Italian Prune Plum Pie - with update re freezing the plums for later use & additional note

September 2021 Edit - The baking time for the pie is actually at least an hour - it needs to bake until the juice that is dripping out of the pie onto the drip pan looks jellified, and not just juicy. If it starts to look too brown to you, slide a sheet of foil over the pie. I heard a pie expert on NPR say that pies should go into a preheated 500F degree oven, with the heat immediately turned down to 350F. This is probably equivalent to Grandma's instruction to bake the pie for 10 minutes at 450F and then reduce the temp to 350F for the rest of the time.  

Italian prune plums are in season right now. We look for them in the store in late summer. They are only available for a few weeks, so keep an eye out. (I think if you use the "cooked" filling method on the recipe card, you can freeze the prepared plum filling and save it for later.)

You need 30 plums for deep-dish crusts, 25 for regular crusts. I'll come back later and type out the whole recipe - for now, I'm just going to post pics of my recipe card, along with some step-by-step pics of the pie above in process.

I did bake this longer than the recipe says - 10 minutes at 450, then 50 minutes at 350 - there should be juice running out of the pie onto the pan underneath when it is done. The juice should look like fruit jelly. (OK, that's a hint to include - put a pizza pan under the pan to bake it or you will mess up your oven.)

I know this pie looks messy, but it will be delicious - sweet and tart at the same time.

You will need a package of purchased frozen pie crusts, as well as the plums, sugar, a small amount of flour, salt (1/4 t.), 2 T. lemon juice, and sugar. I think the butter mentioned in the recipe is supposed to be dabbed on in lumps before the top crust goes on, but I've never used it. I do brush the top with a small amount of water and sprinkle sugar on it before baking it. Also, cut some slits in the top crust before baking.

Step-by-step progress photos are below.

Edit - 4-1-2020 - I prepared a batch of plums and froze them back in August, and just thawed them for a pie. I cut up the plums, cooked them slightly with the sugar, salt & nutmeg, then stirred in the flour before freezing them in a container. Next time, I will omit the flour when freezing the plums for later use - I was afraid to thaw the plums in the microwave because of the flour. 

Edit 8-19-2023 - Yesterday, we prepared 30 pounds of plums for pies, pitting, cutting, adding sugar, lemon & flour, and put the filling in pie pans to freeze. Found out later that if the prepared plums sit for any period of time (this was about 2 hours) they will generate a lot of juice. The juice overflowed the pans and leaked through the bottom of the foil, which I put a seam in to make it big enough. So the moral of the story is to freeze the prepared plums right away. PS - 30 pounds of Italian plums made the filling for 16 pies; 1 pound 12 ounces of pitted plums per pie, when weighed.