Italian Prune Plum Jam with a Hint of Cinnamon

I adore Italian Prune Plums. I guess some people use them for making prunes, but I decided to make some jam. Because you can never go wrong with plum jam.

My first encounter with Italian Prune Plums was when I lived in Chicago and my neighbor has a tree. Some years, there was no fruit at all. Some years, there were a few plums here and there. And some years, that tree was so full of fruit that the branches would bend until they were nearly touching the ground.

Those years, my neighbors would hand me a paper shopping bag, half full of fruit. And I'd be eating plums every day. I'd never had plums like that before. They were tasty and tart when they were just barely getting soft, and they got sweeter as they got softer.

They were greenish yellow inside with a very dark purple outside. The interior would go from green to a less green color that looked like it wanted to be a barely peachy yellow. When they're cooked, the inside turns bright red.

Back in Chicago, it never dawned on me to make jam, but now I like the idea of having a few jars of homemade jam on hand for slathering on English muffins. This particular jam is also good for swirling into yogurt or on top of ice cream.

I adapted this from a recipe on the Northwest Cherry Growers site. It was described as a plum butter, which is typically thicker than a jam - but it depends on how long you cook it to reduce it.

That's what's great about a recipe like this - you can cook it less for something that's a little looser, or cook it more to get a super-thick fruit butter. I let mine cook until it was more jam-like than butter-like. I also made it a little less sweet than the original,and fiddled with the spices a bit.

If you're going to can the jam for room temperature storage, I suggest using the original recipe - you really don't want to mess with sugar ratios when canning. But my version is great for refrigerator storage or for freezing.

Plum Jam with a Hint of Cinnamon
Adapted from a recipe on Northwest Cherry Growers site, courtesy of Sugarcrafter.net
Make two pint jars (or four half-pints)

2 pounds of plums, halved and pitted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cups granulated sugar

Run the plums through your food processor or blender until the mixture is as smooth as you can get it. In a large sauce pan, combine plums, cinnamon, salt, lemon juice, and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.

Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, until the mixture thickens and holds its shape on a spoon (or it reaches the consistency you like.) The time this takes depends on several factors, including how hard you're simmering, the shape of the pot, and how much moisture there was in your plums. If you cook at a spunkier boil, you'll need to watch more carefully and stir often to make sure the jam doesn't stick and burn. If you opt for a very slow simmer, it will take a lot more time but require much less attention.

Taste and adjust sugar, lemon, and cinnamon to suit your taste, and cook for another minute or two. If the jam seems chunky or bits of skin are visible and you'd prefer them to disappear completely, you can give this another run through your blender or food processor. Make sure to exercise proper caution for blending hot foods in your particular machine.

Transfer the jam to containers for refrigerator storage or freezing.

For the original recipe, including canning instructions, check out Northwest Cherry Growers' site.

Pi Day CatBoy Plum Jam Crostata

Pi Day is here and Virtual Potluck is celebrating with ... well, pie. All kinds of different pies.

I decided to make a crostata - a rustic sort of pie, baked free-form. Sort of flat. In this case, it's very flat, since i didn't use solid fruit - I just used a very flavorful jam.

When my husband was in the hospital, I called upon cooking friends and fellow bloggers to do guest posts here. One was my friend Charles who goes by the name "Catboy" on some of the sites we frequent. Although he's not a blogger, he offered to post one of his recipes - and he chose plum jam.

And then, as a very awesome surprise, he sent me some of his homemade jam. And that's what I used in this recipe. Let me tell you, that jam is pretty darned awesome. Give it a try when plums are in season. You won't regret it!

Meanwhile, we have pie. Any thick jam, or even a lemon or lime curd would work in this. Something as thin as a jelly might be a problem though.

CatBoy Plum Jam Crostata
Recipe © by www.cookistry.com. Do not republish without permission.
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup white wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar (plus more for sprinkling)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1/2 cup water
1/2 to 1 cup plum jam (recipe here)
Eggwash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water)

Put the flours, salt, sugar, and vanilla bean paste in your food processor. Pulse a few times to combine.

Cut the butter into chunks and add it to the food processor. Pulse until you have pieces no larger than a pea. It's fine if there are one or two pieces that are slightly larger, but the majority should be pea-sized.

With the food processor running (and work quickly here) add the water as fast as the flour can absorb it, and continue processing until the dough forma a ball.

Stop the food processor and remove the dough. Quickly form it into a ball, and then flatten to a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap an refrigerate at least an hour. It's fine if you continue the next day.

Preheat to 375 degrees and have a baking sheet and parchment paper (to fit the baking sheet) ready.

Flour your work surface and turn out the dough With a rolling pin, roll it into a rough circle about 14 inches in diameter. You don't have to be precise. Transfer the dough to the parchment paper. It's fine if it's hanging over the edges a bit.

Spread the jam over the surface of the dough, leaving a few inches around the edges uncovered. Again, you don't need to be precise.

Fold the edges of the dough - about 3-4 inches worth - over toward the center of the dough, working all around the dough until you have all the edges folded over and a few inches uncovered jam in the center. It really doesn't matter how much you fold over, how you pleat the dough, or how much is showing in the center. It's your creation.

Slide the parchment paper - with the crostata on it - onto the baking sheet.

Brush the exposed dough with the eggwash, and sprinkle with as much sugar as you like.

Bake the crostata at 375 degrees for 35 minutes, or until the pastry is nicely browned.

Let the crostata cool a few minutes on the pan, the slide the parchment paper onto a rack to cool. As soon as it's cool enough to handle, slide the crostata off the parchment and allow it to cool completely on the rack.

Slice into wedges to serve.

Want more PIE???

Check out these other great recipes!

Farmgirl Gourmet made Goat Cheese Quiche with Sweet Potato Crust
Cooking with Books made Carrot, Jalapeno and Cheese Pie
Thyme in our Kitchen made Chicken Pot Pie with Bacon and Butternut Squash
Miss in the Kitchen made Mini Lemon Pies
Diabetic Foodie made Crustless Crab and Asparagus Quiche
30a Eats made Tomato Pie
Foodhunter's Guide made Lemon Cheese Danish Pie

Cat Boy Plum Jam

Guest Post - Charles Turnipseed

Charles is a prolific and amazing cook but his current passion is his cat rescue work. Please take some time to read his blog, Purrfect Cat Rescue.

I like most jams and preserves but when I was growing up I especially liked apricot jam, and plum jam—my grandmother’s and King Kelly’s. I have fond memories of both: King Kelly was jelly-thick, pale burgundy, and had the light, fresh taste of the fruit; Grandma’s was somehow both dense and soft, the color of garnets, with a flavor somewhere between plums and prunes, all the result of her cooking process.

I say process, but it was less scientific than that sounds. She’d toss plums and sugar in a pot, place it on the burner of her Wedgewood stove that had a “flame tamer” and go out in the garden. She’d prune, she’d rake, she’d transplant—she’d forget she had something on the stove. Sometimes she burnt it, but more often than not it turned out great despite her not being a particularly skilled or confident cook. She didn’t “put things up,” so the jam was spooned into Cracker Barrel spreadable cheese containers and stored in the freezer.

Decades after Grandma made her last batch, I finally got around to making my own. I didn’t opt for her method since I knew I would never get it right anyway. I found a recipe in a cookbook inherited from another family member, a great aunt who was a skilled and confident cook. (Strictly speaking, despite her talents, she used a cornbread mix but I never told anyone until after she died since I knew it would ruin her reputation.)

The recipe is fairly simple, but it’s easier if you have a food mill since the fruit is first cooked—pits and all—then pureed, and cooked once more, this time with the sugar, to your desired thickness. Since I don’t have a food mill I push the stuff through a sieve and it takes forever; if you also lack a food mill, you can cut out the stones and save yourself some time. You can use any plums you like (I actually use about 6 varieties, buying some of each as they come into season then store in freezer bags until I have a couple gallons worth), but be sure to use some with black or deep-red skin so you’ll have a nicely colored jam.

Cat Boy Plum Jam
Adapted from “American Woman’s Cook Book” circa 1951

Makes approximately 4 half-pints of jam

1 quart plums, washed and cut in half, stones removed if you prefer
½ cup water
2 cups of sugar, approximately
Juice of a fresh lemon or two

Place the plums and water in a saucepan; bring to boil and lower to a simmer. Cook, covered, until the fruit—including the skin—is very tender. If you removed the stones, you can puree the mixture using a blender or food processor; otherwise press through a fine sieve or a food mill to form a thick pulpy liquid. You can stop here and refrigerate the mixture if you’d like to space your work out over a couple of days.

Measure the puree and return to the pot with about ½ cup sugar per cup of plums for a moderately sweet-tart jam, about 1/3 cup for a quite-tart jam. Cook over medium heat, stirring most of the time until the jam is glossy and shimmering and falls from a wooden spatula in thick drips. (You can use a candy thermometer and cook it to the jelly point if you want to, but I’m more of an eye-baller.) Add lemon juice and taste for a balance of sweet to acid, adding as much as you think it requires. (One year I incorrectly measured the sugar and ended up adding a full cup of lemon juice to fix things; oddly enough, the jam was especially good that year.)

Pour the jam into hot sterilized jars, seal, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes for 8- or 12-ounce jars. Alternately, cool and store in the refrigerator.