Andrea's Healthy European Plum Cobbler

Growing up, my parents had several European plum (French prune) trees in their yard. So while it was plum season, my mom would make lots of plum cakes and tarts. They were delicious but not low in calories...

The other day I saw organic European plums at the market and just had to get some. Actually, I got a lot, and they ripened faster than I thought they would. So I had to find a way to use them quickly.

Since I'm not much of a baker, I was looking for an easy recipe and thought of a cobbler. I looked through quite a few recipes but all of them used lots of sugar and butter. So I decided to experiment a bit and came up with my own recipe.

I started by cutting about 3 cups of plums in quarters and drizzled them with lemon juice.

Then I mixed a tablespoon of sugar with a teaspoon of cinnamon and put the mixture onto the plums.
Next I made the topping by mixing together the following:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of butter (set aside 1 tablespoon to melt and drizzle over the top later)
  
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
  
• Pinch of salt

I mixed all of the dry ingredients in a bowl. Then I cut the butter (less one tablespoon) into small pieces and put it on top of the dry ingredients and mixed them together. The mixture was crumbly but not as crumbly as if I had used more flour and butter...

I baked the cobbler at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then I melted the tablespoon of butter I had set aside and poured it over the cobbler. I baked it for another 10 minutes. Here is the finished cobbler.

It was delicious. The fruit was nice and juicy and so flavorful. I think the "secret" was that the plums were the perfect ripeness.

Question: What's your favorite fruity dessert?

Be well,
Andrea