Honey and Sugar Plum Spice Pie
This custard pie is filled with flavors of fresh plums and golden honey! Sugar coated plums are tossed in warming spices, seasoning this fruit tart. Make this Honey and Sugar Plum Spice Pie and taste how versatile in season plums are!
The tartness of plums mixes with the sweetness of honey perfectly in this honey and sugar plum spice pie. The two main ingredients really standout and compliment each other in this dessert recipe. Sliced plums are arranged over the custard before baking and the result is a visually stunning pie full of honey golden hues and flavors.
Who said sugar plums are only served during Christmas? Bake this fruit pie throughout the year.
Plums have a variety of culinary uses and can be used in sweet and savory recipes. The plums in this honey pie are spiced and sugared to melt in your mouth perfection, and would serve as a welcome change on a festive holiday dessert buffet.
A super easy citrus, sweet pastry crust (with almost no cleanup!)…
The technique to make the easy, sweet crust relies on 2 factors:
- Rolling the crust between plastic wrap keeps it from sticking to other surfaces. This also creates an even crust and ensures even baking (and minimal clean-up! No floured surfaces over here!)
- Chilling the dough allows it to hold its shape during baking in the oven.
Use sifted All Purpose Flour for the best results with your crust, I used King Arthur, it’s a reliable brand, that gets the job done right.
Plum Recipes Using Fresh Plums, a couple notes
Plums are an oft overlooked fresh fruit ingredient in pastry recipes, and they really shouldn’t be! Baking the fruit allows the soft flash to break down and the natural sweetness comes out, covering the sometimes tart thick outer skin. Baking plums also allows them to keep their delicate shape and results in beautiful colors.
Each Peach, Pear, Plum…which variety to use?
For this recipe I used Black Plums, they were the fruit I had on hand and worked wonderfully in this recipe. You can use any larger plums you come across for this pie, the spices I used are versatile and work well with a variety of flavors. I would not suggest using smaller damson or sugar plums, the spiced sugar coating needs to cover the sliced fruit sections and it will be rather time consuming to halve and pit all of those little plums! I’m not saying it can’t be done, but this recipe was created with larger fruit in mind, it’s best to save the small stuff for homemade prunes.
Honey is filtered through honeycomb producing delicious results, the honey I used in this custard tart is made by a local beekeeper!
Located in High Falls, NY (a part of the Hudson Valley) the apiary produces a robust, amber hued sweetener and was the perfect ingredient in my honey and plum spice pie. Feel free to use any non flavor infused honey for this recipe, but if you can get your oven mitts on some that is locally sourced all the better!
A Take on a Classic Lemon Chess Pie:
This recipe is adapted from Cooking Light Magazine (I did not add a link here as the magazine is no longer in publication) who adapted a classic chess pie recipe. The lemon is no longer added into the custard filling, but is mixed into the pastry dough instead. This leaves the custard to be enhanced with honey before the spice covered plum slices are laid over top.
Serving and Storing Your Honey and Sugar Plum Spiced Pie
- Serve this custard filled pastry dessert with a dollop of whipped cream.
- Make sure to eat this honey pie hot or warm at the least, it tastes the best this way and heating (or re-heating!) delivers the absolute tastiest results!
- To store this pie, keep in pie pan and cover.
- Refrigerate for up to 4 days.
Honey and Sugar Plum Spice Pie
Equipment
- 1 Plastic Wrap 1 16 inch sheet
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 9 inch Pie Pan
Ingredients
Tart Crust
- 1 Cup All Purpose Flour Divided
- 3 Tbsp Ice Water
- 1 Tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
- 2 Tbsp Powdered Sugar
- ÂĽ Tsp Salt
- ÂĽ Cup Vegetable Shortening
- Cooking Spray I used olive oil
Custard Filling
- 1 â…“ Cups Granulated Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Yellow Cornmeal use the finest ground you can find
- ÂĽ Tsp Salt
- â…“ Cup Whole Milk
- 2 Tbsp Honey
- 1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter melted
- ½ Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 4 Large Eggs lightly beaten
Sugared and Spiced Plums
- 5 Ripe Plums, medium size
- 2 Tbsp Light Brown Sugar
- ÂĽ Tsp Ground Cardamom
- ÂĽ Tsp Ground Ginger
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat oven to 325℉
- For crust: combine ÂĽ cup flour with ice water and lemon juice in a small bowl. Whisk until combined, then set aside.
- Next combine Âľ cup flour, powdered sugar and salt in medium bowl, cut shortening in using a pastry cutter or large fork until the mixture resembles course meal.
- Add flour mixture from small bowl and mix with fork until blended together. Form into a rough ball.
- Lay pastry dough ball onto plastic wrap in center, fold plastic over. Press dough into a flattened circle. Plastic wrap should have extra room on either side.
- Roll dough into 12 inch circle.
- Place dough in freezer for 10 minutes.
- While dough hardens, mix up custard filling. See instructions below.
- Remove pie crust from freezer, remove plastic wrap on one side and press unwrapped pastry crust into Cooking Oil Coated pie pan. One you have pressed the crust into the pan, remove the plastic wrap completely and discard. Place back into freezer for 10 more minutes.
Custard Filling
- For filling combine granulated sugar, cornmeal, vanilla and salt in medium bowl.
- In a large bowl combine milk and remaining 4 ingredients, mixing with a whisk.
- Add dry cornmeal mixture to large bowl and whisk together.
Sugared Plums
- Slice plums into â…›'s. You should get 8 pieces from each plum.
- In a medium bowl add and combine lite brown sugar, ground ginger and ground cardamom. Gently toss sliced plum s into sugar mixture and coat.
Assemble Honeyed Spiced Plum Tart
- Remove crust from freezer and pour custard filling in.
- Arrange sliced and sugared plums into custard, they will sink into the batter, that is fine!
Bake Plum Tart
- Bake plum tart in oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. This custard tart is best served hot with whipped cream on the side.
Can’t wait to try this!!! Beautiful description and photos!!
I love custard and have been overwhelmed at the prospect of making it until this recipe. Sugared plums are sure to be a hit in my house and much appreciated on the Thanksgiving dessert table!