SUMMER RECIPE

A typical german plum cake ("Zwetschgendatschi")

🌞 🌳 🥧

From Elli

You could drive to Knoblauchsland. But in the Nuremberg city area you can also find them here and there, hidden between two houses and relaxed reading the newspaper: Farmers who sell directly.

On my way to the new office, I discovered another new fruit farmer, where I stocked up on beautiful purple-green plums. Time for a comforting warm piece of sweet plum cake with a thick blob of whipped cream.

Ingredients for 1 tray:

**For the yeast dough

• 350 g light wheat flour
• ½ cube fresh yeast - (approx. 20 g)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 50 g sugar
• 70 g very soft butter
• 150 ml lukewarm milk
• 1 pinch of salt

**For the topping

• approx. 1500 g plums
• 1 tsp. sugar - (amount depends on the sweetness of the fruit)
• 2 tsp cinnamon

For the crumble (if desired)

• 150 g flour
• 60 g sugar
• 30g vanilla sugar (1 packet)
• 100 g soft butter
• 1 small pinch of cinnamon

**Preparing the dough (pre-dough)

Put the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Crumble the yeast into it. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of sugar and mix everything with a small amount of lukewarm milk and a little flour from the edge to a thick paste - the pre-dough.

Cover the bowl with a cloth and let it rise in a warm place for about 15 minutes, until the pre-dough has doubled in volume and forms small bubbles.

**Yeast dough

Knead the risen pre-dough with the remaining ingredients to form a smooth dough. Use the dough hook of the food processor or the hand mixer. Knead it until you get a shiny, smooth dough that comes off the side of the bowl easily.

Roll out the dough on a buttered and lightly floured baking sheet. The yeast dough base for the Zwetschgendatschi should be as thin as possible, but not crack. Press a small rim up the sides with your hands. Cover the baking sheet with the kitchen towel and place it in a warm place for about 30-40 minutes.

**Prepare the plum topping

In the meantime, wash and pit the plums and cut them into quarters.

For the crumble (if desired).

Put all the ingredients in a bowl, mix them with your hands and then crumble the dough into crumbs.

Finish

Preheat the oven to 200 °C (top/bottom heat).

When the yeast dough has risen about twice on the baking sheet, you can top it with the plums. Press them lightly into the dough, skin side down, like roof tiles. Finally, sprinkle everything with sugar and cinnamon. Now sprinkle the crumble on top.

**Bake

Put the tray in the middle of the oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

If you want to make the Zwetschgendatschi without crumble, sprinkle it with a little vanilla sugar right after baking.

The Zwetschgendatschi tastes best fresh with creamy whipped cream. A delight on late summer days.

📅 seasonal 👨🌾 regional

Season

Plums ripen in a few weeks between August and October. The subspecies of the plum is now in peak season in late August, early September.

You can find out quite easily if the plums are ripe: If they are not ripe enough, the fruit will still taste grassy green and bitter. Ripe plums can be recognized by the fact that they give slightly when pressed. If they are too soft, they are overripe. The stem base of the fruit should also be flawless and no water should escape when pressed.

The flesh color varies from green-yellow to golden-yellow, depending on the variety. After picking, plums keep only 3-4 days and should be processed or eaten quickly.

Did you know that plums are the favorite fruit of 41% of Germans? So quickly get to the plums!

We wish you good luck and bon appétit.

Have you baked our Zwetschgendatschi? We look forward to seeing pictures of your late summer plum moment on Instagram!