Baked Plums: my easiest recipe

I have come to realize over the years that I have very different standards than most people for what constitutes a "fast and easy" recipe.   Though this takes about an hour to bake, no one will dispute that it is EASY.

We first had it at Balkanika, a Macedonian restaurant on Ninth Avenue.  They served it with whipped cream, which we didn't particularly care for.  The ideal accompaniment would probably be kaymak, a Balkan clotted cream, if you can find it.  But ice cream or sorbet is easily available and quite good.  It is a great alternative to baked apples.  The flesh is always tender and the cooked plums have their own tart/sweet complexity that requires little additional seasoning.  You just have to remember that there is a small and very hard pit in the center.  This has become our Friday dinner dessert of preference when we don't have guests, because it is low in both effort and calories. 

Baked Plums

Ingredients

• 2 medium-large black plums per person
• Vegetable oil or spray
• Honey and cinnamon (optional)
• Vanilla ice cream or coconut sorbet (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Oil  or spray a baking dish that will fit all of the plums snugly.
3. If you want, drizzle lightly with honey and dust with a little cinnamon.
4. Bake 45 minutes to one hour, depending on size of the plum.  Ideally, they should not burst.  They can stay warm in a turned off or low oven for a long time.  (If holding in a warm oven, cut down on the baking time.)
5. Serve warm, ideally with ice cream or sorbet.

Notes:  I don't prick the plums before baking.  This will prevent them from bursting (which usually doesn't happen in any case) but it also causes the juices to run out.  There isn't much more to say, this is really simple.