Pluot compote and almond crumble sunday.

I am a pretty healthy eater, but I have always been a sweet person. Chocolate in particular is my Achilles heel. If I were forced to eat just one thing for the rest of my life, it just might be, most probably would be, chocolate. When hearing the dessert specials at a restaurant, I usually just hear, blah, blah, chocolate mousse, blah blah blah, double chocolate cake, etc. I love good chocolate, very dark, slightly bitter, and complex in flavor chocolate, but I will even eat it when its not so good, overly sweet, and probably really just corn syrup masked as chocolate.

That is why it was a bit of a surprise when a craving for this vanilla ice cream dish, drizzled with pluot compote and topped with almond crumble came to mind. And you know what, it was even better than I thought it would be.
It was so good, that I would even, maybe, choose it over a piece of the good dark chocolate.

I recently received another delightful Farm Fresh Miami bag with my favorite pluots. And I ate most of them the natural way, eating it like I would an apple, but with the few I had left over, and the plums I picked up on sale at the store I couldn't get out of my mind the idea of making a plum compote. I love compotes. My father always made  fresh apple compote to accompany a meal of roasted chicken. He made it the most natural way, with just peeled apples, and a little bit of water, slowing cooking them down so the apples release their natural sugars. I added a bit of sugar to my compote, but still allowed it to cook down slowly, until the fruit quite litteraly just broke down to the right consistency.

My original plan was to make this compote to accompany a savory meal, such as a pork tenderloin, but as I said, when I got a craving for this desert combination, it was just what had to be made. And I do not regret it. It is one that I will make over and over again, until the plum season regretfully comes to an end.

..............................................................................................................................................
Almond crumble, pluot compote, & vanilla ice cream
Serves 4-6
1 lb. pluots and/or plums
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond flour (or almonds ground in a food processor)
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 stick butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 pint really good vanilla ice cream
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In the bowl of your food processor, mix the almonds, flour, and sugar. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles course bread crumbs. Pour the mixture into a smallish (8x8) oven proof dish and bake for 45 minutes.
While the almond crumb is baking, core and cut the pluots into 1/2 inch pieces. Place in a large pan, along with the sugar, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the pluots have cooked down, about 30 minutes. Once the compote has cooled slightly, you can the purree the mixture, which I did, though I think it was better when it still had some bigger pluot pieces in it.
When the crumb is done, indicated by a nice golden color, break it up with a fork.
Get your bowls ready, scoop in the desired amount of ice cream, top with a healthy serving of the compote, and sprinkle with almond crumb. Enjoy!