"Pflaumenkuchen" with whipped cream

I’ve learned that beside the normal calendar there is a meteorologic calendar which divides the year into the four seasons. How could I think that beginning of September belongs to summer? I hate wearing socks as much as I like walking barefoot and yesterday I had to make the first compromise. We went out in the evening and it was way to cold for sandals, so I decided to wear my boots without socks because otherwise I would have felt like in winter. I don’t know whether it’s the discovery of the year but wherever I complained about the cold weather some educational voice would answer “The meteorologic calendar says it’s autumn since September 1st”. Does that mean I missed my chance to make a German “Pflaumenkuchen” at the end of this summer? Give me a break!

There are many different recipes for the dough, you can make it with sponge mixture, shortpastry or yeast dough which is my favourite. It also depends on which part of Germany the recipe is from, even the name can be completely different, i.e. in Bavaria it’s called “Zwetschgendatschi”. As ususal we love it the simple way. All you need is 400 g flour, 1 egg, 125 g fine sugar, 1 cube yeast, a pinch of salt, 100 g soft butter, 150 ml lukewarm milk, 2 kilos of plums or damsons (I still don’t know the difference) and whipped cream for the topping. Give the yeast into the lukewarm milk and stir. Give flour, 100 g sugar, egg, salt, butter and yeast-milk into a bowl and mix with the kneading hooks of your kitchen machine. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rest in a warm place for 45 minutes. In the meantime wash and pad dry the plums, cut them into halves and remove the stone. Preheat the oven to 175°C. Then knead the dough with your hands (use additional flour for your hands and work surface), roll it out on a baking sheet with baking paper and let it rest for another 20 minutes.  Now arrange the plums evenly on the dough and sprinkle with the remaining 25 g sugar.   Put into the oven for about 30 minutes, depending on the size of your plums and how you like it best. Let it cool and cut into square pieces, you can sprinkle it with cinnamon and more sugar if you like it that way. Serve with enough whipped cream and a good coffee or tea. This is my personal end of summer no matter what the meteorologic calendar says. It seems that supermarkets don’t care about calendars either, I saw the first “Lebkuchen” (gingerbread) and “Spekulatius” (traditional spicy Christmas cookie) in the shelves yesterday – now I know that socks will be inevitable soon.

250g butter or margarine

3-4 tbsp caster sugar

2 packets vanilla sugar

6 eggs

a pinch of salt

1 tsp rum flavour

1 tsp lemon flavour

500g all purpose flour (type 405)

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 l milk (mostly a little more)

Mix all ingredients and whisk well. Bake waffles in waffle iron (I prefer the old style in shape of little hearts) and put them onto a grid to cool down. Don’t put them on top of each other, otherwise they’ll turn too soft. After a couple of minutes sprinkle them with icing sugar and serve them with whipped cream.