My parents have recently been telling all of us in our family about their bounteous fall harvest coming from their fruit trees and grapes. They have tons of apples, apricots, peaches, plums as well as a very prosperous grape vine. They have recently been picking all the zillions of plums and my sister recommended a recipe for a delicious-looking rustic plum pie with a biscuit-type topping.. I don’t have a tree giving me bushels of fresh plums, but I do have a Ralph’s right next to me that is more than happy to have me take some off their hands. After seeing this recipe, I headed straight over to get a couple pounds of fresh plums and got right to it!

I was excited to see that I am not the only one sharing Natasha’s recipes all over the place because this was another recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen, whose recipes I just adore. This is yet another five-star recipe to add to the mix. Natasha has a plum tree as well and came up with a couple of plum pie recipes to use up lots of her plums and she now claims that she loves plum pies more than cherry pies! That’s a pretty bold statement, but you’ll see why as soon as you make it. Plums are perfect for baking because they produce a beautiful, deep pink/purple color and are sweet, but not too sweet. 

This recipe is a different kind of pie--to me it reminds me more of a crisp or crumble because you add the fruit to the bottom and the crusty layer on the top. There is no bottom layer like a traditional pie. This recipe is also really fun because you add your “biscuit” dough to the top in globs; she recommends using a cookie scooper. You leave space in the center for the pie filling to be able to vent--this also helps give the pie a more rustic look.

Notes on Substitutions:

Can you substitute peaches for the plums?

It is pretty easy to swap out any of the fruits in the stone fruit family such as peaches, nectarines, apricots, or even cherries in the recipe. They should all bake up the same and no adjustments need to be made (other than you don’t need to cut up your cherries into quarters :) as that would make them too small and would be an unnecessary step). 

Can you substitute another fruit like apples for this biscuit pie?

When a reader asked about this, Natasha suggested they use slightly less of the dry ingredients since apples don’t release as much moisture when baking as plums do. You could experiment on your own and give it a try, but it might be best to stick to a specific apple pie recipe.

Have you tried a plum pie before? What is your favorite way to eat them? Fresh, dried, or baked in a dish? Pleases share your thoughts in the comments below. 



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