Making the delicious most of a seasonal fruit: Italian Prune Plum Crisp

Briefly-in-season Italian prune plums are the star of this luscious, sweet crisp. Recipe below.

WE’VE BEEN MAKING A LOT OF FRUIT DESSERTS LATELY, and for that reason we almost did not post this one. But it is so, so wonderful, so gorgeous and tasty and the stuff of dreams, that not telling you about this would be wrong. It would just plain be wrong.

These days, a lot of fruits are available year round—strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, pineapples, bananas of course, grapes, apples—all untethered from the seasons and adorning the store shelves. But Italian prune plums are different. They are among the few fruits only available for a few short weeks, around now.

For eating out of hand, prune plums are merely eh. In commerce, they are mostly used to make dried fruit. But for the home cook, they are so rewarding. In fact, while they’re in season, you may want to take a look at some of our other recipes: a simple Plum Cake, a Maple Syrup Olive Oil Pound Cake and Plums Poached in Wine, or on the savory side, Grilled Pork Chops and Italian Plums.

This crisp is possibly my brand new favorite, though, because it is almost entirely about the fruit—the sweet, luscious, marvelous fruit. Try this recipe now—in a moment, they’ll be gone.

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Italian Prune Plum Crisp

Briefly-in-season Italian prune plums are the star of this luscious, sweet crisp.

Course Dessert

Servings 6 to 8 or so

Ingredients

For the plums:

• 3 pounds ripe Italian prune plums, pitted, quartered, and the stems discarded
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 3 tablespoons Chambord, Kirsch or another fruity liqueur

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

• Butter a deep baking dish. We used a 3-quart CorningWare oval casserole.
• Prepare the fruit. Put the sliced plums in a medium bowl, sprinkle on the brown sugar and flour, then the Chambord, and mix it all together with your hands until it creates a smooth, thick sauce. Pour the fruit into the baking dish.
• Prepare the topping. Put all the topping ingredients into another bowl and mix together with a pastry fork or your hands. Blend together to make a uniform coarse meal.
• Scatter the crumb topping all over the fruit. You may not need it all—save any leftovers in the fridge because you likely are going to find a use for it very soon, such as making this recipe yet again.
• Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Put the baking dish in the oven and set a timer for 40 minutes. It is done when the fruit is bubbling away briskly around the edges and the topping is turning golden. Let it sit until it is not blazing hot. It is lovely when it’s warm, it is lovely at room temperature and, to be honest, it is also lovely ice-cold, straight out of the fridge, on a suddenly hot day or when you just cannot be bothered to pop this in the toaster oven for a quick reheat.