Marj's Plum Pie with Whidbey Island or Kaua'i Koke'e Plums

Marj's Plum Pie by Farmer Bob, served with Whidbey Island Ice Cream.

In response to my last post on Married to Martha, Garden Harvest: Apples Tomatoes Sunflowers & Plum Tarts, Marj Dente of Kaua'i sent me an email. Not only did she thank me for the recipes and photos ("they make my mouth water"), she included a recipe for Marj's Plum Pie. 

We've known Marj for more than three decades, as she lived in Langley on Whidbey Island for many years before moving to the Hawaiian Islands. And Marj has been making her plum pie for about the same amount of time. In Langley, she had a wonderful red plum tree in her back yard that bore fruit with sour skins and sweet flesh. 

These days, Marj makes her plum pies with Koke'e plums, which she says grow on "sort of wild" trees. And like her plums back in Langley, they have tart skin and sweet flesh. She also wanted Farmer Bob to know that it would take less time than the plum tart he made, as there's no arranging of the slices. Mahalo, Marj!

The pitted plum mixture is almost ready to go into the pie shell. Photo by Sue Frause.

Bob starts to crimp the edges of his pie crust. Photo by Sue Frause.

MARJ's PLUM PIE

Make Pastry

Line a 10" pie pan (preferably glass) with pastry of your choice. Crimp edges.

Mix Together

8 cups cut-up pitted plums (no need to maintain slices, just cut up any 'ol way as flesh comes off the pit)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp almond extract

Toss together and pile into pie pan.

Topping

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 to 1/2 cup butter

Cut ingredients together 'til coarse. Sprinkle over plums

Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour inside a brown paper shopping bag atop a cookie sheet.

This is an excellent sour pie, although prune plums would be sweeter but less flavor. Serve with vanilla ice cream or sweetened whip cream. Rhubarb may also be used for this pie, but add a bit more sugar.

Note from Farmer Bob: Take the pie out of the paper bag after it's baked and place it under the broiler to brown the top a bit.