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There are few things as lusciously deep red as baked plums in their own juice. I am a huge fan of plum tarts but didn’t have enough time last Sunday evening to make the pastry and pastry cream or nut filling so I opted instead for an easier plum crumble recipe that I had spied a few weeks ago. It was an experiment. And I must say it worked utterly brilliantly. Less than 10 minutes of prep work 
needed, less than an hour in the oven and it turned out like a plum dream. I even had leftover crumble mixture so I hastily threw together two mango crumbles and they tasted just as spectacular. This basic recipe, from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook, with some alterations, is very doable now that plums are coming out of our ears in the good local groceries and one kilo of plums at PHP175 could easily make enough crumble to satisfy ten jaded diners… Why I haven’t found a single restaurant in Manila that doesn’t offer this as a seasonal special…Â
To make, butter one large or two medium sized ceramic dishes. You can also make these in individual ramekins. Obtain about a kilo or slightly more of firm but ripe black plums. I actually used a mixture of red and black plums to obtain different colors, textures and varying degrees of sourness. 
To ensure ripeness, buy firm plums at the grocery and leave out on the kitchen counter for 1-2 days until slightly soft and you can smell the plum fragrance when it is placed near your nose. Then remove the pits and cut the plums into eighths and place in a bowl, skins and all. Spritz them with the juice of half a lemon and add ½ cup of white sugar and two tablespoons of cornstarch and toss gently. Add some freshly ground cardamom if you happen to have it, I didn’t but it still tasted good.Â
Meanwhile, in another bowl, make the crumble. Whisk or mix together 2 and ½ cups of all purpose flour, ¾ cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup white sugar, ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon salt. Cut in 1 and ¼ cups cold unsalted butter with two knives and mash it a bit more with your fingers until you have an uneven crumble.  Actually, I think it should be thicker near the sides as I found that 
It shouldn’t be too uniform or smooth. Don’t overwork the butter or it will melt. Mix in ½ cup of old fashioned oats. Now, sprinkle the crumble over the plums evenly. I put too much crumble in the middle and from the weight of it, it sank and pushed some of the bubbling plum juices up over the sides of the dish. It still looked great and tasted even better. Bake until the juices are gurgling and the crumble is a light golden brown, I took it out after about 50 minutes at 375 degrees F.Â
Let it cool a bit and serve it warm. I served it with lots of whipped cream but a nice vanilla ice cream would pair well with this dessert. It was really very good. Tart/sweet and nice texture from the plums combined with the crumble. Very easy to make, 
this recipe will easily serve 10. I will definitely make this again. I found I had a little extra crumble so I diced up two mangoes and mixed them with a little sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch and put them in a buttered ramekin and topped them with crumble. I found the resulting dish to be delicious, though it was drier than the plum version. The next time, squeeze some mango juice onto the mangoes to ensure more of a saucy result. I suspect this can be made with peaches, raspberries and Ms. Stewart also suggests pears…
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Why did the photos shrink?!? Another technical glitch perhaps?
Yup, I still haven’t figured out posting under this new version…I hate technology sometimes…Â Arrrgh, why can’t I get a photo on the summary page…
I will try to have my bitter-half bake this next year when the mariposas from our tree are a plenty.
Keep those recipes and photos coming, MM.
I alredy sent a text msg to my broter-in-law to check out MVH’s budbud kabog in Salcedo. I hope to be able to buy and taste them in November.
I loved fresh plum but don’t know how to make any fancy dishes. Maybe you can share some of that?
I love plums but cant seem to pick “ripe” ones (based on plums i had in the States one summer)…any tips on how to pick good ones from the bunch? i always seem to get firm but tasteless (neither sweet nor sour) plums…
I make crumbles quite often. Apple crumbles, anyway. Sometimes peach. I will try plum next time.
I like humble homey desserts like this, something that does not call for multiple components requiring meticulous assembly into tottering towers that colapse as soon as you dislodge a wrong element. Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts is my mother lode.
Glad the misunderstanding has been quickly smoothed over although enjoyed the fleeting disturbance. There is an area close to Mount Samat where the ground that does not give you a thud when you stump your feet but rather a resonant echo. The place is called Kabog-kabog, different from what we call bats which is kabag-kabag.
yummy. . . I always do peach crumble at home using canned peaches, very easy to make. . . canned peaches were on sale at hi-top supermarket the past months, 40 pesos per can. . . thats why I always purchase, the brand is JemJ and for me it’s far better than the pricey del monte which has very fragile peach halves. . .
same as booey, i always seem to get tasteless plums, i’ve given up on them for the moment. but the ones in your photos look absolutely scrumtious! a mango-strawberry crumble might be good, too. i like to serve warm apple crumble with good vanilla ice cream.
Yum! I love crumbles, crisps, cobblers. Call it what you want, the combination of fruit and the oat and/or sugar crunch topping is delicious. I wish I could reach into the screen and get a spoonful of your plum crumble!
I love plum crumble. Yum!!! I didn’t know you can get plums in Manila nowadays.
I can alter computer code! I have been mired in minutiaie so that the posts come out looking like they used to. I’m getting there… Naz, I hope you like the budbud kabogs. Nila, this is about as fancy as I get with plums. The only other thing I like to make is a plum tart. And my sister makes brilliant damson plum jam. Booey, in the Philippines, most plums are imported underripe. I look for the firm ones that have nice skins…then the trick is, DO NOT refrigerate them. Either keep them on the kitchen counter or place them in a loosely sealed paper bag for a day or two until they start to ripen and you smell them. That’s the best you can do over here when the plums are so far from home. But I have to say, the crumble above turned out brilliantly so I got pretty good plums at Rustan’s grocery. Fried neurons, with all the fruit in your area you might want to try an APRICOT crumble…yum! Apicio, I too look for the homier desserts as their flavors seem purer to me… the towering desserts are best left for restaurants…but wait, keep an eye out for towering dried fish out soon… Any chance that kabog-kabog spot near Samat is near that huge cross to commemorate the Death March or WWII? Wilson, that reminds me, I have nearly expiring peaches and apricots canned in the pantry… millet, follow ripening instruction above. Christine, it was superb warm and oddly, I even like it cold two days later! Elna, yes, there are imported plums when they are at the height of the season in California…
This is interesting, just last weekend I made Berry Crumbles. A friend from California gave me some punnets of different berries, it was delish. What I did was I lined the dish with crumbles then poured the lemonized fruits then topped with more crumbles.Then served with vanilla ice cream…yummy!!Parang pie na! hehehe My niece’s loved it.
I like plums and I’m delighted finding it at the Rustan’s supermarket for a cheaper price than at the Salcedo market but I never tried cooking with plums. I have to try this and probably plum tart too! Thanks for giving me an idea how to enjoy plums!
we had some almost overripe plums here that no one wanted to eat and by fate stumbled on your post while googling plums. i modified the crumble recipe a bit to suit what i had at hand but still turned out delicious (though a bit too sweet, i should cut down the sugar). here’s a link to the photo https://www.flickr.com/photos/weye/2806380215/
thanks again!