Whenever stone fruit season rolls around, Marian Burro's infamous plum torte seems to pop up everywhere on my Instagram feed. You may have missed it ... if you live under a rock ;) She wrote this iconic recipe for the New York Times in the 80s and they claim it is one of their most requested recipes. I never did get around to making her original recipe but this grain-free adaptation of her plum torte is so dang good I don't think I ever actually will!?
This recipe was a serendipitous experiment. I had a bag of Bob's Red Mill Paleo flour (not sponsored) sitting in my pantry for months that I finally decided to use. It is a blend of almond flour, arrowroot starch, coconut flour and tapioca flour. I replaced the all purpose flour in the original NYT recipe. This is how my mind works now ... almost by rote, I approach every recipe with the intention to reduce and/or eliminate refined ingredients without compromising taste. This just makes me feel less guilty about indulging. Less guilt equals more dessert. Trust me, I am a mathemagician :)
That said, you may notice I wrote the recipe using raw cane sugar, a refined ingredient. I promise I did do my homework and tested out three iterations varying just the sugar, using:
(1) all organic raw cane sugar,
(2) all coconut sugar, and
(3) half of each raw cane sugar and coconut sugar
I made these three version over a weekend and tested it out on lots of my family and friends. Overall, all three versions were very well received by adults and kiddies of varying ages. I was so pleased! Ultimately, my verdict was that (1) and (3) tasted similar and the best. I hated to admit it because I would have loved to write this as a refined sugar free recipe, but there was a certain texture (chewiness) that the raw cane sugar gave that was really, really good.
Don't get me wrong though, the coconut sugar version was fantastic also! The main difference being that it came out a smidgen more soft and cake-y (and also more dark in color after baking). But in fact, some people did not notice a difference at all. I'll leave it to you to choose which sugar to use depending on your preferences and/or dietary restrictions and/or what you have in your pantry.
For my grain-free take on this torte recipe, I chose to whip the egg whites before folding them into the batter to give the cake more lift since, by nature, grain-free flours are more dense than their wheat counterparts. I reduced the sugar as well because well...I think it's just perfect that way.
By the way, you can use apricots, peaches, nectarines and even berries if plum is not your jam or not in season. Serve slices all by it's glorious self or topped with soft (coconut) cream or even ice cream. People will go mad for it!
xx
Plum Torte
{ grain-free, gluten-free, refined sugar free / Paleo substitution }
Recipe makes one 8"-10" round torte. Adapted from Marian Burros Plum Torte recipe.
INGREDIENTS
For the torte:
2 large eggs, separated
1/2 C (114g) unsalted butter (grass-fed organic for Paleo), at room temperature at least 1 hour
1/2 C (115g) raw granulated cane sugar or 1/2 C (92g) regular granulated sugar or sub 1/2 C (92g) of packed coconut sugar for refined sugar free
1 C (130g) Bob's Red Mill Paleo flour (can sub 1 C = 145g all-purpose flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
For topping:
2-3 plums, halved and pitted, sliced very thinly
Squeeze of lemon juice
Sprinkles of cinnamon powder
Sprinkles of demerara, turbanado or other coarse sugar (omit for refined sugar free / Paleo version)
METHOD
Preheat oven to 325f. Take out your 8", 9" or 10" baking dish of choice - it can be a springform cake pan, a regular cake pan, pie dish or a fluted tart pan which I prefer for the slightly crispier edge it creates. If you are going with the fluted tart pan too, very lightly grease the fluted sides to ease unmolding later.
Separate the eggs, placing the whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and the yolks in a separate small bowl. Whisk the whites on high (8 on stand mixer) until soft peaks form, about 3 minutes. Scoop them out and set aside.
Replace the whisk attachment with the paddle attachment. Place the room temperature butter and sugar into the stand mixer bowl (no need to wash it yay!) and cream them on medium speed (3 or 4) until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the yolks and beat one minute more. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together and pour it into the mixing bowl. Beat just to combine well. Gently fold in the egg whites, stopping just short of a few white streaks should do.
Scoop batter into your baking pan. Sprinkle cinnamon all over. Arrange sliced plums on top. Squeeze some lemon juice over the plums to keep their color post-bake (use a brush if you want to). Optional - sprinkle some coarse sugar all over the top. This will obviously make it not Paleo or refined sugar free.
Bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer pierced into the middle emerges with just a few crumbs. If the top gets a little too dark for your liking (especially if coconut sugar was used), you may throw a piece of foil loosely on top for the last half of baking. Cool and serve all by itself, or if feeling decadent, with some soft cream or ice cream on top.
xx
If you like this recipe, pin it to Pinterest! You can also leave me a comment below to let me know what you think of this post.