Plum pie

Perhaps it's all the thoughts of grandmothers in the last few weeks that subconsciously made me want to eat plum pie - my own grandma used to make delicious plum pies from the fruit of the plum tree in her garden.  Walking past my local green grocer's today I couldn't resist buying a box of shiny red plums for a pound, and came home and made plum pie for pudding.  I'm not sure I will ever be able to make a plum pie (or pastry) as well as Grandma could, but this wasn't a bad attempt!  It's a version of shortcrust pastry to which I added a couple of spoonfuls of caster sugar - I'm sure this breaks all the rules which say you should use icing sugar for sweet shortcrust pastry, but it worked fine!

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry

8 oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

4 oz butter, cubed

2 tbsp caster sugar

4-5 tbsp very cold water

For the filling

3 lb plums

6 oz caster sugar

1 oz butter

To glaze

3 tbsp milk

2 tbsp caster sugar

Method

1. To make the pastry, sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and add the cubes of butter.
2. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining.
3. Add the sugar and mix together.
4. Using a palette knife, stir in just enough of the cold water to bind the dough together.
5. Bring the dough together with your hands to form a smooth ball.
6. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refrigerate for 20 minutes before using.
7. Preheat the oven to 190°C and lightly grease a 9 inch round, rimmed pie dish.
8. Stone and quarter the plums and place in a large bowl with the sugar, and mix to coat evenly.
9. Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured work surface to about an inch larger than the pie dish.  Cut a 1 inch strip of pastry and fit around the edge of the pie dish, joining with a little milk if necessary, and then brush the whole edge with milk.
10. Place a pie funnel in the centre of the dish and pour the plums in.
11. Cut a hole in the centre of the pastry round and place over the top of the plums to form a lid.
12. Press the pastry edges together with your forefingers to make a fluted edge.  Brush the top with milk.
13. If you have any pastry trimmings left over, cut into star shapes and roll scraps into small balls, and place on top of the pastry lid. 
14. Brush with a little more milk and sprinkle with sugar.
15. Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown on top.
16. Serve hot with custard.