American cuisine contains many dishes that have gained popularity outside their home country. However, there are also those that were very significant some time ago, but today are undeservedly forgotten. The recipe for plum pie, published weekly by a New York Times editor for 12 years, is one of them.

How to Make New York Times Plum Cake

The history of this pastry dates back to the middle of the 20th century, when the culinary section of a famous American newspaper first invited housewives to try making a simple pie with plums that were popular at that time. The author of the idea was Lois Levina, whose recipe was so liked by American women that requests to publish it again poured into the New York Times editorial office one after another. Externally, the pie looks like a simple fruitcake; to some it resembles a charlotte. However, although there is no obvious innovation on the part of the author, there is no doubt about the taste of the baked goods.

The New York Times open-faced plum pie has the following features:

• The oven temperature should be 175 degrees, convection turned off.
• An American measure is a cup, which is approximately 16 level tablespoons or 237 ml. You can use a faceted glass, pouring the dry ingredient into it with the top on.
• The recipe from the newspaper may frighten some housewives with the amount of sugar, but this is due to the peculiarity of plums: when heat treated, even sweet varieties acquire sourness.
• The most delicious plums for baking are small dark ones, the so-called. Italian. Varieties related to Hungarian are well suited. An alternative is prunes.
• The original recipe from the New York Times adapts perfectly to the slow cooker - the baked goods are as fluffy as in the oven.
• You can use frozen plums, but then they are mixed into the dough.

Original plum pie from the New York Times

Once you try to cook according to the original recipe, you will be surprised at how delicious the baked goods are from familiar and simple ingredients. A significant advantage of this plum pie is that it is always incredibly fluffy and tender. The set of ingredients, according to the New York Times, is as follows:

• margarine – 113 g;
• eggs size M (approx. 61 grams in weight) – 2 pcs.;
• vanillin - a pinch;
• brown sugar (for crust);
• cinnamon – 1 teaspoon;
• granulated sugar – 3/4 cup;
• a cup of flour;
• baking powder - 1 teaspoon;
• salt;
• halves of plums – 24 pcs.

The principle of making a delicious pie:

1. Put the oven to preheat.
2. Beat soft margarine with white sugar, add the remaining dry ingredients one by one, excluding flour.
3. Continuing to work with the mixer, add the eggs.
4. Spoon in the sifted flour. The finished dough is homogeneous and thick.
5. Pour it into the mold. Place the plum halves on top so that the cut point faces down. No need to press them in!
6. Combine brown sugar with ground cinnamon and sprinkle the mixture over the pie. Send to bake on the middle shelf.
7. Approximate time – 45-50 minutes. The splinter should come out dry from the center.

New York Times Plum Pie in the Slow Cooker

This recipe is almost completely identical to the original, with the exception that a number of ingredients are recalculated according to measures more familiar to Russian cookbooks. Margarine is replaced with butter 82.5% fat, and vanillin with vanilla sugar. The pie can also be baked in a pressure cooker using the same “Baking” mode. Cooking time does not change.

• butter – 120 g;
• flour – 270 g;
• higher eggs cat. - 2 pieces;
• granulated sugar (cane) – 200 g;
• baking powder - 1 teaspoon;
• plums – 15 pcs.;
• vanilla sugar – 1 teaspoon;
• cinnamon with sugar - 2 tbsp. spoons.

A delicious plum pie from the New York Times newspaper is baked in a slow cooker like this:

1. Remove the butter from the refrigerator in advance.
2. Beat the eggs, sprinkle with a stream of sugar - regular and vanilla.
3. Add oil and mix for 2 minutes.
4. Add flour and baking powder while continuing to beat the dough.
5. Coat the multicooker bowl with oil and sprinkle with flour.
6. Pour the dough and place the plums on top. Above them is a layer of cinnamon and sugar.
7. Cook on the “Bake” for an hour. Remove when cool.

The New York Times Pie, reimagined

The popularity of the recipe gave rise to many modifications, even changes, far from the original. If you want to try something as delicious as the classic New York Times pie but with a twist, caramelize plums or even blend them with apples. A particularly important nuance is that the fruits must be unripe for this, otherwise they will turn into puree.

Set of ingredients:

• flour – 325 g;
• eggs - 3 pieces;
• butter (fresh) – 150 g;
• granulated sugar – 130 g (and 50 g for caramel);
• vanillin;
• baking powder - 1/2 tbsp. spoons;
• plums – 400 g;
• cinnamon.

Plum pie is prepared as follows:

1. Beat eggs, add oil. Gently add sugar and stir.
2. Add flour combined with baking powder and vanilla. Knead into a thick but soft dough.
3. Cut the plums into slices, place in a frying pan, sprinkle with brown sugar. Cook on low power, cover with a lid, until juice appears.
4. Remove the lid and cook until caramel forms in place of the syrup. Remove from stove.
5. Fill the form with dough and bake for 18-20 minutes. Temperature – 180 degrees.
6. Distribute the plums with caramel over the set base of the pie, bake for another half hour at the same temperature.
7. Sprinkle with cinnamon before serving.

Video: New York Times plum pie recipe

I read on the Internet that this plum pie worried America for 12 years in a row, being published at the request of American housewives in the New York Times newspaper. The last time a newspaper editor printed a recipe with a request to laminate it and hang it on the refrigerator. Of course, this pie also interested me, because the plum season is in full swing, and plum baked goods always turn out very tasty. I can say with confidence that I will make the pie more than once, as the result is simply superb, despite the simple and very affordable ingredients.

Ingredients

To make the New York Times plum pie, we'll need:

sugar - 250 g;

butter - 113 g;

wheat flour - 160 g;

baking powder - 1 tsp;

eggs - 2 pcs.;

salt - a pinch;

ground cinnamon - 1 tsp;

plums - 12 pcs.

Cooking steps

Add salt and eggs.

Continue beating until fluffy and smooth.

Then add the flour sifted with baking powder and mix the dough with a spoon, it will turn out quite thick.

Mix the remaining 50 grams of sugar with ground cinnamon.

Cover a mold with a diameter of 22-24 cm with parchment or grease with oil and sprinkle with flour, put out the dough with a spatula, and smooth the surface. Place the plum halves cut side up and sprinkle a mixture of sugar and cinnamon on top.

Place the pie in an oven preheated to 180 degrees and bake for 45-50 minutes until a delicious crust appears on top. Readiness can be checked using a wooden skewer - it should remain dry when piercing the finished baked goods.

Serve the delicious plum pie from the New York Times by cutting it into pieces. It is recommended to serve it with ice cream, but it is very, very tasty without it. I strongly recommend it to you!

Bon appetit!

The New York Times' Famous Plum Pie!

If you haven't tried it yet, be sure to try it ;)

Pie recipe (24 cm tin)
115 g butter
150 g sugar
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
120 g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
plums
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream for serving

Good afternoon friends! Today we will talk about the legendary plum pie from The New York Times newspaper. The history of this pie is very fascinating. If you are interested, be sure to read it on the Internet, but I want to tell you that the recipe for this pie has been reprinted in this newspaper a huge number of times. Why did American housewives love him so much? And because it is very simple to prepare, literally in a matter of minutes, and the ingredients for its preparation can be found in any kitchen. Now is the plum season, so the recipe will be especially relevant. It can also be prepared with other berries and fruits. I love this apricot and fig pie.

And so, there are several variations of this recipe, but I liked this one the most. We will need 120 grams of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 150 grams of sugar, 2 eggs, 115 grams of butter at room temperature, a dozen plums, but the quantity depends on their size. For sprinkling - 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. If you don't have brown sugar, use regular white sugar and add cinnamon if desired.

First of all, beat the butter, add a pinch of salt and sugar to the butter and beat at high speed for several minutes until light and fluffy. The oil must be at room temperature, so remove it from the refrigerator in advance and let it warm up for about an hour or two. The optimal temperature for whipping butter is approximately 21 degrees. Beat the butter well, then add the eggs one at a time. It is also advisable to use eggs at room temperature. After each addition, beat for a few minutes at high mixer speed. Beat the butter and eggs well. The result should be a fluffy light mass. Now we will add dry products. Add baking powder to the flour, mix and sift. The flour must be sifted in order to saturate it with air. Then the baked goods turn out fluffier, more airy. Mix the dough until smooth and homogeneous. The dough is not too thick, but not liquid either. Set it aside and start preparing the filling.

Wash the plums, cut them into halves and remove the pit. I like to use plums for pie that are denser and have a noticeable sourness.

Now we need a mold with a diameter of approximately 24 cm. You can use a pie pan, a biscuit pan, or a springform pan. I have a tart pan with a removable bottom. When baking, the pan must be greased with butter.

Place the prepared dough into the mold and distribute it in an even layer. Next, lay out the plum halves, lightly pressing them into the dough. Sprinkle the top of the pie with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. It is also recommended to sprinkle sweet fruits with a little lemon juice. Bake the pie in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for about 45-50 minutes.

The finished plum pie can be served either warm or cooled. It can also be frozen and reheated before serving. This pie goes great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

As you can see, the pie is very simple and quick to prepare. It turns out tender, very aromatic and will certainly delight you with its taste. Be sure to try cooking it!

This is what the original "Plum Torte" looks like. Photo www.nytimes.com

When this season I saw another article on the Russian-language Internet with the title “Plum Pie from The New York Times”... I realized that I also had to say something about this, or even better, explain how it is there it really was, because I always try to find out information first-hand. Moreover. The first mention of this recipe in this newspaper was on September 21(hereinafter I will refer to the name of the newspaper as NT).

In my article I will give real references to the NT and a real, original recipe for this baking (and not even one, since it has official variations).

I baked THIS several times: with different plums and other fruits, with and without cinnamon, with different amounts of sugar, incl. as a sprinkle, with vanilla extract and almond extract, with white flour and whole wheat, etc., etc. Moreover, she baked without knowing about the existence of the famous “newspaper recipe,” because the proportions of the ingredients in it are almost classic, they can be found in almost any cookbook on European and American baking, published in any language. This is the main secret of the popularity of this “plum pie”.

Much of what you can read about this “plum pie” on the Russian-language Internet is a game of “broken phone.” When I learned about the existence of a specific “American recipe,” I studied all the original material about it, including individual culinary publications, except for the very first one, so I have something to say about both theory and practice.

***** ***** *****

Firstly, it’s very easy to get acquainted with the original recipe, he: the latest version of the recipe and more than one hundred user comments (link opens in a new window). If someone doesn’t see anything on the link, then they need to register on the newspaper’s website. In return, you'll receive regular alerts from the NT's cooking column in your email, with new and old recipes, right with pictures (in English, of course). This culinary section also contains paid material, and articles about “plum pie” can also be accessed from the browser through the search and the “saved copy” option.

Secondly, there are separate explanations about this pie from both its authors and the newspaper itself. Articles in NT "The Story Behind Our Most Requested Recipe Ever", "5 Ways to Adapt Our Famous Plum Torte Recipe", "Crunchy-Topped Whole-Wheat Plum Cake", as well as various editions of "Elegant But Easy Cook Book" and book "The Essential New York Times Cookbook. Classic Recipes for a New Century" is the ultimate source for the recipe, its history and variations.

The true story, from beginning to end, can be found out if you simply type “plum torte new york times” into a search engine: the very first links in the list should be the original data.

***** ***** *****

This pastry is originally called "Plum Torte", i.e. not “pie” (English “Pie”), but “Torte”. Very often on the foreign-language Internet it is called not "New York Times Purple Plum Torte", A "Marian Burros" Plum Torte or "Marian Burros and Lois Levine's Purple Plum Torte". That's because two main original recipes: one that was first published in the 1970s as a stand-alone cookbook, and one that was published in a newspaper in the 1990s. But they have one source: culinary columnist Marian Burros. In the NT she is never forgotten and is always mentioned in connection with this pie. Unlike Runet, all the recipes from foreign home cooks that I was able to review also mention Marian’s name, either in connection with NT or in connection with her cookbooks.

Marian Burros - American food columnist and writer. From 1974 to 1981 - food editor of The Washington Post. Since 1981, he has been a reporter, and since 1983, a columnist for The New York Times. She has published several cookbooks.

Marian Burros, now living, lives in New York. Photo gettyimages.ca, ediblegreenmountains.com

This is the main thing, because this is the main thing :) And now - details for those who, for some reason, cannot follow the links I provided.

Original recipe "Plum Torte". The latest version with plums, published in The New York Times.

Scans from the official NT website

"Original Plum Torte"

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (150 g) to 1 cup sugar (200 g)
1/2 cup softened butter (113 g - the same as 1 stick of butter)
1 cup unbleached flour (120 g), sifted
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt (optional)
2 eggs
24 purple plum halves
Sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon for topping

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 175-180°C (350°F = 176.667°C)

2. In a bowl, mix sugar and butter until creamy. Add flour, baking powder, salt, eggs and beat well.

3. Place the dough in a springform pan with a diameter of 20, 22 or 25 cm. Place the plum halves on the dough, skin side up. Sprinkle with sugar and add lemon juice (depending on the sweetness of the fruit). Sprinkle about 1 tsp. cinnamon (depending on how much you like cinnamon).

4. Bake for approximately 1 hour. Remove and cool (you can freeze if desired). Serve warm or chilled, optional with whipped cream. A frozen cake must first be thawed and reheated at 150 °C.

Here is this link, which also leads to the NT page (date September 21, 2005), It is recommended to bake the cake for 40-50 minutes.

***** ***** *****

The same recipe, but with minor adjustments, was published by a culinary observer Amanda Hesser / Amanda Hesser in 2010 in the book "The Essential New York Times Cookbook", since more than 200 newspaper readers voted for its inclusion in the collection. Hesser herself called this recipe “almost perfect.”

***** ***** ****

IMPORTANT!

The original recipes are given in American measuring cups (flour, sugar, butter) and “sticks” (butter in some recipe variations), so Russian-speaking cooks who copy each other’s recipes and indicate 250 g of flour and “plum” in the recipe must cut up", I strongly recommend studying the hardware, acquiring measuring cups, scales and using online converters to convert these very cups into grams and vice versa. Well, as always, I recommend very thoughtfully using “recipes from the Internet”, especially from “translated Russian ones”.

1 American measuring cup is approximately 200 g of white sugar or 215-220 brown sugar and from 90 to 160 g of flour (depending on its type).

Converting different types of flour from cups to grams very detailed painted, for example. For translations of other ingredients, see the same page (link opens in a new window).

Fahrenheit to Celsius converter: here (link opens in a new window).

According to the “settled” ones, i.e. According to official Soviet measures, 1 faceted glass contains 180 g of sugar and 130 g of flour, 1 tea glass - 230 g of sugar and 160 g of flour. All such tables, even with drawings of glasses filled with flour, were still in Soviet cookbooks. If someone has different glasses, traditions and taste preferences, then I have nothing more to say about this.

***** ****** ******

How it all began. Marian got this recipe from her friend, with whom they published the first edition of the book "Elegant But Easy Cook Book" (authors Marian Fox Burros and Lois Levine). This happened, according to various sources, either in 1960 or 1962. In this book the recipe was called "Fruit torte / Fruit cake".

I haven’t yet come across the page with the original recipe from the very first edition of this book, so I don’t know what kind of flour, for example, was indicated there.

Photo www.nytimes.com

Almost 20 years later, when Marian became a columnist for the NT, she gave her own version of this recipe on the pages of this newspaper. The very first mention of plum cake in the NT is September 21, 1983. Link to 1983 article (opens in new window). The baking recipe was printed in the context of a regular newspaper article: it called for 1 cup of sugar, just “flour” and a 22cm diameter pan.

Information about what happened next is available both in the memoirs of Marian herself and in numerous NT articles. The fact that the recipe for plum pie was allegedly published “for 20 years in a row, and then with the threats of an angry editor” they stopped mentioning or publishing information about it in NT, as some Runet cooks think - this is incorrect information.

The recipe appeared regularly in the NT every September from 1983 to 1988. In 1989, the editors decided that this was enough: they printed a version of the recipe for the last time (with a warning about it) - in large print and so that it could be cut out. It was in this version that the amount of sugar was already reduced from 1 cup to ¾. Readers still continued to ask about the plum cake recipe every year, so the authors and editors continued to work with it and constantly improved it.

In 1991, a new variation appeared from Marian herself: "New Age Plum Torte"(see further Part 2 of this article). In 1994 - a variation with cranberries and apples, although notes on recipes for replacing ingredients, incl. fruits have been done before. In total, this cake was mentioned in the newspaper 12 times. “Then newspaper clippings of recipes gave way to web pages and Pinterest boards. The cake found a new army of fans online,” is a quote from the official website of the newspaper.

In 2010 The book "The Essential New York Times Cookbook" was published, which also contained a recipe for this cake. To include certain recipes in this publication, a survey was conducted among newspaper readers. The book is very impressive: about 1500 pages, includes recipes from the mid-19th century to the present day.

Photo www.eat-drink-garden.com

Until now, year after year, the NT newspaper recalls this plum cake and almost regularly updates its recipe or provides links to old publications. Not to mention that all the old articles and links on this topic, incl. with the original recipe and its variations can be easily found on the official website of the newspaper.

In reprints of the book "Elegant But Easy Cook Book" this pastry is called "Purple Plum Torte" and several recipe options are also given.

As far as I could understand, all variations of "Fruit Cake" are associated with the personal preferences of their authors and readers. So, over time, the amount of sugar in the recipe was reduced and recommendations appeared to use unbleached flour, but Amanda Hesser indicates all-purpose flour and says that 1 cup of sugar and plum is, from her point of view, the best option and that there is no innovation here needed.

I repeat: I don’t know what the very first version looked like - the version of the 1970s - but this, by and large, no longer matters, because this recipe has been edited many, many times by ourselves since then and taking into account modern realities authors and their fans.

New York Times plum pie is a legendary pie with a very interesting recipe behind it. American plum pie became a symbol of the passing summer for many Americans at the end of the last century. Marian Berroz, the author of the recipe, dedicated it to the beginning of the season of plums, which were sold everywhere at an attractive price. From 1983 to 1989, the New York Times published Marian Burrose's recipe every September. Readers flooded the editors with letters of gratitude and requests to publish the recipe next season. After six years of publication and a continuous stream of reviews, the New York Times printed the plum pie recipe in large format and even outlined it with a dotted line so that housewives would finally cut it out and stop bothering the editors. After which a statement was made about the last publication of the recipe. What started here! Angry letters poured in, and one reader explained the significance of the annual publication of the pie: “The appearance of this recipe is bittersweet, like the pie itself. Summer is leaving, it is replaced by autumn. Your annual recipe epitomizes this. Don't be angry with us."
Since its first publication, the American Pie recipe has changed slightly. So, in the first version, 1 cup of sugar is indicated, and in the 1989 recipe - three quarters of a glass. Options have appeared with apples and cranberries - other symbols of autumn. Then a summer version of the recipe came out with blueberries and pears. What explains the popularity of plum pie? Its dough is very tender, with a creamy flavor from the butter and a crispy crust. The pie is prepared quickly, if not instantly. Products are always at hand. I stick to the classic recipe and invite you to prepare a fragrant symbol of the passing summer with me step by step. You can get creative and add things to the recipe as you go. I hope that for my readers the publication of this pie will grow into something more than just a recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 tbsp. sugar + 2 tbsp. for powder;
• 113 g butter;
• 1 tbsp. flour;
• 2 eggs;
• 1 tsp baking powder for dough;
• a pinch of salt;
• 12 plums of the prune, Hungarian, etc. variety;
• 1 tsp cinnamon.

American Plum Pie recipe from the New York Times

1. We select plums from which the pit can be easily separated from the pulp. Hungarian and prune plums are also very aromatic, dense and juicy. Cut the washed plums into halves lengthwise and remove the pits. The classic recipe uses 12 small plums. If the plums are large, 6-8 pieces will be enough.

2. In a separate bowl, mix cinnamon and sugar for dusting. If you are preparing the pie in a small form, about 20 cm in diameter, there is even a lot of this powder.

3. Combine sugar with eggs. The original 1983 recipe calls for exactly 1 cup of sugar, but even with 2/3 cup the pie seems quite sweet.

4. Beat everything into a homogeneous mass until bubbles appear.

5. Add flour to the beaten eggs. It is advisable to sift it. This way we will saturate it with oxygen, and the cake will turn out truly airy. And with the help of a sieve, we will separate solid and foreign particles from the flour, which can spoil the taste of the pie. Now add baking powder, a pinch of salt and add soft butter (or margarine). For convenience, a couple of hours before preparing the cake, we will leave the butter to sit at room temperature, and we will not have to resort to additional softening procedures. By the way, the original recipe says that it is not necessary to add salt, but it is a natural flavor enhancer that will not harm the pie.

6. Beat the dough thoroughly with a whisk. You can do it with a spoon, but it takes longer and is more difficult. From the photo in the recipe you can see that the consistency of the dough is thick, and the color depends on the eggs.

7. Line the bottom of a small springform pan with parchment paper. Grease the walls with oil so that the cake separates well.

8. Place thick dough into the mold.

9. Level the mass with a spoon.

10. Place the plums on top, cut side up, so that they are well baked. From halves of plums you get “boats” in which the aromatic plum juice will be retained. We do not press down the halves; during the baking process they will sink a little due to the fact that the dough rises. If the fruits are large, you will need less of them than indicated in the list of ingredients. It is necessary that they all fit evenly into the mold.

11. Finally, sprinkle the plums with cinnamon sugar. This is our future crispy and aromatic crust.

12. Place in a heated oven and bake. The original recipe states a time of 1 hour at 160 degrees. It has been experimentally verified that at 180 degrees it bakes in 40 minutes, at 200 degrees - 20-25 minutes. We determine the readiness of the pie by the golden brown crust and the aroma that fills the house. To be sure, pierce the biscuit with a match or a toothpick: the finished dough will not stick.

13. Let the cake cool slightly (literally 10 minutes) and remove the springform pan. The plum juice that releases as the pie bakes sets into a cinnamon-sugar crust—it’s simply delicious!

The author of the recipe claims that the pie can be frozen in foil. Then it is defrosted, heated in the oven at a temperature of 150 degrees and eaten with pleasure. The shape and taste of the pie do not suffer from short-term freezing.

Delicate plum pie from the New York Times newspaper is ready. Bon appetit!