Wednesday, September 10, 2014

PLUM JAM

Plums and apples before boiling
My father-in-law Pat grows plums and he gave us a bunch of them at the weekend. Jam time! I added two apples to the plums as they were going to go in the compost otherwise. The jam is super sweet. It would be lovely on a Ditty's Irish oat cake, or on some nice brown soda bread. I enjoyed it on a rice cake, in the absence of other substances :)


Juno squeezing the lemon
Stirring, stirring
Ingredients

2lbs plums
2 eating apples, peeled and chopped small
2lbs granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tblsp butter
100ml cold water

Method
·         Wash plums and remove stalks. Cut the plums and remove the stone.
·         Peel, core and cut apples up small
·         Place fruit, lemon juice and water in a large, deep pot and bring to the boil, stirring frequently
·         Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until the fruit has softened
·         Keep heat low and add sugar. Stir until sugar has dissolved.
·         Stir in the butter to reduce frothing. Turn up the heat and stir continuously until the mixture comes to a rapid boil.
·         Continue stirring on high heat until the jam reaches setting point. This is when the mixture starts to thicken and set on the sides of the pot.
·         Remove from heat. To test, place a teaspoon of jam onto a cold saucer. Allow to cool, then push your finger through the jam, it should start to congeal and wrinkle up - if it’s still runny, you haven’t yet reached setting point.
·         If not set, return the pot to the heat; bring back up to a rolling boil and test again in a few minutes.
·         Remove from heat and ladle into clean, sterilised, warm jars. (I got four Bonne Maman jars of jam from this amount.) Seal while jars are warm.

Four jars - one with homespun lid
Sterilising jars
·         Preheat oven to 130C
·         Clean jam jars and lids in the dishwasher or with water and washing up liquid. Dry thoroughly.
·         Line a baking tray with newspaper. Place jars on it – make sure they are not touching.
·         Pop in the oven 20 minutes before you expect your jam to be ready – the jars must be hot when you put the hot jam into them.
·         Seal immediately with lids or with greaseproof rounds and greaseproof/plastic lids held on with elastic/string.

Plum jam on a rice cake - yum!

2 comments:

Emily said...

I've 2kg of plums still in my freezer from last year... I was thinking of making plum jam for Christmas, and this has definitely inspired me :)

Group 8 said...

Sounds like a plan, Emily. It is such a sweet, lovely jam. Go for it! N x