Has anyone tried Asian plums for baked goods such as cakes, crisps, or pies? My wife makes delicious coffee cakes with Italian Prune plums, but I also grow Beauty and Shiro Asian plums that are mostly wasted because they seem too watery for baking.
I was thinking that if these plums are picked while still firm just before ripening, they might be suitable for baking. It seems like a long shot because I couldn’t find any recipes on Google.
Santa Rosa has more acidity in the flesh than most asian plums, so I tried it in a cobbler and it was good. Santa Rosa underproduces here in northeast, which is unfortunate because I really like the sweet-tart flavor profile. Most asian plums have sweet flesh with tart skins.
Santa Rosa is much firmer when ripe than Beauty or Shiro; so, I’m not surprised that it works OK in baked goods. But I don’t think that it is representative of the bag-of-juice plums. I have a Santa Rosa part on my plum tree, but it only rarely produces more than a few plums.
Aside from having less water and more sugar, Italian prunes actually taste good. Unripe Beauty and Shiro don’t.
If you want to use Beauty in baked goods, I recommend cooking in into jam or compote first.
Shiro doesn’t have much flavor cooked.
They are very watery.
If they’re still very firm you can candy them whole and then keep them refrigerated or frozen in their syrup. You can also mix the finished plums in syrup with a bottle of brandy for every 6 lb you started with and they’ll keep for years. I eat them on their own or to decorate cakes and ice cream. You can also blend candied or brandied plums and use the purée as jam. I’d prefer a greengage or a mirabelle for cooking, but Japanese plums are often all I can find. I find that as long as they’re barely ripe they’re okay.
ETA: I’ve used shiro and early golden this way and they both work, but early golden tastes better.
I don’t really see much use for Asian plums at all. I cut mine down.
Thanks for the replies. This gives me some ideas to try out when the plums are ripening.