I had some brown sugar that I wanted to use up. At my house it tends to dry up before it gets used. I also had some plums that I wanted to can so I came up with the idea of using brown sugar in plum butter. The amount of brown sugar that I had was about 1/2 of what I needed so a also used white sugar.It turns out that I can't really taste the brown sugar in the finished product. However the whole experiment made me curious about what it would taste like to make apple butter with brown sugar instead of white sugar. I just used up my brown sugar, and now I feel half tempted to buy some more just for another experiment.
I feel like I am being pretty redundant, in writing a recipe for plum butter, since I usually make all of my fruit butters pretty much the same. It is fun some times though to experiment with changing the spices. I think using lemon peel in plum butter rather than cinnamon is a nice change of pace.
Plum Butter
(Printable Recipe)
Use one of the following methods to prepare the pulp. As always, I recommend using Fruit Fresh when cutting up the fruit.
Method 1: Quarter pitted plums. Cook plums until they are soft (about 20 minutes) using just enough water to prevent sticking (enough to cover bottom of pan). Run the plums through a food mill.
Method 2: Peel, quarter and pit plums. Cook plums until they are soft (about 20 minutes) using just enough water to prevent sticking (enough to cover bottom of pan). Process in a blender or food processor.
Measure pulp. For each quart of pulp, add 2 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Cook slowly until thick. At first you only have to stir occasionally, but as it thickens you will have to stir more often. The plum butter is ready when it will mound up on a spoon.
Fill hot canning jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.
High altitude instructions
1,001 - 3,000 feet : increase processing time by 5 minutes
3,001 - 6,000 feet : increase processing time by 10 minutes
6,001 - 8,000 feet : increase processing time by 15 minutes
8,001 - 10,000 feet : increase processing time by 20 minutes
I've only had apple butter; plum butter sounds elegant!
ReplyDeletePlum butter sounds amazing! What if you added maple syrup to the apple butter???
ReplyDeleteThis is a great recipe! I just mde it using some tiny sweet plums from a neighbor's tree. I cooked the plums in a little water to loosen the pits, pressed the pulp through a cone strainer, and I'm cooking the sweetened pulp in a slow cooker until it's done.
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