Fletcher's Baked Plums with Crumble

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 kg plum(s)
• 400 g flour
• 290 g sugar
• 200 g butter
• 5 tbsp liqueur, bitter orange
• 3 tbsp almonds, sliced
• 1 vanilla pod(s)
• 300 ml milk
• 4 eggs, (M)
• 3 tbsp sweet cream
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon powder

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 2 hours

Wash, pit, and quarter the plums, then place them in a bowl. Add the bitter orange liqueur and about 30g of sugar, mix well, and let stand for about 30 minutes. For the crumble, knead 200g of sugar with 200g of butter, the flour, and the cinnamon to form crumbles. Grease either four small baking dishes or one large baking dish with about 20g of butter and add half of the crumble. Distribute the plums evenly over the crumble and top with the remaining crumble. Sprinkle with the almonds. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 160°C (fan/convection oven) or 180°C (top/bottom heat). Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for about half an hour. The crumble should be golden brown. For the vanilla sauce, split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds. Place the pod and seeds in a saucepan with 60g of sugar and the milk, and bring to a boil. Separate the eggs and whisk the egg yolks with the cream. Then remove the milk from the heat and immediately whisk it with the egg mixture. Finally, whisk everything thoroughly and pass it through a sieve. Arrange the baked plums with the vanilla sauce on plates and serve.