Brown Butter Maple Stewed Plums with Cinnamon – plus a note on a short autumn break

I spent the last summer day slicing up the soon-to-be last-season plums and sautéed them in brown butter, cinnamon and maple syrup. Although it is sad to know that summer finally came to an end, but this silky, sweet and sour stewed plums has left me the most beautiful memory of our glorious summer. When I finished making this somewhat comforting and warm dish, I felt like I have done my part to conclude the past summer with the most appropriate mix of flavours. The wonderful thing about this recipe is it calls for only a handful of ingredients and it takes only a little time to make. This recipe is an adaptation of Martha Stewart’s stewed plums recipe, I replaced cardamon with cinnamon as that’s what I had at home. The first time I whipped it up quite quickly as a compliment to a rich, moist chocolate cake that we brought to a friend’s at tea time the other day, and it was hit. The soft tarty plums celebrates brilliantly the intense flavour of the bitter sweet chocolate cake, match made in heaven. The second time, I served the plums with simple whipped cream and fresh mint (pictured) which allowed the delicious plums to shine. I love both versions, and I imagine the plums will be amazing with pancake and as a luscious base for a buttery crumble.

As autumn is one of my favorite times of the year, I have decided to take a short break from the blog and really enjoy the season, spending sometimes in the nature, reading good books, visiting museums and eating lots of good food. I will use this break to prioritise a few plans that I have for the next years, to rearrange my daily work schedule. So I ask for your patient, and bear with me while I am absent. There are definitely a few exciting plans in the picture and hopefully, by the end of my month long break, I will have a better idea of where things are and bring in some fresh ideas and inspirations to the blog.

Until then.

recipe adapted from marthastewart.com

Ingredients:

serves 4-6

• 550g ripe plums (I used a mixture of Damson and Friar), stoned and cut into wedges (or halves)
• 20g unsalted butter
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp. ground vanilla (or vanilla paste)
• 3 tbsp. of maple syrup
• 1 small pinch of salt

Serving suggestion:

• whipped cream
• pancakes
• ice cream
• chocolate cake
• topped with crumble

Melt the butter in a sauté pan and warm until butter is bubbling and turns slightly golden (but not burnt). Add the cinnamon stick and vanilla to the butter and remove from heat, let the mixture infused for 10 minutes.

Return the pan to the stove on medium heat, add the plums to spiced butter and sauté them for 5 minutes, stir occasionally. Remove from heat and let the fruit stand for about 10 minutes. Serve warm with any of the suggestion above.