Tag: prunes

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Crème brûlée aux canneberge, airelles, pruneaux, vanille et à l’orange.

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(Crème brûlée with cranberries, lingonberries, prunes, vanilla and orange.)

Day 6/7 – Friday, October 25, 2024

Serves 2

16 hours in total, 90 mins preparation

Crème brûlée is more involved than the other recipes I have thus far posted and has the potential to involve a few non basic kitchen items, but you can get around all that if you choose. I will explain a few shortcuts at the bottom.

Ingredients:

1 handful of dried cranberries
2 dried pitted California prunes
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon of lingonberry jam
1 tablespoon of white granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2-3 teaspoons brûlée sugar
Non-stick cooking spray

Overnight – Place a handful of dried cranberries and 2 dried California prunes in a glass of orange juice. Cover with cellophane and place in fridge to sit overnight. Allow the fruit time to soak up the orange essence. At least 12 hours with the juice should suffice.

Day of – Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Remove your prunes and cranberries from your glass of orange juice and place in a small saucepan over the stove. Add 1 tablespoon of white granulated sugar. Cook for about 5 minutes on low heat, breaking up the fruit as you stir it. Add a tablespoon of lingonberry jam to the saucepan and mix in with the other fruit. Allow to meld together with the heat, stiring as needed until mixture reduces by a 1/3 and no liquid remains and a compote has come together.

Spray two ramekins with non-stick cooking spray. Ladle a generous scoop of the fruit compote into the two ramekins, making sure the bottoms are covered. Set aside.

In a clean saucepan, heat heavy cream with a 1/2 teaspoon of white granulated sugar. Heat over medium, whisking constantly until it just reaches the boiling point. Remove from heat.

Quickly separate egg, and place only the yolk into a small mixing bowl. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste to the egg.

Whisk until combined. Add cream and sugar mixture from your saucepan, a little at a time, whisking while you are adding. Make sure to go slow, and be patient. If you add the cream to the egg and vanilla too quickly, it will begin to cook the egg. You don’t want the egg to cook or become solid. After all the cream has been whisked into the egg and vanilla, strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl.

Pour half the cream and egg mixture over the fruit compote of one ramekin. Use the other half for the second ramekin.

Using a shallow glass dish, begin creating a “bain-marie” or a hot water bath. Fill the glass dish with hot water. Fill only partially. Place the ramekins in the water, allowing hot water to rise to half the height of the outside of the ramekins. See photo.

Place the “bain-marie” with ramekins in your oven once it has reached 300 degrees. Bake on rack that is just a little lower than the middle rack. Bake for 30 minutes. It will be done, when the centers jiggle only ever so slightly. When cool enough, wrap with cellophane and place in your refrigerator to cool for 2 hours.

When ready to serve, sprinkle the top of each with a generous amount of brûlée sugar and torch until evenly caramelized. I have owned a handy Williams Sonoma Butane Torch for many, many years. It still works. It’s basic, but it does the job.

Note – No need to purchase fancy brûlée sugar. You can easily make your own with light brown and granulated white sugar. Take 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar and spread it evenly out on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 200 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool to room temperature and push through a fine sieve. Mix with 1 cup white granulated sugar and store in an airtight container. It should keep for a few weeks.

Note – If you don’t own a kitchen torch, try until a candle lighter. It might work in a pinch! Just make sure to hover over the sugar to brown it. It’s okay to light it on fire for a brief second, but make sure it doesn’t char.

If you are doing the prune challenge, don’t forget to eat 5 extra prune today, as only two were used in the recipe; half going into each ramekin.

Crack open the top of the brûlée sugar with satisfaction. Smell the aromas as you lift the first bite to your lips. Enjoy with a cup or coffee, your favorite tea of a mug of chocolat chaude (Hot Chocolate)!

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Pecan Pancakes with Maple Syrup Infused Prunes

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Day 5/7 – Thursday, October 24, 2024

We’ve made it to day five and it doesn’t get any more simple than this! Just lovely. The maple syrup infused prunes were a touch of deliciousness. I made this recipe up, but you can tweak it as you see fit. Everyone has their favorite pancake recipe. Go with yours if you like and try the maple infused prunes along side and see how it all comes together. Go crazy!

Ingredients:

6 California Prunes
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon of real maple syrup, plus more to top your cakes
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup pecans, plus more for topping

Heat a 1/4 cup of water on medium heat in a small saucepan. Once the water is boiling, add a tablespoon of maple syrup to the water and stir, making a simple syrup. Once the syrup has dissolved, add all six prunes and reduce the heat to low and cover.

Place one leveled cup of all-purpose flour to a medium sized bowl. Add a teaspoon of baking powder to the flour. Whisk lightly, just until mixed. Crack an egg into the flour and powder. Pour 1/4 cup vegetable oil and 3/4 cup buttermilk into the well made by the egg. Mix until batter holds few lumps. Add more buttermilk if batter is too thick for your liking. Pour in 1/4 cup chopped pecans and stir just until combined.

Allow batter to sit and rise for a few minutes.

Give a quick check to your prunes. You want to make sure they are not dissolving into a paste. We want them to remain in tact. If they look like they are breaking down, turn the heat off and remove the pan entirely.

Melt a knob of unsalted butter in a cast iron pan. Pour batter into the pan. If you follow the recipe as written above, batter will be thick and you will need to cook each side longer than you may initially think. Watch for air bubbles to pop on the uncooked side and be patient. Do not flip pancakes over until edges are golden and crispy and several bubbles and appeared. My cook time in total was 4 minutes on each side, as my pancakes were very large. Repeat for remaining pancakes.

Plate your pancakes.

Take a fork and gently remove each maple soaked prune, one by one and place them gently around your pancake. Pour desired amount of syrup on your cakes. Scattered chopped pecans on top. Pour yourself a cup of orange juice, coffee or tea and enjoy!

Note – You can use any sweetener you like to top your pancakes, but try to stick to real maple syrup for the simple syrup to infuse the prunes.

Further Note – A quick substitute for buttermilk when none is on hand. Add a teaspoon of distilled vinegar to a cup of milk. Let stand until bubbles/thicken presents itself.

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Drunken Prunes and Ice Cream

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Day 3/7 – Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Still feeling under the weather, dear reader. So, with that in mind, I whipped up a really quick and easy snack. All you need are three ingredients for this one.

Take 6 California Prunes (pitted) and put them in a small bowl. Pour red wine over the prunes, just until covered. I used Martin’s Pickup Shriaz, because it’s what I had on hand. Any red wine will do. Cover the bowl with food grade wrap to keep the air from drying the prunes out. Soak for at least 12 hours. I started the soaking process before I went to bed. My prunes had been soaking for around 16 hours.

When you get hungry and want a treat, drain the remaining wine off your prunes. Place a scoop of your favorite ice cream in a dish and add the prunes on top. I used Tillamook’s Waffle Cone Swirl Ice Cream, as, again, it’s what I had in the freezer. (Disclaimer – I don’t actually eat ice cream much at all. Maybe twice a year. It was another house inhabitant’s ice cream.)

I had hoped originally to recreate Franks’ Amazing Prunes and Mascarpone Dessert, the recipe for which you can find at Something New For Dinner’s website. I believe very much in using what you have. We did not have mascarpone cheese, nor did we have mint. Thus was born, the concoction above.

For not being an ice cream aficionado, I enjoyed this very much.

As for the star of the show, the drunken prunes, they were insanely moist, plump and delectable. Even with this terrible cold, I enjoyed them tremendously. The tide of my impression of prunes is turning toward a favorable one.

For those of you who choose to not indulge in sprits, you can try soaking these in nonalcoholic wine, or plain old grape juice overnight. I am guessing they will plump up just as nicely.

One change I would make is, if I could have chosen a different ice cream it would have been the good old fashioned New York Vanilla. Tillamook is great, but Kemps New York Vanilla would do for me. Why New York vanilla you ask? I like eggs. They add body. Other vanillas often don’t have egg in their finished product.1

As for myself, I am crossing my fingers, the little bit of alcohol might help me get rid of this bug sooner, as I would love to make a few more involved dishes with prunes to display.

  1. https://oldschoolpastry.pastrysampler.com/all-about-ice-cream-difference-between-new-york-philadelphia-french-and-italian-ice-cream/#:~:text=Basic%20Differences%20Between%20New%20York,made%20from%20cream%20and%20eggs. ↩︎
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Stewed Prunes with Vanilla Sugar and Star Anise

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Day Two/Seven – Monday, October 21, 2024

A quick disclaimer. I am under the weather pretty badly today. I was trying to decide if I would continue with my adventure into the world of prunes this week. I chose to forge forward, but given my low energy, I thought I would do a simple, quick recipe.

Stewed prunes do not sound good. Actually, they sound God awful. But, these were surprisingly fantastic! I cannot say how pleased I was at the outcome. I made this recipe up by riffing off instructions for stewed prunes I found in my Grandma’s old cookbook, “The American Woman’s Cook Book” from 1948.1 The steps to make this snack are quite simple.

Pour 1/2 cup of water into a small saucepan. Add 6 prunes to the water and bring to a boil. Add a sprinkling of vanilla sugar and one whole star anise. After a hard boil is achieved, turn heat down to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes. Then remove from heat. Let stand for another 20 minutes to cool and blossom. Enjoy!

The star anise and vanilla sugar are optional. Technically, you can make stewed prunes with just prunes and water. I used the vanilla sugar and star anise to jazz it up.

I am especially fond of Nordic Sprinkle’s vanilla sugar. The sugar plus the anise makes the prunes taste very Scandinavian indeed!

These stewed prunes were simple and quick to make. They turned out plump, moist and delicious. I would make these again. They were hands down better than dried prunes.

What other additives would be good in stewed prunes? Maybe cinnamon and orange? If you have any ideas, please share them with me. I plan to make stewed prunes again this week.

Hopefully, I will have more energy tomorrow and can make something a bit more involved. Stay tuned dear reader!

  1. Home, Delineator, and Ruth Berolzheimer. The American Woman’s Cook Book. Garden City Publishing, 1948.
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Old Fashioned Oats with Cinnamon and Prunes

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Day One/Seven – Sunday, October 20, 2024

Lunch today was a variation of Flourishing Foodie’s Stewed Prunes with Oatmeal. I made some alterations right off the bat. I wanted to be very easy on the stomach, so I decided to just cut the prunes up and add them to the oats as they were cooking. I opted to use old fashioned oats instead of instant, as old fashioned oats stick with a body a bit longer. I cooked 1/2 a cup of old fashioned oats in 1 cup of water. Then I added 6 diced California Prunes (Sunsweet Pitted Prunes). Six actually seemed like a generous amount of prunes. But, I wanted to consume what the vintage ad suggested. I tapped in a dash of ground cinnamon.

While the oatmeal was cooking, I snacked on the almonds the recipe suggested adding. As I had already eaten my fair share by the time the oatmeal was nearing done, so I omitted adding almonds. I considered using the orange slices, but the oranges I had on hand did not look the best, so I skipped those too.

Once the prunes softened and the oatmeal was fully cooked, I added about a tablespoon of honey. I finished the oatmeal, by added a splash of oat milk to cream it up. I enjoyed the oatmeal with a cup of coffee and cup of Siggi’s Icelandic Yogurt for more protein.

All in all, I found the addition of prunes to be pleasant. Reminiscent of a cross between dates and raisins. I may try this oatmeal again this week, but with more of a nutty, salty appeal to it.

Time will tell if those six prunes will give me more energy. It can’t hurt to have more potassium in your diet. One serving of prunes also contains:

Table Found on Heathline.com.

I honestly am not holding my breath, but it is worth a try.

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Feeling Sluggish? Try California Prunes!

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Vintage Advertisement of the Week – October 13, 2024

California Prune Growers Advertisement – Life Magazine, January 5, 1942

Those poor California Prune Growers. What they’ve had to endure over the years. There really is no great way to sell prunes, is there? They tried their best, especially during the war years, but they had a lot of ground to make up.

During the late 1800’s, eager and ambitious California farmers over planted plum trees, designated for the prune industry. Their goal in doing so, was to push out the supply of prunes being imported from Europe. By 1900 they succeeded in doing just that. 85 prune packing plants were up and running in California1. The price of prunes dropped as suppliers in the Eastern United States and overseas mixed poor quality fruits with the California prunes, degrading the product. Prune fanatics throughout the world were not thrilled with the cheapening of their beloved dried fruit.2

Enter the war years, the WWII years, to be specific. Dried fruits were considered to be a processed food. Certain processed foods, such as prunes, were rationed in the United States from March of 1943 to August of 1945.3 This coupled with the ever-changing landscape of wartime trade policies and the sale of prunes plummeted.4 It was the second biggest blow to the industry since the inferior fruit debacle. The California Prune Growers needed a plan.

What angle could they take to sell their product? Prunes have to be one of the least exciting of all fruits, dried or otherwise. My grandparents ate them. The only cake I ever remember eating that my maternal grandmother made was prune cake. Sounds gross, but it actually was pretty good. It tasted like spice cake with white boiled frosting. I think my maternal grandpa actually ate stewed prunes. As a kid of the 80s, it sounded so depression era disgusting, I never tried them.

In fact, prunes got such a bad rap throughout the 20th century, marketers changed their name to dried plums in 2001, to get away from just the type of ad you see above. (18 years later in 2019, they changed it back to prunes.)5 Rebranding didn’t work.6

Back to our wartime ad…

The money is on regularity. Mother keeps you kids regular by serving you prunes, she should practice what she preaches. So should Dad. If you possess digestive regularity, you will naturally have more energy.

Other ways people can have more energy? In Dad’s case, he could not work so many hours at the office. Maybe he’s under a lot of pressure to meet a deadline at the insurance agency or he had to work a double shift at the factory to meet his quota for the war effort. Or, maybe his factory makes him work swing shift hours and his sleep schedule is so screwed up he can barely keep his eyes open during his “normal waking hours”. On weekends, he is expected to fix everything that breaks around the house inside and out. Not to mention mow in the summer and shovel in the winter. There are loads of things that could contribute to Dad feeling weighed down and tired.

As for mother, she is most likely exhausted from dusting, vacuuming, sweeping, tending her victory garden, volunteering with the PTA, bluing and starching clothes, feeding said clothes through the wringer washer, hanging up clothes to dry on the line in the basement during winter, ironing them once they are dry, doing dishes and making beds. I’ll bet her feet hurt from walking to and from downtown, since they only have one car and Dad needs it to get to work. Women had plenty of things to keep them busy during the day. There was no lack of drudgery in one’s life.

Oh wait, this is the 40s. The kids probably did help out. Making their own beds and setting the table. “Jimmy” probably knew how to use the push mower. “Sally” most likely helped with the dishes and dusting. Everyone had their roles. But, the brunt of life’s responsibilities fell squarely on the parents’ shoulders. As usual.

All this talk about prunes got me thinking. Would their campaign actually help one feel more energized and regular? More fiber in one’s diet can’t be a bad thing. Maybe it would be a good idea to try to incorporate more prunes in my own life. Personally, I don’t mind having some prunes now and again. You can make a valiant attempt to trick your mind into thinking you are eating chocolate. For a split second it works, until your brain catches up with reality.

I read their 30-second health quiz and I am sold on trying it out. Beyond regularity, prunes have enormous health benefits. Flourishing Foodie7 highlights these benefits as:

WHAT ARE THE NUTRITIONAL BENEFITS OF PRUNES?

Prunes are a source of copper and manganese which contribute to the protection of cells from oxidative stress.

Prunes are a perfect low-calorie snack. A single serving of 4-5 prunes contains under 100 calories. 

Prunes contain natural sugars and have a low glycemic index, meaning that the rise in blood sugar is much slower, keeping you satiated longer. 

A serving of prunes contains 3g of fiber. Including fiber-rich foods in your diet helps to improve digestive health and reduce symptoms of poor gastrointestinal health such as bloating, cramping, constipation, and heartburn. 

A serving of prunes contains 23 mcg of vitamin K which is important for bone health. 

Prunes are a source of vitamin B6 and copper which contribute to the normal function of the immune system.

Sounds like I’ve been missing out on a fantastically, nutritious food choice. What a dope I’ve been!

Starting Sunday, October 20, 2024, I am going to try a seven day prune challenge.

Without a doubt, I will grow sick and tired of snacking on prunes, so, I will try to find fun recipes to try. (Prune cake and prune whip anybody?) Are you willing to try this with me? Maybe you have a recipe that includes prunes that you care to share?

Even though this first recipe is not technically vintage, I would love to give another shout out to Heather Hands of Flourishing Foodie. I will try her recipe for Oatmeal with California Prunes. (Check her blog out, it’s gorgeous.) I will post a picture of my version on the 20th!

Prune’s Away!

  1. “History.” California Prunes | Prunes. For Life., californiaprunes.org/history/.
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  2. “History.” California Prunes | Prunes. For Life., californiaprunes.org/history/.
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  3. Springate, Megan. “Food Rationing on the World War II Home Front (U.S. National Park Service).” Www.nps.gov, 16 Nov. 2023, http://www.nps.gov/articles/000/food-rationing-on-the-world-war-ii-home-front.htm.
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  4. “History.” California Prunes | Prunes. For Life., californiaprunes.org/history/.
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  5. Koger, Chris. “Dried Plums No Longer: California Prunes Have New Brand.” The Packer, 23 May 2019, http://www.thepacker.com/news/retail/dried-plums-no-longer-california-prunes-have-new-brand. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.
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  6. The Society Pages. “Re-Branding the Prune – Sociological Images.” Thesocietypages.org, 2016, thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/01/10/re-branding-the-prune/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.
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  7. Hands, Heather. “Flourishing Foodie.” Flourishing Foodie , 16 Apr. 2020, http://www.flourishingfoodie.com/blog/2020/3/16/oatmeal-with-stewed-california-prunes. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.
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