Plum Muerbe Teich

                                        "Life's a pudding full of plums......"
                -W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911, of Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera fame)

 MUERBE TEICH ( plums plums and more plums)This is a new recipe for me. Good friends shared it when we were at their house for dinner, a few moons ago. I've tried it with golden plums; wayyyy too squishy. Purple plums are definitely best. You can freeze the plum halves or quarters in the summer and use them at will. Have also tried it with big fat cherries. Yum Yum. Good with coffee and tea. Really nice. A little crumbly, a little tart. Perfect.

                              BASE:

                             3 cups flour

                             2/3 cup sugar

                             1 tsp baking powder

                             1 tsp vanilla extract

                             2 eggs

                             1 cup butter

 Mix first 5 ingredients till crumbly. 

 Cut in butter with pastry cutter till dough is soft and workable.

 Press into a buttered 10 x 13 inch pan, forming a slight lip on the edges with the dough.

 “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

                                               (Carl Sagan, astronomer, 1934-1996)

 FILLING:
Cut up 24-30 Plums. 

 Lay these on the dough, tightly packed, like sardines, side by side, skin up.

 Should like really packed sardines. Waiting the topping at this point.

                                                                  TOPPING:

                             2 ½ cups flour

                             2/3 cup sugar

                             ½ cup butter

 Mix all together and sprinkle over plums to make a crumbly top.
 
 Squeeze some together to make lumpy nodules, they taste good.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for ½ hour till brown. Sometimes this cake can be underbaked if you  get a little antsy about wanting it done or depending on your oven. So watch it carefully, or the centre will be doughy. I added 6- 10 minutes to mine. Something like that.
 Mix icing sugar with a little bit of water. Place in ziploc bag. Cut the corner and drizzle over finished product if you wish. The cake does not need it, but makes it fancier depending what you want.  I like it without the drizzle. Of course, now, if you wish to pour cream over  the pieces upon serving.....THAT would be divine as well.

 "A late summer garden has a tranquility found no other time of year." -William Longford (1819-1887 4th earl of Longford)