Pflaumenkuchen: Stefan's Version and a Recipe

We obtained a recipe from our neighbors for their tasty version of Pflaumenkuchen. Usually you make it on a large baking tray, but this version is made in a springform pan. It was DE-LISH! We were wanting to try the recipe out ourselves, but because I was busy working on something else, I encouraged Stefan to use his vacation time to try baking something himself. I've only seen him make one cake since I've known him and it was a minor disaster, so I wasn't sure how this one would go over, but he was desperate for some kuchen!


I think it turned out fantastic, much better than my lame picture would indicate! It was just the right amount of sweetness. He whipped up some fresh cream and we were in heaven! We had two slices each before deciding to save the rest for our trip down to the Prices the next day. I said they had to try out some real, homemade, German kuchen. If you want to try it out yourselves, here's the recipe:

Pflaumenkuchen (Springform version)
**copied from hard-to-read German handwriting, sorry for misspellings. I tried to convert things to Imperial for those of you in North America.**

• 200g Mehl / 1 and 3/4 cup flour (see note below)
  
• 125g Zucker/ 2/3 cup sugar
• 125g Butter / 1 stick of butter
• 3 Eier / 3 eggs
• 3 Eßlöffel Milch / 3 T milk
• 2 gestrichene Teelöffel Backpulver /2 level teaspoons baking powder
• 1 Citroback (Schwartan =AGrieb 1 Zitrone) ** we didn't know what this was, but we added a large splash of lime juice because it was the only citrus we had on hand; it worked fine.
• ca. 1200g Pflaumen (Zwetschen!!) 2.7lbs plums. This calls for a certain kind of plum that's more long and oval shaped as opposed to the typical round plum. The oval plums aren't as sweet as the round ones. I suppose you could just use the round ones and see how it comes out. I'm not sure I would mess too much with the sugar that's already listed since the batter for the cake isn't really excessive in any way and you need the chemical reaction that the sugar provides.
  

Den teig verteilen auf Boden and Rand der Springform.

Spread the batter on the bottom and a little up the sides of the pan. I greased and floured mine beforehand. Also - no directions were given for mixing up the batter. I told Stefan to cream the butter and sugar first, then add wet and then dry ingredients. He later told me he ignored me and just dumped it all in at once and turned the KitchenAid on. Hm. Well, it still turned out just fine!

Die Zwetschen waschen, abtrocken, längs aufschneiden (nicht zerschneiden!). Kern entfehlen, jede Hälfte 2x einschneiden und diese Pastien (picture drawn looks like shark teeth). Dicht an dicht aufstellen.

Wash and dry the plums. Cut them lengthwise and remove the pit. You're supposed to cut the halves so they have a jagged edge, like hand-drawn shark's teeth. We didn't really get that. Then push them in a little on top of the batter.

In Backofen, 180C, bis der Kuchen einen braunen Rand hat (ca. 30 min).

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, until the edges are brown. We ended up cranking our oven to 375 because 30 minutes wasn't long enough. I'd say we had it in for 45 minutes total, with the last 15 minutes being at 375. Ours was golden on top and cooked in the middle. It came out moist and just perfect!

Serve with lightly sweetened, freshly whipped cream. (anything else would be criminal)

*Flour here in Germany is different. When I use an American recipe that calls for 1 cup of flour, I have to add 1 and 1/3 cup of regular German flour to get the same consistency. You may want to remove a heaping third cup of flour from the amount listed above if you use regular American flour.