And even though it’s already a really good dessert by itself, if you add some good quality vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, I promise you will be in heaven. It bakes up surprisingly balanced and is easy to put together. It makes the doughy part more cakey and less biscuit-like. I really like this version of cobbler that added the fruit on top of the doughy part. The final minor change was just to use a combination of all-purpose with cake flour, to help keep it more “cakey” and light. I also decided to use an orange instead of a lemon because initially when I used the much sour foraged fruit from my ‘hood, I didn’t want another ingredient that was also very sour, and so I thought the orange zest and juice would help balance out the sour with some sweet. And the batter looks surprisingly small before being baked, but it puffs up beautifully around the fruit. I decreased the amount for the batter from the original recipe initially because I had less plums that I foraged, but now that I’ve baked this twice, I do like the decreased ratio of cake or dough to the fruit. I still might try to ask them, maybe offer to bake something for them in return. I stopped by there yesterday to ask if I could pick some, but they weren’t home, so I didn’t pick the fruit and decided to just buy some at the local grocery store. In fact, just the other day, I noticed a house about three blocks away with Italian plums on a tree that look like they’re ready to be picked. After finding a plum tree nearby, I learned that not only was it an Italian prune plum tree, (special thanks to Sherry from Facebook!) but that this type of plum tree is very common all over the Seattle area, usually in parking strips and as front yard trees. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with Italian plums. And those are great, but I didn’t know one can find bigger fruit! PLUMS!

I’ve already posted before about foraging for blackberries and rosehips.

I feel so grateful to have easy access to small bodies of water, wildlife, and to be able to forage for pesticide-free fruits that grow on public land. If there has been one clear benefit since working from home and thus having more time to walk around and explore my ‘hood, it’s been becoming more engaged with my surroundings and appreciating the nature that surrounds me. This is sort of a cakey version of a cobbler, adapted from here. I keep wanting to type ‘pudding’ instead of ‘cobbler’ for this recipe, but I don’t know why, lol.

Free download italian plums