For the last few weeks, I’ve been taking a food photography course with Anne Fishbein of the LA Weekly. It’s been a great opportunity and yesterday, I set out to make this drool-worthy recipe for fig vanilla shortbread with a honey glaze. But, there was one issue: fig season had ended! Eeek!
So, onto plan, B. Plums! Their soft texture would be to bite into once baked, and their tartness would pair nicely against the vanilla-infused shortbread base. For the final recipe, I combined Vegetarian Ventures’ Fig Vanilla Shortbread with the recipe that had inspired her, Smitten Kitchen’s Peach Shortbread, incorporating the fresh vanilla bean and applesauce of the Vanilla and Fig Shortbread with the browned butter and unglazed bars of the Peach one. And, just for good measure, I threw in a smidge of ancho chile powder. Who doesn’t like a little spice?
Vanilla Plum Shortbread
(Serves 12)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
180g flour
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch ancho chile powder
1 vanilla bean
1/8 tsp salt
1 stick butter, browned
3.5 Tbsp applesauce or 1/2 egg
2.5 plums, cut into 1/4″ slices
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Brown butter in medium saucepan, transfer to bowl, place in freezer for 30 minutes.
2. Mix together sugar, baking powder, flour, salt, vanilla bean, cinnamon with a whisk.
3. Use pastry blender to blend butter and applesauce (or egg) into flour.
4. Pat 2/3 of crumbs into bottom of pan
5. Tile plum slices over base in single layer and spread remaining crumbs on top.
6. Bake for 32 minutes until top is slightly brown and color is coming in around the edge.
7. Let cool completely in pan.
