I can't believe it's August already! Only one more month to enjoy the summer weather and the fruit harvest. In much of Europe, plums are ripe and ready for eating in the month of August (the further north you go, however, this stretches into September).

This month's newsletter will feature how plums are used throughout Europe to create a large variety of products and baked goods. Make sure to read to the end - I give you a bonus recipe that's not featured on the channel!

One of the most popular ways to use fresh plums, no matter the geographic region, is by placing them into a simple cake batter. The Norwegians make plommekake with a sponge cake batter scented with cardamom that’s sometimes sprinkled with crunchy almonds and sugar.

The Finns, however, place their plums into a cheesecake base instead of a sponge cake to make Luumupiirakka.

Over In Luxembourg, plums are sliced and placed cut-side up on a sweet shortcrust base to make a plum tart, or Quetschentaart.

The Germans, Poles, and Czechs make their plum cakes on a yeasted cake base, sometimes topped with streusel or meringue.

Unlike the yeasted German plum cakes, the Swiss have created their own specialty called the Wähe. The Wähe comes in many different varieties, but the basic construction of it is a base layer of shortcrust pastry topped with ground nuts. Sliced plums (or other in season fruit) are placed on top of the ground nuts and a custard made of milk, cream, eggs, and sugar is poured over the tart and then baked.

Further south in Italy, a crostata frangipane alle prugne is made with a shortcrust base topped with plums and frangipane, an almond-based custard.

We can't mention plums without talking about plum dumplings. These are popular throughout all of the former Austro-Hungarian empire and can be made with a dumpling dough made from potato, quark, or farmer's cheese. They are sprinkled with sweet breadcrumbs when served.

I recently shared a video for Austrian apricot dumplings. The recipe for plum dumplings is identical. Just swap out the apricots for plums and you can enjoy the ever-popular Zwetschgenknödeln with your friends and family this year!

In the same video, I also share a recipe for a German yeasted, apricot cake. Same as the dumplings, just swap out the apricots for plums to enjoy a traditional German plum cake.

The plum harvest is often turned into some kind of plum preserve, most often plums that are stewed down (sometimes with added sugar, depending on the country) and stirred for hours until they form a thick sauce or paste. In English, we often call fruit prepared this way fruit butter.

In some countries like Croatia, this plum butter is a thick paste, and in other countries like Germany, it is more like the consistency of applesauce. Preserving and canning the fruit this way makes it possible to enjoy the bounty of the fruit harvest throughout the year without letting any fresh plums go to waste. These plum butters are used in a variety of baked goods throughout Europe.

Last summer I featured a Czech dessert from the region of Wallachia called a Valašský Frgál.

These are a thin, sweet, yeasted crust filled with a variety of different fillings, such as plum butter, pear butter, sweet cheese, and poppy seed. They are a large, flat version of a more commonly known dessert called a kolache (koláč). Frgál are a protected food by the Czech Ministry of Culture.

Watch the video below to learn how to make them, as well as learn how to make plum butter. There's a printable recipe in the description box of the video, too.

Other plum butter desserts include Buchteln or buchty (they have different names depending on which country they come from). Popular throughout many of the countries that used to be part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, they are sweet, yeasted buns filled with plum butter and served in a vanilla sauce. This is the ultimate comfort dessert!

At Christmastime, plum butter is enjoyed in Finland in flaky star pastries called Joulutorttu.

Also during the Christmas season, Poles enjoy traditional gingerbread filled with Powidla, the Polish name for plum butter.

Outside of the realm of baked goods, plums are also harvested to make fruit brandy, such as Zwetschgenwasser from the Germanic countries and Slivovitz from Eastern Europe.

These are all the same product - they're just known under different names depending on which country they're produced in.  Fruit brandies can be found in many European countries using other fruit as well, such as cherries, apricots, etc.

And of course, we can't mention plums without talking about prunes. Prunes (dried plums) are sometimes used in their unprocessed state in baked goods, as well.

In the region of Brittany, France, they make a type of sliceable pudding with prunes called a Far Breton.

Does this look familiar to you? It might be because it is very similar in ingredients and texture to the French cherry clafoutis that I made earlier this summer. You can watch that video below and find the printable recipe in the description box!

Prunes are not just used for consumption, either. In Germany during Christmastime, you can find Zwetschgenmännla, or prune men, for sale at Christmas markets. The little men and women have prune bodies and walnut heads - it doesn't get more creative than that!

This newsletter didn't exhaust every possible plum product made throughout Europe, but I hope it gave you a little culinary tour and introduced you to a few things you'd never heard of before!

Find a recipe below for Norwegian Plommekake to try out with the plum harvest this August. I hope it will give you a new way to use this summer's bounty. Enjoy!