Sugarplum Pie & My Blogiversary!

Sugarplum Pie

Ingredients:
Pie dough:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons (trans-fat free) shortening
5-6 tablespoons ice water

2 lbs. black plums, peeled, pitted, thinly sliced
3/4 cup coarsely chopped dried plums
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (not too coarse)

Directions:
1 egg whisked together with 1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (raw)

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Work the butter and shortening in, using a pastry blender or your fingers, until pea-sized lumps form. Sprinkle in the water, 1 tbsp. at a time, stirring gently with a fork after each addition and adding only enough of the water to form a rough mass.

Using floured hands, divide the dough in half, and pat into 2 smooth, flattened disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together plums, dried plums, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and pepper, until well combined.

Remove pie dough rounds from refrigerator, and allow to warm up a bit before you start rolling. Roll out one of your pie dough rounds, thinly, on a floured surface, and fit into a 9-inch pie plate; dust bottom of dough with a little bit of flour to prevent the crust from getting soggy. Pour the plums into the pie plate.
Roll out the second pie dough round and fit it over the top of plums. Trim away the excess dough, and make the crust look all pretty. Brush the egg mixture evenly over dough.

Bake pie for 40 minutes; remove from oven and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Return pie to oven and bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until crust is golden brown. If your crust or your crust edges starts to brown too quickly, cover with foil.

Cool pie on a wire rack, to room temperature, before slicing.

Yield: 8-10 slices