Book: Anne of Avonlea
Difficulty rating: Harry Potter
Deliciousness rating: Dreadful
The cheerful super table, with the twins' bright faces, and Marilla's matchless plum puffs ... of which Davy ate four ... did "hearten her up" considerably after all. (Montgomery 99)
Did it measure up?
Hell no. Bahahaha, these were TERRIBLE. They were like Pop Tarts gone wrong. We realized afterward that the vanilla we used was partly to blame -- no, it was not anodyne liniment, but the brand we used had an unfortunate medicinal flavor that this recipe really brought out. Gross. And as you can see, there was absolutely nothing puffy about these sad "puffs." We took them to work, but not even our coworkers would eat them when they were starving and desperate for a snack on their break.
We are starting to wonder if LMM just had very different palate than we do...
(We're going to make plum puffs again, but the version that we imagined. They are going to be so much better than these authentic puffs.)
MARILLA'S (NOT SO) MATCHLESS PLUM PUFFS
Ingredients:
Directions:
1. Cream sugar and shortening together well.
2. Beat in egg. Sift and add dry ingredients alternately with milk and vanilla.
3. Divide the dough in half and press half into a greased 9"x13" pan.
3. Warm plum preserves in a saucepan and add butter and vanilla. Let it cool a little and spread over the first layer of dough.
4. Knead and roll the remaining dough o a well-floured board into a 9x13 rectangle.
6. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
Did it measure up?
Hell no. Bahahaha, these were TERRIBLE. They were like Pop Tarts gone wrong. We realized afterward that the vanilla we used was partly to blame -- no, it was not anodyne liniment, but the brand we used had an unfortunate medicinal flavor that this recipe really brought out. Gross. And as you can see, there was absolutely nothing puffy about these sad "puffs." We took them to work, but not even our coworkers would eat them when they were starving and desperate for a snack on their break.
We are starting to wonder if LMM just had very different palate than we do...
(We're going to make plum puffs again, but the version that we imagined. They are going to be so much better than these authentic puffs.)
MARILLA'S (NOT SO) MATCHLESS PLUM PUFFS
Ingredients:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 egg
- 2.5 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup milk
- Plum preserves
- 1 tbs butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
Directions:
1. Cream sugar and shortening together well.
5. The dough will be soft. Roll up on a rolling pin and unroll to fit over the raisin filling.
7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
Montgomery, L.M. Anne of Avonlea. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., 1909.
I can't figure out what I think plum puffs would have been. I picture them as kind of like popovers, filled with cooked plums, but the official cookbook (I think) seems to think of them as more muffin-y. And they probably would've used plum jam, not fresh plums, so that's another issue. I'll probably try the popover version sometime, maybe with some cinnamon and molasses in the batter...
ReplyDeleteWe're imagining them as cream puffs with plum jam in between. And we'll add custard cream too just because it's delicious. We're probably going to do our imagined plum puff in April or May!
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