Plum Buckle with Pecan Topping Recipe
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This classic American dessert is most commonly made with blueberries, but we switched it up with plums and a pecan topping. Serve with whipped cream, ice cream, or yogurt.
Game plan: For the batter, have the eggs and butter at room temperature before starting.
See other recipes for summer fruit desserts, like cobbler, slump, and pandowdy.
This recipe was also featured as part of our slideshow of picnic recipes.
For the topping:
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/4 stick), plus more for coating the pan
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch fine salt
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
For the batter:
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick), at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 pound (about 5 whole) plums, pitted and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
- Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Coat an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with butter and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, using a pastry blender or your fingertips, work the brown sugar, flour, measured butter, cinnamon, and salt until the ingredients come together but some pea-size pieces remain. Stir in the pecans, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use.
For the batter:
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl until evenly combined; set aside. Whisk together the milk and vanilla extract in a small bowl until evenly combined; set aside.
- Combine the sugar and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until light in color and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time, letting the first completely incorporate before adding the second.
- Add a third of the flour mixture and mix on low until just combined; scrape down the sides of the bowl. Pour in half of the milk mixture and mix on low until just incorporated. Repeat, alternating dry and wet ingredients and ending with the dry ingredients, until completely incorporated.
- Remove the bowl from the mixer, fold the plums in until coated and evenly distributed, and turn the batter into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the reserved topping evenly over the batter and bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown, about 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool at least 20 minutes before serving.
Beverage pairing: Jackson-Triggs Vidal Icewine, Ontario. Somehow Jackson-Triggs manages to pull off great ice wine at an incredibly reasonable price. Smelling of tropical fruit, mango, and peaches, the wine is very sweet, but perfectly balanced by potent acidity. This makes it a good match for the plums, which can often show the same characteristics.
DustyOR, I didn't test berries in this recipe, but most buckles are made with fresh blue berries so in theory it could work. Not too sure about using frozen berries because folding in frozen fruit may cause the batter to seize up. Thawed berries can be too watery with a significant texture loss making a soggy crumb. Try your frozen berries in these scones instead. http://www.chow.com/recipes/28560-ras....
Amy Wisniewski, CHOW
Wonder if it is possible to use berries in this recipe instead of plums?? I have a mixture of blueberries, marionberries, blackberries and raspberries which are frozen.
So what do you think??
benhalterci:
In the UK, use Maldon sea salt flakes instead of kosher salt for pretty much the same result - it also has nice large crystals. Measure the same amount of Maldon salt out as the recipe calls for kosher salt, but then crush it up a bit with your fingers before actually adding it to your baking, as otherwise you can find large flakes of salt in the finished product - nice in salted caramel, not always so nice in other things.
Here you go trish.
Hope this helps: http://www.chow.com/stories/10784?tag...
Could someone please reply with the conversion for Kosher salt? It is NOT available in NZ either. ta
Trish of Paekakariki
It looks great but I can't get hold of half the ingredients here in Turkey ESPECIALLy kosher salt!!! It isn't the first time Kosher salt has been mentioned as an ingredient and even in the UK you have to search hard to find it.
I wonder abot increasing the eggs to three and reducing the flour to 3/4 cup to improve the texture. Also using raw sugar to add a little caramel taste
I made this again, am somewhat disappointed and remembered that I had afterthoughts last year. The cake is bland, and I think it is undersalted. My favourite similar recipe, using rhubarb has 1 full teaspoon of regular salt in the cake for the same proportion of flour, sugar and eggs, as well as the additional salt in the topping. I will increase the salt next time or just make the other recipe.
This is THE most scrumptious recipe I think I have ever made. Truly better than BAKERY bought. I had to substitute WHOLE WHEAT flour and BLUEBERRIES. Will try it with PLUMS next...
thanks for the great website!!!
I made this for a dinner and it was very good. I actually made two versions, the plum version (I used Italian prune plums) and then a nectarine version for my sweetheart who doesn't like plums so much. For that version, I just laid the nectarines on top of the batter and covered them with a bit of the streusel.
Both were very good. A nice basic coffee cake. Not too rich. Just right with the fruit.
Doubled the recipe in a 9X13 and used walnuts, baked for a 1h10 minutes or more, came out very nice overall.
I used the Kosher salt despite my doubts because I couldn't be bothered to look up a conversion. As I anticipated, using the large-grained salt in the streusal led to some salt flavour bursts from undissolved granules. This was not horrible or anything, but I will continue to use regular salt for baking. I also do appreciate it when recipe testers do a loose volume measurement of the ingredients they list by weight. My plums were prepackaged by volume.
Why specify Kosher salt in a dessert? I think it's irrelevant here.
From the illustration, the cake looks good, but could use at least twice the amount of fruit.