Plum Brioche Cake

I came across this post right after we bought a basket of plums at the orchard; it looked so good, just like all the other recipes on that blog. It was just the perfect thing to do with plums after enjoying many, many of them fresh. The recipe is very simple and so good! And like any brioche type enriched dough, it’s extremely easy to work with. The recipe below makes 1 thick or 2 thin cakes, I used half of the dough and the resulting cake was thick with a wonderfully moist crumb.

• 2 tbsp warm milk
• 1 ½ tsp instant yeast
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 7 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3 large eggs
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 lb. plums
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar
• 1 egg, beaten

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt, in another bowl, lightly whisk 3 eggs, add vanilla and milk. Pour the wet mixture into the flour along with the softened butter and mix until a dough forms. Remove the dough and knead on a floured counter for about 5 minutes, the dough should now look smooth and shiny. Place the dough in a buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it stand at room temperature for about an hour.

Butter a 10 inch pie plate, halve and pit the plums, toss them with vanilla sugar and set them aside. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface, if making a thin cake, use only half and refrigerate or freeze the other half. Fit the rolled into the pie plate, creating an edge just like a regular pie, brush with the egg wash, arrange the plums over the dough and gently press them. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 6-8 hours, the dough will have risen significantly by this point.

Remove the cake from the fridge, let it stand on the counter while you preheat the oven to 410F, bake for about 25 minutes or until the plums are cooked and the brioche part of the cake is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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