Plum Bars
Serves 16
60 mins prep
60 mins cook
1440 mins Cooling
1560 mins total
Jammy, plum bars with a poppyseed oat streusel crumb topping, these plum bars have all the flavors of the end of summer in one cute little bar.
Plum Butter
ozItalian prune plumsregular black or red plums will work too
tspground cinnamonoptional
Streusel
Extra fruit
ozsour cherriesfrozen, or jarred and drained
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Pflaumenmus (Plum Butter)
The night before you plan to make these bars (or up to 5 days in advance), you need to macerate the plums so they can be cooked into a plum butter the next day.
To macerate the plums, rinse and dry them. Then remove any stems and cut in half lengthwise around the pit to remove it. Place all of the pitted plums into a large pot or bowl. I used a coated cast iron dutch oven which works perfectly but don't use one that isn't coated as the sugar and acid will be too much for the exposed iron.
Pour in the granulated sugar and stir to combine. Optionally add in two teaspoons of cinnamon at this time.
Cover the pot or bowl and leave it to sit at room temperature overnight.
Place a small plate in your freezer, this will be used to test the plum butter.
When you are ready to cook the plum butter the next day, remove the cover and place the pot with the macerated plums (if they were in a bowl, transfer them to a pot at this step) over the lowest heat possible.
You want to cook this plum butter low and slow, stirring frequently to prevent the sugar from burning. This takes about an hour but could be a little less or more depending on how many plums you're cooking.
Continue cooking until the mixture has thickened to the point where you don't really see any plum juices running around.
To test the doneness of the pflaumenmus, take the plate out of the freezer and spoon 1 tablespoon of it onto the plate. Allow it to sit for 30 seconds to a minute. Then, when you wipe the jam off with your finger it should wrinkle and be quite thick.
Once cooked, remove from the heat and pour the plum butter into an airtight container and store in the fridge until ready to use.
Bar Base
Preheat the oven to 350 F and place a rack in the center of the oven.
In a large bowl, whisk together the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, granulated sugar, and salt.
Add in the butter and vanilla and use your hands or a fork to rub the dry ingredients into the butter until fully combined and no dry bits remain.
Line a 9"x9" metal pan with a rectangle of parchment paper that is 9" wide and 15" long, sort of like a sling.
Crumble just slightly more than half of the dough into the lined pan. Spread it out evenly across the bottom. Use your hands or the bottom of a flat measuring cup to firmly press the dough into an even layer.
Streusel
Pour the poppyseeds and oats into the remaining base dough.
Use the fork or your fingers to mix it all together and create clumps.
Assemble & Bake
Pour the plum butter over the top of the base and spread it out into an even layer.
Sprinkle with the defrosted or drained sour cherries.
Finally crumble the poppyseed oat streusel over the top.
Place in the preheated oven to bake for 30 minutes. After the timer goes off, rotate the pan 180 degrees. Then bake for another 25-30 minutes until slightly golden brown on top.
Remove the pan from the oven and allow the bars to cool completely to room temperature.
Once cooled, run a knife along the two sides that don't have parchment to loosen the bars if necessary.
Use the parchment paper excess to lift the bars out and onto a cutting board. Cut the bars into 12 or 16 equal pieces.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week even once cut.