Recipe of the Day: Baked Stuffed Plums

 

“What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum 

for want of courage to shake the tree?” -- Logan Pearsall Smith

For about a year now, Reader, I've been longing to make something--anything--with baked plums. It began when my Oct* 2012 issue of Tea Time magazine arrived bearing this luscious-looking Plum Cushion recipe, which I'm still longing to make.

Fast-forward to this weekend when I had a friend coming over for tea and was still searching on the morning of for a proper dessert to pair with my harvest-themed menu. It finally seemed time to give baked plums a try. So I ran to the local market, snapped up some fat, juicy plums and darted to the dairy aisle for creamy neufchatel.  Once home, I set the oven to 350 degrees and began to prep my as-yet-to-be-determined plum dish. Below is the ridiculously simple and delicious result.

Ingredients: 

• 4 large plums

• 1 8 oz block of neufchatel, softened (can substitute cream cheese, if you prefer)

• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

• 1 vanilla bean pod, scraped with seeds reserved (for more on prepping vanilla beans & uses for the leftover pods, click here)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a small baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine neufchatel and the reserved vanilla bean seeds. Set aside.

Using a cutting board and small paring knife, cut a round opening in the top of each plum wide enough to allow for easy stuffing. Then remove the pit, leaving as much of the interior flesh intact as possible.

Sprinkle the interior of each plum with some of the dark brown sugar.

Then stuff the plums with a generous dollop of the vanilla neufchatel cheese mixture and sprinkle a bit more brown sugar on top.

Bake the plums on the prepared baking sheet for 15-20 minutes or until plums are tender.

Serve immediately.

What I love most about this dish is the creamy, tender, not overly-sweet piping hot combination of flavors that meets your fork and knife as they glide through the thick flesh of the plum. This is a rich-feeling dessert that won't leave you in a sugar coma. 

Make it low-glycemic by omitting the brown sugar all together. Or, for a sweeter take, drizzle baked plums with a tiny bit of maple syrup just before serving.

Recipe makes 4 servings.

(*Oct 2012 issue of Tea Time magazine not available for back order at this time.)

Plum Quote courtesy of thinkexist.com.

What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?

Logan Pearsall Smith

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/loganpears140754.html#92PmI4UfIikB6hbz.99

What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?

Logan Pearsall Smith

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/loganpears140754.html#92PmI4UfIikB6hbz.99

Recipe of the Day: White-Chocolate-Marscapone-Stuffed Strawberries

 These little gems are one of my favorite tea party desserts to serve because they're as decadent as they are flashy.  (They're also simple to make with only 3 ingredients.) Be forewarned, if you put these little darlings on your tea table, it's best to have a lot of them. Cuz one per guests is just not enough!


Ingredients:
4oz white chocolate chips
8oz marscapone cheese, at room temperature
20 large strawberries, rinsed
1-2 tsp of coconut or vegetable oil to thin chocolate, if necessary

Procedure:

• Put a small saucepan filled 3/4 with water on the stove and bring to a boil.

• Once the water is boiling, put a small glass or heat-resistant metal bowl over the top of the water to create a simple double-boiler effect.

• Once the bowl is hot, add the white chocolate chips, one ounce at a time, stirring constantly. If the melting chip mixture is too dry, add in some oil as you stir, a few drops at a time until you have a smooth but not runny consistency.

• Remove melted chocolate from heat and transfer to an electric mixer bowl.

• Add marscapone cheese to the chocolate and beat the filling on medium speed until well-combined.

• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the filling for a minimum of 4 hours, but no more than a couple days. I find it easiest to make the filling the night before a tea party and then pull it out of the fridge in the morning, so it has time to soften to a consistency I can pipe through a pastry bag.

• Once softened, spoon some of the white chocolate filling into a pastry bag fitted with the decorator tip of your choice, or if you prefer an easy and disposable solution, use a quart-size ziplock baggie and snip one of the corners (be sure to add the filling first!). Set the prepared filling aside.

• Place one strawberry on a cutting board, with the green stem facing down and using a small paring knife, cut an X in the top of each berry, being careful not to cut all the way through the berry.

• Gently pull apart the 4 sections of the berry and pipe the white chocolate filling inside until the berry is visibly stuffed with sweet, delicious  chocolate goodness.  Repeat with remaining berries and serve immediately. (These will do just fine if left on a buffet table for a bit while you visit with your guests.)

Recipe serves 10-ish.

 **Original recipe courtesy of the March/April 2012 issue of Tea Time Magazine.**