Purple Plum and Fig-topped Coffee Cake

  
Serves 8-12

Tip: I thought about glazing this coffee cake (and you certainly could), but changed my mind when I sliced a small sample the night I baked it. This is one of the best coffee cakes I’ve eaten; it has such intense fruit flavor. Plums and figs are a delicious combination, yet super easy because you just rinse, dry, trim and cut the fruit…no peeling or blanching required. However, don’t hesitate to try this coffee cake with other fruit. I plan to try it with sour cherries, rhubarb, nectarines or peaches with blueberries. I may even throw in a few chopped pecans. Crazy, huh? 😉

Ingredients
2 tsp butter for baking pan
1 cup (8 oz) unsalted butter
4 large purple or red plums, ripe but firm
6 Black Mission figs, ripe but firm
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 tsp sea salt
1 ¼ cups all-purpose (AP) flour
¼ tsp baking powder
1 cup almond flour, finely ground
2 large eggs
1 small lemon
½ tsp pure almond extract

Prep
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Lightly butter a 9” or 10” square cake pan, line with pieces of parchment paper that fit within the sides of the pan and leave an overhang on all 4 sides. (Note: You will use the parchment overhang to lift the coffee cake out of the pan when it has cooled.) Lightly butter the parchment paper.

Wash and dry plums, figs and lemon. Cut plums in half; remove the pits, then cut each plum in half once more for quartered pieces. Remove stems from figs; cut each fig into 4 pieces.

Directions
Stir together ½ cup sugar and ¼ tsp sea salt in a large bowl. Zest lemon over the sugar. Add cut plums and figs, then squeeze juice from lemon over the fruit and toss together. Set fruit aside.

Using a food processor, blend 1 cup AP flour with ¼ cup sugar and ¼ tsp salt. Add 4 oz (1/2 cup) butter; pulse a few times to achieve crumbs. (No need to clean the food processor at this point.) Press dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes.

Using the food processor, combine the remaining ½ cup sugar with ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp baking powder. Add 4 oz (1/2 cup) butter; blend briefly. Add remaining ¼ cup AP flour, almond flour, eggs and almond extract. Pulse several times to blend completely and made a smooth, spreadable batter. Evenly spread batter over the cooled crust. Place pieces of plum and fig over the batter, skin side down. Stir remaining sugar/fruit juice mixture in the bowl and spoon over the fruit in the pan.

Bake for 55 to 65 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the cake (without poking through fruit) should come out clean. Let coffee cake cool on a rack for 15 minutes; lift out of the pan using the overhanging parchment strips and place it on a wire rack to continue cooling for 1 hour before serving. Serve warm or cool. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator.