When I saw plums at the farmers’ market last week it was hard to take them seriously. Summer’s on its last leg when plums come rolling in, I understand, but it was nearing 90 degrees that day, so what did they know? Turns out, those plums were smarter than they looked, because here I sit in my favorite fall sweater, the one I bought on sale at the end of last season and stashed away. I pushed the window by my desk closed before I sat down to write this morning. I even looped a scarf around my neck. And when I walk back to that same market later this afternoon, I’ll pull on socks and proper shoes for the first time in weeks. Hello, September.
September brings good stuff. It always has, for me. A lot of this has to do with my being a perpetual student (until now!). Fresh notepads, fresh books, fresh pens, the feeling that anything is possible. If I were to tell you that I entered graduate school for these things alone, I’d be exaggerating only slightly. September kicks off with a long weekend, which is nice, and it’s the month when Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, almost always falls. That means guaranteed time with family and friends, no excuses, and plenty of hours in the kitchen, and if that’s not enough to make me cheer, September’s when Mia showed up, too.
Mia's birthday is this Sunday, and we’re in the midst of visits from grandparents galore. Eli’s parents were here last weekend, my mom arrives later this week, and my dad and Amy are here right now. As I type this, I can hear my dad singing Love Potion Number 9 in the other room, Mia clapping along, and occasionally slapping at the guitar strings, and earlier today, after writing the opening two sentences of this post, I took a break to find out what on earth was going on here. [Trust me, you want to click that link. Turn your volume UP.] Those two are in the zone. Their own weird little, wonderful little zone. Here’s a photo of them from yesterday, or maybe the day before.
At dinner last night, I said something about “when Mia was a baby” and we all laughed because, obviously, she is still very much a baby. (Just look at those CHEEKS!) But if you compare these two photos, the one from when Mia was more blob than human, and the one from now, you'll know what I meant.
Anyway, September. Yes, it brings good stuff. Which this year includes – as you might have guessed from my leading photo and the hint I dropped last week – plum crumb bars. They’re actually plum ginger crumb bars, following as they do in the footsteps of the recipe I posted on Friday, but “plum crumb” has such a lovely ring to it; I didn’t want to mess that up. So I’ll just tell you (I’ve already told you): there’s ginger in them, too. The difference is that this time, instead of mixing it in with the fruit, I stuck it in the shortbread. I’m going to say that again, because it’s an important feature of the recipe, and also because I’m a little bit proud of this move: the shortbread is ginger shortbread, now. In the right context, ginger – the smell of it, the taste of it, the very word – feels so totally fall to me. That’s what I wanted here, so I tossed the lemon zest out of the dough, and tossed some vanilla, brown sugar, and cinnamon in. It does the trick; it’s those notepads and pens and more packed into a shortbread cookie. On top there’s a sheet of thinly sliced plums, a sprinkling of raw sugar, and a scattering of crumbs, spiced, brown, and crisp. It’s some of my best work, I think. As I tend to do come September.
Happy birthday, Mia Lou. I love you to pieces.
Plum Crumb Bars
Inspired by the Rhubarb-Ginger Crumb Bars I wrote about last week.
My one note here is to make sure that your ground ginger is fresh. I’ve found that it dramatically loses its potency as it ages.
3 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 large egg
4-5 medium plums
2 Tablespoons raw sugar
Heat the oven to 375 degrees and butter a 9x13 inch pan.
Halve and then thinly slice the plums. Set aside.
Blend the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, ground ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the egg and the cubed butter and work into the dry ingredients with your hands to form a crumbly dough. (Don’t worry if there are little lumps of butter here and there.) Reserve one cup of the dough, and dump what remains into the prepared pan. Pat it into place with your hands.
Arrange the plum slices in slightly overlapping rows on top of the dough. Crumble the reserved dough over top, then sprinkle with the raw sugar.
Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the crumb top is golden brown. Cool before cutting into squares.
Makes 24 bars.