Italian Plum Custard Pie on Hazelnut Crust

The bad news: this month has been really, really hard. the good news: I can make pie. Lots and lots of pie. Some people deal with their struggles by going to church, running for miles on end, or cleaning their houses from top to bottom. Me, I like to make pies. I'm a lucky person. I live where produce is abundant, and I have in-laws with the most beautiful Italian plum tree that they graciously allow me to pick when the fruit is ripe. I love it. 


Climbing up their ladder to pick the top of the tree (I don't have to, but I like to) reminds me of picking cherries in 7th grade with my sister when we hadn't lived in Washington long. It was a grind at the time--seriously early mornings--I was terrible at it, I was lazy, and didn't do it long at all--but we really did have fun.  I picked that plum tree last week and brought the bag home and did nothing but look at it for days. I felt sad. I made some chutney and canned a whole gaggle of jars. I still felt sad. And then I made this pie, which made me feel a little better. I think I'll have some more tonight and feel even better. Got a little time? You might take a crack at it, your heart might just feel a little lighter like mine did.

Italian Plum Custard Pie on Hazelnut Crust

Ingredients:
Crust & Topping
1/2 C hazelnuts, shelled
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 C all purpose flour
3/4 C unsalted butter, chilled and cut into domino-sized chunks

Filling
1 lb. Italian plums, pitted and quartered
1/4 C granulated sugar
2 T all purpose flour
1/4 C heavy cream
1/4 C whole milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a heavy sauce pan on a burner over medium heat. Add the hazelnuts. 

Shake the pan back and forth every few minutes for around 5 minutes, or until the hulls begin to come off, and they begin to smell delicious. Remove from the heat and allow to cool until you can handle the hazelnuts without burning yourself. 

This will take around 10 minutes. Remove all the hulls and add to a bowl of a food processor. Combine with all dry ingredients and pulse a couple times. Add the butter, a few pieces at a time and pulsing until the dough looks crumbly, but combined. 

Take about 1 1/2 C of the mixture and press into a pie plate. 

Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Rinse, pit and quarter the plums. 

 

Pour into the cooled pie shell. Combine remaining filling ingredients and whisk together. 
Pour over the plums in the shell. Top with remaining crumble mixture. There may be some extra depending on how thick you made your pie crust. 

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 55 minutes.