Some of the best foods were created when someone needed to empty out the fridge or cupboard, or needed to use up what he had before it spoiled (Old Bay seasoning, dirty rice, &c.). I found myself with some leftover plums from a tatin I’d made the week earlier. They were getting wrinkly, and were a little too bitter for me to want to eat them alone. I also had one single leftover pie crust in the freezer. I couldn’t make a full-fledged pie out of it, so I threw together this:
The Plum’n'Apple Chai Pie
Ingredients:
- Half a recipe Pate Brisee (found here), or one storebought pie crust
- 1 eggwhite
- 3 large Granny Smith apples, skinned and cut into relatively thin slices
- 5 or 6 plums, sliced
- 2 tbsp. molasses (I didn’t measure, I just drizzled and stirred until the fruit was lightly coated)
- Half a fresh lemon, or a bottle of lemon juice
- 2 heaping tbsp. sugar
- 1 Chai tea bag (you’ll only be using half of it)
- 2 tbsp. cornstarch
- Half a stick of butter, cut into small slices and chilled
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 big handsfull dry oats
Preheat oven to 400. Flour a clean smooth surface and roll out the pate brisee or storebought crust, being careful to not make it too thin (so it doesn’t burn), and lower into a pie dish. Using a pastry brush, brush the rim of the pie with the egg white. Put crust in the freezer until ready to fill (if you don’t freeze it, it will kinda sink down into the pie dish once it’s put in the oven).
In a large bowl, combine fruit, molasses, lemon juice (either half a lemon’s worth, or a few squirts from a bottle), sugar, half the contents of a chai teabag, and cornstarch. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix flour and brown sugar until combined. Add butter and, using a pastry cutter, cut butter into dry mixture until well combined. Add oatmeal and briefly mix with hands. You can also mix flour, brown sugar, and butter in a food processor, transfer it to a bowl, and hand-mix the oats into that.
Take crust out of freezer, dump fruit in, and top with oatmeal mixture. Place on top of tin foil-lined cookie sheet and put in oven (center rack) for about an hour, or until juice from fruit starts to bubble through the crumble topping. Let cool before serving.
