcrumbs
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Optional Bourbon Butter, for serving:

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons bourbon

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Slow Cooker Spiced Blueberry Plum Butter

This may sound silly, but I woke up a few days ago and realized that summer is nearly over, and I had not canned anything! Blueberries have been particularly lovely this year, so I wanted to make a fruit butter using them as the main ingredient. I added in some plums I had and then spiced them with some autumnal flavors to mark the impending change of seasons.

The result is this Slow Cooker Spiced Blueberry Plum Butter!

Fruit butter is a jam-like product that doesn’t use any pectin, so it spreads easier than a normal jam or jelly. Fruit butters are best made by cooking the fruit low and slow, so a slow cooker is the perfect tool to make them! Although you are using a slow cooker, this recipe does require you to stir it every now and then, so you still have to stay close by.

I adapted this recipe from Food in Jar’s recipe for Slow Cooker Blueberry Butter. There are a few tools I find super helpful when canning, so I will link to those throughout this recipe, in case you wanted to know what I use.

Ingredients (makes about 5 pints, or 10 half pint jars):

  • 6 pints blueberries
  • 8 plums, quartered, pits removed
  • 3 cups sugar
  • the juice and zest of 2 lemons
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

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Grilled Fruit with Bourbon Butter Sauce #BourbonBBQ

Did you know that May is National Barbecue Month? The weather is perfect for going outside and grilling, and with Memorial Day behind us, it’s time to take full advantage of grilling season!

 

I’ve partnered with Four Roses Bourbon to make an oh-so yummy summer barbecue-themed dessert. A lot of the steps of this can be made ahead of time to make serving the dessert easy enough for a weeknight.

 

This dessert includes ice cream, grilled fruit, a spiced bourbon butter sauce, and toasted pound cake pieces… what more could you ask for?!

Ingredients:

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup Four Roses Bourbon Yellow
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 star anise
  • 1 cardamom pod (crushed with a knife)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 peach, quartered and pitted
  • 1 plum, quartered and pitted
  • 1/5 pound cake (~2 oz) cut into small cubes
  • vanilla ice cream

Continue reading Grilled Fruit with Bourbon Butter Sauce #BourbonBBQ

Plum Swirled Cheesecake Bars

This recipe for Plum Swirled Cheesecake Bars is a result of me going a little off the grocery list last time I went food shopping. Have you ever seen an ingredient in the supermarket and decided you just have to make something with it? This happens to me quite a bit.

Unfortunately, I normally do not have a recipe lined up to take advantage of my new purchase. I wanted to take a break from some peach recipes I’ve been making recently (Brown Sugar Cinnamon Peach Pie, Peach Cobbler, and Bourbon-Peach Lemonade to name a few) and focus on a relative of peaches: the plum. I haven’t worked with plums much in the past (I actually only have once recipe: Plum Sweet and Spicy Chicken) but I just could not resist how great they looked!

I decided to take a Martha Stewart recipe for Apricot Cheesecake Bars and instead make my own Plum Compote as a substitute for the Apricots, resulting in these Plum Swirled Cheesecake Bars.

Ingredients:

Plum Compote:

  • ½ cup port wine
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise
  • The zest of one orange
  • 6 plums, stones removed and sliced

Cheesecake:

  • 18 graham crackers (I used cinnamon graham crackers)
  • ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla powder (I used Nielsen Massey)
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract (I used Nielsen Massey)
  • Coarse salt, to taste
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature

Continue reading Plum Swirled Cheesecake Bars

Plum Sweet and Spicy Chicken

Certain foods just seem to be ingrained in what we thing about certain cities, countries or regions. The South is known for its barbecue (which is different state to state), Italy is known for its pasta, Philadelphia is known for its cheesesteaks… you get the idea. I was recently sent a cookbook that plays off of this idea of a region’s traditional foods: The Yankee Chef: Feel Good Food for Every Kitchen by Jim Bailey. The cookbook is filled with traditional New England fare, from pot roasts to chowder, but also gives a “Yankee” spin to other foods, such as Lobster Fried Rice.

Jim, the Yankee Chef himself (or, more appropriately, third generation Yankee Chef) fills the pages of the cookbook with background stories, tips, and a bit of humor, which had me reading the cookbook page by page. Not to mention, the photos are breathtaking! I wish my photos looked like the ones found on these pages.

I wanted to test out one of his recipes so I went for the Plum Sweet and Spicy Chicken because I don’t think I’ve ever made anything like it, and it sounds fantastic! I altered the recipe so that I didn’t have to cook a whole chicken and added some fresh seared plums to top it off. I also made a quick homemade chutney that I thought would highlight the plums in the dish.

Ingredients:

Chutney:

  • 2/3 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, divided
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 strip of orange peel
  • 1/4 cup red wine
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger
  • 1 tablespoon golden raisins
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 1/2 each lemon and orange, sliced
  • the juice of the other 1/2 of the lemon and the orange
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Chicken:

  • 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 chicken breast and 1 leg (multiply as needed)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 1/2 cup plum preserves
  • 1/4 cup cranberry-citrus chutney (recipe below)
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
  • 1 plum, sliced

Continue reading Plum Sweet and Spicy Chicken

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