Plum cake

My pear cake recipe (here) works well with other fruits. Tonight, my daughter and I made a plum version of this cake with the following proportions:

• 5 ripe plums


• 4 eggs


• 180g (less than 1 cup) sugar


• 1 stick (114g) butter


• 170g (about 1 1/3 cups) flour


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

We beat the eggs and sugar until foamy. We added the melted butter, then the sifted flour, then the baking powder, vanilla extract, and cinnamon, mixing well (with a whisk) while adding each ingredient.
We poured the dough in a buttered, round metal pan (the same old 10" x 2" I used in the pear cake recipe).
We placed the plums, halved and pitted, on the dough, cut side up.
We baked for about 50 minutes in a  340ºF oven.

Clementine Christmas Cookies

Happy holidays everyone!

For about 40 cookies (depending on their thickness and the size of your cookie cutters)

• 250 g (2 cups) flour
• 200 g (1 cup) sugar
• 125 g (1/2 cup or just over 1 stick) butter
• 1 clementine
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 or 2 egg yolks

1. Cut the butter in small pieces and allow it to warm up to room temperature (you can use a microwave for a few seconds).
2. Combine the butter, sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Rub the ingredients between your hands to obtain a uniform "sand."
3. Squeeze the clementine. Add half of the juice to the flour mix and briefly kneed with your hands. Add more juice as needed to obtain a shiny, elastic dough that doesn't stick to your hands. Shape dough into a ball. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.
4. Roll the dough down to 3 or 4 millimeters. Cut out shapes. Place on a non-stick cookie sheet (or use parchment paper). Lightly brush each cookie with egg yolk.
5. Bake in a 360ºF (180ºC) oven for 10-12 minutes, until golden. Keep an eye on the cookies as they will rapidly change color. Uneven oven temperature and uneven cookie thickness will make them cook more or less rapidly.
6. Let the cookies cool down and enjoy, or store in a metal box for later.