Drunken Plums with Mustard-Caramel Sauce & Rosemary Shortbread (over ice cream!)

Drunken Plums with Mustard-Caramel Sauce | the pig & quillBelieve it or not, I’m actually going to get right into the recipe today. Pretty incredible, right? No obnoxious detour into what we did this weekend (It was four freaking days long! What didn’t we do!) or how many YA novels I’ve made it through in the past two weeks (Five, you guys! I think that’s a record!) or how my awesome mom and godmom stopped by to gift me and Chris with a funky new cookbook and about 11 lbs of barbecued beef ribs (I have nothing to add! The awesomeness if pretty obvious!).

Instead, I’ll just tell you how stoked I am for the recipes, below, which are my entry for the third and FINAL round of Saucy Mama’s Sliced competition in which entrants are required to use Saucy Mama Mustard and booze (!!) to create a dessert that’s worth a thousand big ones.

Saucy Mama Mustard Trio(‘Member these guys?)

Drunken Plums with Mustard-Caramel Sauce| the pig & quill

A thousand buckaroos, mis amigos. And, of course, the title of Sliced Champion, which, given my fellow food blogger contenders, would be the highest of fives.

Needless to say, it was time to pull out the big guns. As in….

….I actually baked.

Whole Wheat Rosemary-Mustard Shortbread Cookies | the pig & quill

I know, I thought about adding wings to the P&Q piggy logo, too. I mean, it’s only appropriate. But yeah. The oven and I shared a few magical moments and gave birth to something other than a roasted vegetable. It wasn’t like I blacked out and, when I came to, a platter of heart-shaped cookies appeared or anything, but it was about that shocking. Conventional baking just doesn’t happen all that often around here.

Anyway, between the toasty crispness of buttery shortbread and the sweet-tart punch of subtly savory, boozed-up stone fruit, this two-fer dessert manages to take the inclusion of mustard from questionable to exclamatory. Chris even commented (Iron Chef-style) that “it has a really high-end flavor profile” and “I’d request it just like this even if you weren’t required to add the mustard.” Taking into account that Chris is kind of a chocolate-cake-and-lemon-bars kind of guy, I’m basking, just a little.

So I urge you, however skeptical you may be, to give at least one of the mustard-inspired recipes below a shot — knowing, of course, that they’re all the better together.

And did I mention how painless these two recipes are to prepare? Not like I ever make anything all that complicated, but in the first recipe you basically mix everything together and throw it into a pan. And for the cookies, you basically — well, uh — mix everything together and throw it onto a pan. I guess there’s a little rolling-outting-and-cookie-cuttering required, but it’s hardly a chore. In short: you got this, peeps. 

Best of luck, Saucy Mama team! You’ve got your work cut out for you. 😉Whole Wheat Rosemary-Mustard Shortbread Cookies | the pig & quill

Drunken Plums with Mustard-Caramel Sauce | the pig & quill

Drunken Plums with Mustard-Caramel Sauce Over Ice Cream
By Emily Stoffel
Cook time: 30 mins | Serves 3

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup bourbon
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
  • 1 T fresh rosemary, finely minced
  • 2 T Saucy Mama Hatch Chili Mustard (or other sweet-hot mustard)
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper (about 10 grinds)
  • 3 firm plums, pitted and cut into large slices
  • good vanilla ice cream, for serving
  • Whole Wheat Rosemary-Mustard Shortbread Cookies, for serving (see recipe, below)

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine bourbon, brown sugar, rosemary, mustard, olive oil and spices. Add plums and toss lightly to coat. Allow to marinate at least 20 minutes or up to an hour.

Turn plum mixture, with all liquid, into a nonstick skillet and turn flame to med-high. Allow mixture to come to a boil, reducing heat as needed to maintain a bubbling simmer for about 2-5 minutes, until sugar begins to caramelize and thicken. (You’ll notice the bubbles take on a dark, golden hue.) Allow mixture to cool slightly before spooning plums and sauce over cold ice cream. Serve with Whole Wheat Rosemary-Mustard Shortbread Cookies, crumbling the cookies in with the ice cream and fruit as you eat. Yep, yummmm.

Whole Wheat Rosemary-Mustard Shortbread Cookies | the pig & quill

Whole Wheat Rosemary-Mustard Shortbread Cookies
By Emily Stoffel (adapted from Ina Garten)
Cook time: 60 mins | Makes about 36 cookies

Note: These are pretty cute nestled into a bowl of ice cream or tucked into a bowl of slumped fruit, like above. They’d also make an awesome ice cream sandwich or, with the sugar scaled back a bit, they’d be right at home on a cheese platter addition. Get creative. And don’t let the mustard put you off. It’s but a whisper.

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 lb (3 sticks) butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
  • 2 T Saucy Mama Hatch Chili Mustard (or other sweet-hot mustard)
  • 1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely minced
  • 3.5 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt

Instructions

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until just combined. Add mustard, rosemary, salt and flour and mix until ingredients begin to come together. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and form into a disk about the diameter of a salad plate. Wrap in plastic and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350F. Place chilled dough on lightly floured surface and roll out to approximately 1/4″ thickness. Cut into desired shape with cookie cutter and arrange on ungreased (Silpat or parchment-lined is ok) baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar and decorate with a fork, toothpick or bamboo skewer, if you’re feeling artsy. Bake until edges are golden brown, about 20-25 mins.

Allow cookies to cool slightly before transferring to a cooling rack. Re-roll/cut remaining dough, chilling again in the fridge as needed. (Alternatively, tightly wrap remaining dough in plastic wrap and a zip-top bag and refrigerate or freeze for later use.)

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9 Comments on “Drunken Plums with Mustard-Caramel Sauce & Rosemary Shortbread (over ice cream!)”

  1. 11 lbs?! with or without the %!@# cooked out of them? Also, excellent idea w the rosemary, I love me a savory dessert!

    1. More like 3 or 4lbs, but you should see the size of them — and the Rubbermaid container they came in. It takes up half a fridge shelf. I feel like Fred Flintstone every time I open the refrigerator.

    1. I’d say it’s gender neutral. But it’s definitely not as sissy as the heart cookies may lead you to believe. ‘Toopid heart cookies, what was I thinking? 🙂

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