Open-Face Plum Pie

My mother particularly enjoyed plums. The only type of jam she ever made was plum jam. We didn't have fruit trees, so she, my sister and I would go to a nearby market and buy plums in summer. I can still picture the brown paper bag laying on the kitchen counter with purple plums spilling out, as she worked to pit and chop all of the plums needed for a batch of jam.

This is her recipe for an open-face plum pie. It's super simple, which makes it appealing for me at this busy time of the year.

Open-Face Plum Pie

Ingredients:

9-inch unbaked pie shell

enough plums to fill the pie shell, a couple of pounds (I used about 40 small plums for this pie)

2 tablespoons of flour

1/4 to 1/2 cup of granulated sugar (amount depending on sweetness of plums, I prefer 1/2 cup)

1  1/2 teaspoons orange zest (nice for flavor, but I often leave it out)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Wash, pit and quarter plums. Toss cut plums with the flour. Arrange plums in a tight circular pattern. Repeat in layers until the pie shell is filled. Sprinkle all over with the orange zest then sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake another 45 minutes.

Cool and allow to stand several hours or overnight to allow the juices to thicken and set.

I baked this pie yesterday afternoon, then served it tonight. So good. So juicy. And so pretty in a simple way. Took me back to my mother's kitchen table.