Plum Lavender - Experimental Pie

I have been baking a lot of pies from a lot of recipes. Generally though they are recipes from pre-1970, and they are often too sweet. I wanted to update the tastes and flavor and cut down on the sweet.

I bought a bunch of duarte plums. They are purple-black on the outside and yellow on the inside. The skin is tart and the inside is mellow sweet.

I decided to try this press in crust recipe with plums and my updates.

Press-in-pan pastry

• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 1/2 c soft butter
• 1 egg
• 1/3 c sugar
• 1/8 t salt
  

Filling

• 2 lbs duarte plums quartered and pitted
• 3 T sugar
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1 T butter
• 2 T fresh lavender chopped

Pastry - Beat egg until frothy, add sugar and salt; beat until thickens. Blend butter into dry ingredients. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Press dough into a 9" - greased - pie plate. Put in the refrigerator.

Pit and quarter the plums and arrange them on the pie plate. Sprinkle with remaining ingredients.

Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for 45 minutes longer.

The pie was beautiful. The crust was something between cake, crust and cookie. It enveloped the pie. The lavender was great. The lemon juice though was too tangy - and it wasn't sweet enough. A very adult pie.

Hubby liked the experimental idea - but thought it was too tart - ice cream was must. But it is worth some tweaks and a try again.