Baked plums on toast with mascarpone and lemon

A fantastic plum recipe by Lucy Boyd, daughter of River Café’s Rose Gray and Culinary Director of Michelin-starred Petersham Nurseries to celebrate the English plum season.

This plum recipe serves 4.

Ingredients:

Approx. 600 – 650g plums
4 slices of chewy white sourdough, San Francisco is good or 8 slices of ciabatta cut at an angle just slightly less than 1 cm thick
75g unsalted butter
2 vanilla pods
200g caster sugar
1 thick skinned lemon
40ml brandy
150ml mascarpone

Preheat oven 200c Gas 6

Method

• Slice the vanilla pods in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon then combine with the sugar in a bowl.
• Slice the plums in half and remove the stones then place in a largish bowl. Add the vanilla sugar and the brandy. Toss together and leave to marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.
• Spoon the mascarpone into a bowl and grate the zest of 1/4 lemon, stir to combine.
• Butter the slices of bread then lay each slice buttered side up in an earthenware dish lightly dotted/ greased with the remaining butter large enough so they don’t overlap. Spoon the fruit onto the slices of bread and drizzle over some of the liquor.
• Bake in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes, then remove and place a spoonful of the mascarpone cream over the top of each slice. Return to the oven for a couple of minutes until the mascarpone starts to just melt and collapse.
• Serve hot.