Fall is in the air, but it is the tail end of the summer stone fruit season. I do everything in my power to cling to summer and that means bottling up both my summer memories and summer plums.
Variety is the Spice of Live – Mix Your Plums
These beauties are at their peak right now and I had a lovely contemplative morning listening to a preserving soundtrack (provided by my personal DJ, Greg) and making spiced plum jam. And I only burned myself twice… (RECORD!)
Jeweled Jam
Plum Jam with it’s garnet jewel color seems to belong with Christmas, so I blatantly tampered with a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks ‘Canning for a New Generation’ by Liana Krissoff to create a spiced plum jam with holiday flavors. I fully intend to break into one of these jars and a taste of summer when December rolls around.
Getting Ready to Process
Sugar & Plums
For full instructions on canning safely, please see these preserving guidelines.
This jam is delicious served with fresh ricotta – it shows up like a gem on a white fluffy pillow. It was born to live in a jelly roll and hits the spot on a spot of French toast.
How do you take your plums?
Ingredients
- Ingredients:
- 4 lbs of ripe black plums; pitted and rough chopped (around 8 cups)
- 2 c. sugar
- 3 T. Fresh or Bottled Lemon Juice
- 2 t. Cardamom Seeds – removed from pods, freshly ground or crushed in a mortar
- ½ t Ground Cinnamon
- ½ t Ground Anise
- (or, you can use this lovely Remis blend of Honey/Anise/Cinnamon by La Boite – around ¾ of a teaspoon)
Method
- Put the plums and sugar in a non-reactive pot and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Be sure to stir regularly so that the fruit doesn’t stick and burn to the bottom of the pot. Cook for around 5 minutes, until the juice covers the fruit.
- Remove from the heat and pour into a strainer or mesh colander over a large bowl. Give the fruit a stir to drain as much of the juice as possible. Don’t worry about being gentle – it’s OK to smash up the fruit a bit.
- Set the fruit aside in the strainer (I suggest leaving it over the bowl to capture any late breaking juice). Return the juice to the pot and boil over high heat. Once it starts to boil, turn down the heat a touch and simmer, stirring often until the juice is thick & syrupy – about 10-15 minutes.
- Return the plums and any spare juice to the pan. Add the lemon juice and spices and bring to a simmer. Stir very frequently until the mixture is thick and ‘’jammy’ – around 15 minutes. As it thickens, the jam will spew hot bubbles when you stir – so stand back. Take it from burned hand girl.
- Be sure you have some hot, buttered toast here – you’ll want a taste, or two! Ladle hot jam into hot, sterilized jars – I like the 4 oz. jars, ideal for sharing! Center a lid on top, screw on a jar ring until just finger tight. Process in a hot water bath for 5 minutes. When you remove them from the pot, check that they seal within 1 hour then resist moving them for 24 hours. Resist.
-Lydia, Just Jamming Here
