Zwetschgenkuchen- Austrian Plum Cake

I came across this recipe on Milk Street, by Chris Kimball. This is how I made it. The only change I made was to use two eggs instead of 1 large egg and 1 egg yolk. It was absolutely scrumptious and very rich. And we enjoyed it for the entire week.

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp sugar for sprinkling on top
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup salted butter- softened at room temperature and cut into pieces
2 medium eggs (original recipe calls for 1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk)
1.5 tsp vanilla essence
5-6 pluots (you can also use plums), cut into 1/8th slices. Discard pits

Method

Preheat the oven to 325F. Grease and dust a springform pan with flour. You can use a regular pan, but since the fruit it on top, you will have to be very careful when removing it from the pan and will have to flip it over again to make sure the fruit is on top.

Whisk the dry ingredients together - flour, baking powder, sugar and salt- till well combined. You can even sieve them a couple of times. Then add the butter one piece at a time and mix till the mixture starts to look sandy. Add the eggs and vanilla essence and mix the batter till it becomes a pale yellow and fluffy.

This is a very thick batter and will not flow. Using a spatula, spoon it out into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Then arrange the pluot/plum slices in two concentric circles. Then sprinkle the 2 tbsp of sugar on top of the fruit and bake for 1 hr 15 mins. Check after one hour has passed and when the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is baked.

Let it cool in the pan for 30 mins on a wire rack and then remove the springform base from the pan.

Tips

If you have a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.

Guava Jam

I had once found guava jam in the local store and having been deprived of this fruit for many many years, bought a small and expensive jar of jam. The jam wasn't that great, no real guava fragrance or taste. Fast forward a few years, we now have a guava tree and got our first crop of pink guavas. I decided to convert some of the fruit into jam and what a difference! The color is beautiful and it is so fragrant. This is a simple recipe and will perfectly preserve the fruit for us to enjoy it long after the fruiting season ends.

Ingredients 

10 guavas, cut the fruit into tiny pieces. Then push these through a sieve to make pulp and strain the seeds. you can grate it but it will be difficult to remove the seeds
Once you have the guava pulp, weigh it. Then weigh an equal amount of sugar.
Water- to make syrup - 1:1 in volume to sugar 
A pinch of salt- I sprinkled this over the pulp.

Method 
Mix together the sugar and water and heat it. Cook the syrup till it thickens, beyond the two thread stage, and just before the soft ball stage. Then add the guava pulp. Stir and mix well. It will become more fluid. Now cook this mixture till it thickens. To determine if you have the correct consistency, put a spoon of jam onto a plate and pull a finger or the spoon through it. If the pattern stays intact and the jam doesn't flow to fill the path of the finger, then you have the desired consistency.

Take it off the heat and cool completely before storing in a jar. This will take a 5-6 hours.  Refrigerate this jam. Use dry spoons when removing the jam from the jar to extend shelf life. It will be good in the fridge for a few months.

Tips

If the guavas are not ripe and soft, then boil them till they become soft before making the pulp.