for 8 pieces

Pastry dough

340 g	white flour
50 g	sugar
¼ tsp	salt
170 g	butter, cold, cut into pieces
100 g	cream cheese, chilled

Filling

800 g	plums or damsons, quartered
100 g	sugar
1 tsp	vanilla paste
1 tbsp	Maizena cornflour
1 tbsp	water

To shape

1	egg white, beaten
2 tbsp	sugar

How it's done

Pastry dough

Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and rub together using your hands to form an even, crumbly mixture. Add the cream cheese, mix quickly to form a soft dough; do not knead. Flatten the dough, cover and chill for approx. 1 hr.

Filling

Place the plums, sugar and vanilla paste in a pan, simmer for approx. 5 mins. until just soft. Mix the cornflour with the water, pour into the pan while stirring, simmer for approx. 2 mins. Remove the pan from the heat, leave to cool.

To shape

Roll out half of the pastry to approx. 3 cm larger than the dish. Place the pastry in the dish, press the edges down firmly, trim off the excess. Prick the base firmly with a fork. Spread the filling over the pastry base, smooth down. Roll out the remainder of the pastry to match the size of the dish, cut into strips approx. 3 cm wide. Chill the pastry strips for approx. 10 mins. Lay the pastry strips over the filling in a lattice pattern, pressing down the edges. Brush the pastry with the egg white, sprinkle with sugar.

To bake

Approx. 50 mins. in the centre of an oven preheated to 180 °C. Remove from the oven, leave the pie to cool in the tin on a rack.

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