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Good cooking is one of our oldest of arts

Original Plum Torte, made with fresh plums, soon to be ripe and ready from
north central Wisconsin trees, is a favorite. Plums are rich in Vitamins A
and C, and low in calories, one deep purple plum is 36 calories, a cup of
plum halves, 102. Cook book authors Marian Burros and Lois Levine included
this famous and the most requested recipe ever published by the New York
Times, in From The Elegant But Easy Cookbook. This Plum Torte recipe, first
published in the Times in 1981, was reprinted every year in the paper’s
cooking columns, 1983-1995, by reader demand. It is from a now fragile and
yellowed clipping of the Times’s Original Plum Torte recipe that last Sunday
afternoon, I made this favorite.

1 stick unsalted butter softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons (brown) sugar
1 cup unbleached flower – sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
pinch of salt
24 plum halves ( I used purple plums)
1 teaspoon cinnamon – more to individual taste
Juice of a lemon

Arrange a rack in the lower third of the oven, preheated to 350 degrees.
Cream the butter and the 3/4 cup of sugar. Add the flour, baking powder,
eggs, and salt; beating well. Spoon the batter into an ungreased 9 or 10-
inch spring form pan. Cover the top with the plums, skin sides up. Sprinkle
the 2 Tablespoons sugar (I used brown sugar) and cinnamon over the top,
adding the juice on a lemon. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until a toothpick
inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool. Serve
simply or with some vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy. The recipe is simple and reliable.

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