Exquisite Mirabelle or Quetsche Plum Cake Recipe

Traditional family recipe for mirabelle or quetsche plum cake made from yeast-raised dough, flavoured with cinnamon and cloves, covered with ripe plums, typical of Germanic pastry making. It can be garnished with streusel to give it crunchiness.

It is necessary to choose sweet fruits but with little juice, otherwise they will strongly bleed around the cake.

The preparation of the yeast dough is essential. Unlike other recipes with a crumbly and filling dough, the process described below provides a soft and structured dough capable of withstanding the humidity of the fruit juice. It is also more digestible and can be stored longer.

Fruits:

• 1.5 kg of mirabelle plums, fresh, ripe and sweet, but not very juicy.
• 2 kg quetsch plums, fresh, ripe, but not very juicy.

Ingredients for yeast dough:

• 500 g all-purpose wheat flour T65 type,
• 260 g (1/4 litre) of milk,
• 50 g blond cane caster sugar,
• 55 g egg (1 egg),
• 25 g fresh yeast or 10 g of dry yeast (or the quantity required for 500 g of flour),
• 2 g powdered cinnamon,
• 1 g powdered or crushed cloves,
• 1 g fine salt (a pinch),
• Potato or corn starch, breadcrumbs or wheat semolina.

Yeast dough:

In a large bowl, knead with a hook mixer. Pour in flour, sugar, salt and spices, mix 30 seconds. Add the egg and crumbled fresh yeast, then pour in the milk very gradually while stirring. Knead at low/medium speed for 8 to 10 minutes (depending on the machine and hook). Stop kneading as soon as the dough has a homogenous texture, firm but soft and smooth, peeling away from the edge of the bowl without tearing.

Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and let the dough rest in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, take the dough out of the refrigerator. Butter the baking tray. Flour the worktop and roll out the dough with a rolling pin into a 40 x 30 cm rectangle. Place the dough in the baking tray. Sprinkle the dough with potato or corn starch, breadcrumbs or wheat semolina to absorb the juice of the fruit that will be released during cooking.

Assembly of the cake:

Then wash and stone the fruit. During this time (about 20 to 30 minutes), the dough will warm up to room temperature.

Place the stoned fruit in a row on the dough. Let the dough leaven for 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on room temperature. The dough should have visibly begun to rise.

Baking and storage:

Convection baking, level 2 (at 1/3 bottom of the oven), at 220° for 30 to 35 minutes.

The cake will keep at least 3 days in the refrigerator and one month in the freezer.

Streusel:

We can cover the cake with streusel to make it crunchy:

• 80 g flour (or 50 g flour and 30 g hazelnut powder),
• 53 g caster sugar,
• 53 g cold butter,
• optional: 2 g (1 rounded teaspoon) ground cinnamon or spices.

Mix the ingredients in a bowl, crushing with a fork or by hand until a very dense but crumbly consistency is obtained. Shape a sausage pudding and set aside in a cool place for 2 to 4 hours. Then, cover the cake thoroughly with small chunks of streusel on top of the fruit to be baked with the cake.

Cinnamon sugar:

For the quetsches, we can cover them with cinnamon sugar:

• 60 g cane sugar or brown sugar,
• 2 g (1 rounded teaspoon) ground cinnamon.

Mix the ingredients and sprinkle over the quetsches before baking.