Classic Plum Pie

I went to make a Jammie Dodger Pie to bring to a friend's house for dinner, and the grocery store was out of raspberries.  So, I figured I would follow the original recipe for plum pie that I based the Jammie Dodger Pie on.

Ingredients:

8 plums, pitted and cut into eighths

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 tablespoon of ground cloves

2 tablespoons of King Arthur Flour's Signature Secrets

Directions:
Mix ingredients together and cook over low heat until the plums release their juice and it comes to a boil.  Then spoon into a crust, cover with another crust cut with vents.  Brush the crust with milk and sprinkle with a handful of sugar.  Bake for 10 minutes at 425oF, then reduce the heat to 375oF and bake for another 35 minutes.  Let cool completely before serving.

I thought that using a tablespoon of ground cloves was a lot, since for a pumpkin pie I only use 1/4 teaspoon.  While the filling was cooking and while it was baking, it smelled like the summer of 1999.  It smelled like I had a dozen 18 year-olds smoking Djarum Specials in my kitchen and I thought "Oh shit, I am going to have to throw this out."

However, once it came out of the oven, the smell mellowed.

The pie, served with Vanilla Bean ice cream, was a huge it.  You could taste the clove but it was not as overwhelming as I had originally feared.  My husband ate a whole piece, which I take as huge complement.  Even a little boy, who I think would live off of white rice and soy sauce if he could, ate almost an entire adult-sized serving.  This is a fantastic pie, and I think I may enter it into fair contests next summer.  I am just wondering if I need to find a way to incorporate a vanilla custard layer to keep the excellent balance that it had with the ice cream.  Well, I have eleven months to figure that out.

Piece out!
Justin