Sweet Fresh Plum Sonker Recipe

This sweet plum sonker, similar to a cobbler, is a rectangular shaped deep dish pie crust filled with fresh plums coated in light brown sugar. This recipe is easy to make and can be adapted to include other seasonal fruits throughout the year.

Everything you love about plum cobbler, but in a deep dish pie form!

Tis the season of fresh plums! Oh how I absolutely love plums! They are my most favorite late summer fruit. I love them fresh and I loved them turned into Plum Cream Cheese Tarts, and Homemade Fresh Purple Plum Pies.

I recently ordered two bags of plums from in my grocery order and I’ve been busy creating several new baked goodies! Like todays recipe for a Plum Sonker, styled very similar to my Apple Raisin Sonker | Deep Dish Apple Pie.

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I have been loving sonker recipes lately. Sonkers are similar to a cobbler or a deep-dish pie filled with fruit fillings. Yum!!! Sonkers are a sweet and savory dessert that originated in North Carolina. Flaky pie crust stuffed with various fruit fillings baked to perfection!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This plum sonker recipe is so easy! You can use store-bought pie crust or make your own homemade pie crust (like I prefer) with just flour, butter, shortening, a little sugar, salt and water. It’s super easy and out of this world delicious!

I think you’ll also love it because it’s not overly sweet. Not overly tart. And certainly not overly complicated to make. It’s the perfect dessert to make quickly and is perfect for using up any plums you may have laying around that need to get used before they spoil.

How To Make A Plum Sonker

For this recipe, the amount of ingredients is partially dependent on the size baking dish you use. For mine, I use a vintage 7.5×9 Pyrex dish I bought at an antique store in-between baseball games for my son one Sunday afternoon! 😊 (I like to make great use of my time! haha!)

With a dish that is 7.5×9 inches, I used two pie crusts (which is one full recipe of my homemade pie crust) and about 10 small plums. The reason I used so many plums was because I first layered an entire row of plums on the bottom of my baking dish and then layered another layer of sliced plums on top.

If you’re baking dish is smaller or not as deep, you may get away with using less fresh plums.

Step 1: Divide The Pie Crust Dough

When I make my homemade pie crust, I always cut it in half before wrapping in plastic wrap and storing in the refrigerator. Regardless of what pie crust you are using, now is the time to make sure you have two equal halves.

Sprinkle your counter with a small amount of flour, this is called bench flour. This will help prevent the pastry dough from sticking to the counter or the rolling pin.

Step 2: Roll Out Pastry Dough

Roll out one of the pie crusts on a lightly floured surface using a rolling pin to about 1/4″ thick. Place the pie dough bottom on the bottom and up the sides to the rim of the pie plate or baking dish.

Step 3: Slice Plums

Wash the plums and slice into 1/4-1/2″ thick slices. Then gently toss in a small bowl with 1/4 cup light brown sugar.

Step 4: Fill Sonker with Plums

Depending on how deep your baking dish is, you can line your baking dish with a layer of sugared plums in the opposite direction of what you want your top layer to be. I did this so the top layer of plums would have something “level to sit on”.

Step 5: Add More Plums!

Align another layer of plums! The more the better!

Step 6: Create A Lattice Top

Next I rolled out the 2nd pie crust on a lightly floured surface and cut it with the pasta dough roller I bought while in Italy. If you don’t have a fancy edge roller, you can use a pizza roller or sharp knife to cut 1 1/2″ – 2″ wide long strips to create a lattice top.

Cut each piece in strip long enough to cover the longest length of the baking dish.

Place strips on top of the pie filling, spaced equally apart – this creates the air vents where you can see the sliced plums below. Next layer the remaining pastry dough strips in the opposite direction, in an over, under pattern.

Once the lattice top was complete, I used the tines of a fork to seal the curst edges.

Step 7: Bake

Place on a lower oven rack and bake in a hot oven of 425°F for 30-40 minutes. Start checking every 5 minutes starting at 20 minutes to ensure that your pie crust does not get too brown.

Step 8: Enjoy!

Once you remove the sonker from the oven, let it rest out on the counter for about 15 minutes before cutting into and serving. Serve by itself or topped with ice cream or whipped cream!

Everyone in my family … and beyond loved it! I was so happy to see my daughter and her best friend enjoying it after school one day! Recipes that the kids love = a double win in my book!

Tips For Making The Perfect Pie Sonker

Too Much Juice in Pie

The sonker was delicious and so full of flavor. However, the only issue I had was that there was a lot of juice. This is because the sugars and water in the fruit cook down to liquid form when baking.

The way to prevent too much liquid from appearing in the bottom of your pies or sonkers is to mix in 1 tablespoon of cornstarch into your pie filling BEFORE baking. The cornstarch acts as a thickener but does not alter the taste of the pie.

Juice Bubbled Over The Baking Dish Edges

If your baking dish was stuffed to the rim, there’s a likely chance that your pie filling bubbled over and made a mess on the bottom of your oven. Rather than stuffing your cobbler with less fruit, simply place your baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet before putting it in the oven. This way, all spillover will be collected on the baking sheet.

Trouble with Pastry Dough

Always, always, always bake with chilled pastry dough when making pies, cobblers or sonkers. Pastry dough is filled with butter and shortening, which becomes solidified when cold. When the dough becomes too warm, it becomes meltable and doesn’t form into strips or molded pie crust very well.

I can’t wait to create more delicious recipes with the rest of the fresh plums I have!