Plum Butter

Plums 1
Who could resist these gorgeous plums? 
sliced plums
On my "cheap entertainment" trip to the library recently, I picked up several books: Julia and Jaques: Cooking at Home, Once Upon a Tart (which I will probably buy because I am in love with it) and The Complete Book and Small Batch Preserving (Topp & Howard).  
I decided to try the Plum Butter recipe...small batch is just my speed...
Plum Butter
10 plums, sliced
1 cup water
granulated sugar
cinnamon stick
whole cloves
ground nutmeg
1. Place plums and water in a medium stainless steel or enamel saucepan.  Bring to a full boil over high heat, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until plums are tender, stirring occasionally. 
2. Place plum mixture in a food processor or blender and process until almost smooth.  Measure and return to saucepan.  For each 1 cup of plums, add 1 1/4 cups of sugar.  Tie cinnamon and cloves in a spice bag and add to saucepan. 
3. Return plum mixture to a boil, reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered, until mixture is very thick, stirring frequently. 
4. Discard spice bag; stir in nutmeg (if using). 
5. Ladle into hot jars and process for 10 minutes (click here for basic processing instructions)
Makes about 3 cups
 Plum butter
These three jars are gifts...of course I had a little leftover, so I'll put that in the fridge and have it on top of ice cream!
 Plum butter jars

3 comments :

Erin said...

So glad to see you back and posting! I've missed your blog!

The jam looks lovely- I wish I could get over my fear of canning and make some of my own!

Unknown said...

My husband and I made this last fall with Italian plums from our neighbor's tree. They were very sweet and we opted to reduce the sugar (about 7 cups sugar for 10 cups plum purée). We don't do small batches and we were glad about it on this recipe. It was delish! Thanks for posting it!

Elizabeth said...

Marcy - so glad to hear that you enjoyed this recipe! Hope to see you back again!