Yum Yum Plum Jam

When you have a tree laden with plums and there are not enough Sunday’s in the year to make enough crumbles to eat them all!

I’ve found that it’s easy to go overboard with jam sometimes, no one wants to be eating the same jam for the rest of their days so I reduced the amounts of these ingredients from the original recipe from 2kg of plums to 500g! I think 8 small jars is plenty to keep us going. Of course you can make as much or as little as you want, just multiply the ingredients below to the amount you need and allow for a bit of extra time for cooking.

This is only the second batch of jam I’ve made and I am very happy with the results of both. I made gooseberry jam when they were ripe back in June and have given them away to friends and family (and G ate a whole jar with a spoon in one sitting). So knowing that we needed to do something with the plums I decided to try jam again and make sure that it wasn’t just beginner’s luck with the gooseberry.

Hope you enjoy making jam as much as I do and let me know any other ideas you have to use up those plums!!

Plum Jam

• Servings: 8 small jars
• Time: 40mins-ish
• Difficulty: slightly difficult
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Ingredients

• 500g plums (weighed with stones)
• 500g granulated sugar
• 220ml water
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions

1. Prep your plums: wash in a colander and then squidge the stones out one by one.
2. Place the plums and water into a pan and bring to the boil. Then simmer on a low heat until the plums are soft. Stir occasionally to avoid sticking to the bottom.
3. Place the jam jars onto a baking tray (right way up), ensuring they are not touching. (I use a jug to pour my jam into my jars rather than a ladle and funnel so I popped this into the oven too). Place in a cold oven and turn the heat up to 100°c and bake for up to 30 minutes. Allow the jars to warm up slowly to avoid them cracking.
4. Prep your utensils (ladle and funnel if you’re using them) and jar lids by placing them in a pan on the stove and boil for 30 seconds.
5. Place a saucer in the fridge.
6. When the plums are soft and mushy add the sugar and stir continuously until dissolved.
7. When it dissolved add the lemon juice and turn up the heat. Stir occasionally.
8. When the jam is thick enough to be gloopy (not drippy like water) on the spoon you can test for set. Get the saucer out of the fridge and pop a small dollop of jam on it and leave for a couple of seconds. Then run your finger through the dollop and if the jam stay separated you’ve done it! If it is still running, keep it on the heat and try again in a couple of minutes. It didn’t take long for my jam to set as I was using such small amounts of ingredients.
9. Once set grab your jars and ladle or pour into the jug and fill each jar, putting the lids on tightly. Quickly put the pan in water (add a little bicarb if you’re leaving it to soak) to avoid the jam hardening on the bottom.

Recipe adapted from Jam Making Month-By-Month by Mel Sellings