Pie making has always both excited and intimidated me. On one hand, it’s a perfect dessert. The balance of a flaky, buttery crust with endless possibilities and combinations of fillings. Any pie can be made a la mode with your favorite ice cream, which makes it one of the best desserts in my opinion. On the other hand, have you seen some of the pies on Pinterest and Instagram?! How do you craft such perfection?! I honestly don’t understand how you make the crust look so beautiful. It’s really an art.
My creative side really comes out when it comes to pie. This time it wasn’t necessarily with the design (I really have to work on that…) but with the filling. I used my favorite pie crust recipe and really wanted to do something exciting for the filling, not exactly classic. So of course I went to alcohol. 😉 The fruit we happened to have on hand at the time was plums. And this is how plum rum pie came to be. 🙂
Plum Rum Pie
Ingredients
FAVORITE PIE CRUST:
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) very cold salted butter
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/3 cup very cold coconut oil
- 6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water
PLUM RUM FILLING:
- 2 pounds (about 6) red or black plums
- 6 tablespoons rum
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean powder or whole vanilla bean
- Peel of one lemon
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- Dash of salt
Instructions
- FOR CRUST: Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place measured coconut oil in the refrigerator as well.
- Place the flour and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and coconut oil. Pulse 10-12 times, until the butter is the size of peas.
- With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball.
- Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan. Repeat with the top crust.
- FOR FILLING: Slice plums, skin on, into ¼ inch slices and place in a medium saucepan. Using a vegetable peeler, peel half of the lemon into large strips avoiding too much white pith.
- Measure 3 tablespoons of rum into a 1-cup measuring cup and full the rest with water. Add rum/water, sugar, vanilla bean powder, and lemon peel to the saucepan. Stir to combine. Sprinkle the cornstarch over the plum mixture and gently stir to combine.
- Cook over medium-low heat until the sugar has dissolved and mixture has thickened, 8-10 minutes.
- Remove the strips of lemon peel. Cool to room temperature before filling pie.
- For a shine and light browning, brush crust with an egg white that was lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon of water. Bake at 375 degrees F for 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Enjoy!
Thanks for visiting Will Bake for Books! ♥
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