Swetschkenkuchen - plum pie

Another Claudia Roden recipe from 'The book of Jewish food'. I made it with reine claude, a variety of green plums.


Serves 6-8

125g sugar
175g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
75 g butter
1 egg
1 tbsp rhum or brandy
750g - 1kg plums

Add half the amount of sugar to the flour and baking powder and mix well. Cut the butter in dices and add them. Mix with your fingers. Add egg and rhum and work this into a nice dough - add more flour if necessary. Make a ball of the dough and let it rest while you prepare the fruit.
Wash the plums, cut them in half and remove the kernels.
Grease a pie dish with a little butter and sprinkle a bit of flour over it. Roll out the dough and put it in the dish. Spread the fruit densely over the dough and sprinkle the remaining sugar over it.
Bake for 40-50 min at 190° C until the dough is golden brown and the fruit is soft.
Eat warm or cold.

Notes
A lot of juice comes out of the fruit, but this solidifies into a kind of jelly when the pie is cooling.
I added a little lemon juice on top, which wasn't really necessary.
Claudia Roden suggests using sweet black plums or apricots.
She also suggests that you can add a crumble layer on top, made of 50 g flour, 4 tbsp sugar and 50 g butter.