Spiced Plum And Apple Jam

I love autumnal fruits and berries. And this plum and apple jam mixes two of my favourite fruits. Throw in the added spices and this tasty jam makes the winter months far more cozy.

Why you’ll love this recipe

• This plum and apple jam is super simple and easy to make with just a few ingredients.
• Versatility; You can make this plum jam recipe your own by changing the spices to suit your own taste.
• It’s useful – Don’t just think of this easy plum jam as something to spread on your toast in the morning. It goes great with a cheeseboard and is particularly good stirred into sauces and gravy, especially for duck or pork.
• Economical – you can use foraged apples and plums to make this amazing plum and apple jam so that costs you nothing!

This simple plum and apple jam for me is the taste of autumn in a jar. It’s warming and spicy, sweet and fruity. We are saying goodbye to the summer berries and hello to the richness of autumnal fruits.

When I was growing up we had an ancient apple tree in our garden. The neighbour’s plum trees hung right over our wall. The bounty from those trees was always eagerly awaited.

My brother and I would climb the apple tree and grab as many as we could and scale the wall for the plums.

But my Mum got first dibs for her jam making. My Mum made this plum and apple jam every year. While she just used to spice hers with cinnamon I’ve added a few more warming spices to ramp up that flavour.

Ingredients for plum and apple jam

Plums You can use any plums you like to make this plum jam.

Apples Again, use any kind of apples that you have to hand here, though I would step away from the bitter cooking apples for this plum and apple jam recipe.(again, use any apples here)

Sugar You can use either plain white granulated sugar or a light muscovado sugar for this jam, I’ve gone for a mixture of both! The muscovado sugar will give a light caramel type flavour to your plum and apple jam. If you use a darker brown sugar the caramel flavour will be much stronger. The choice is yours.

Spices – I have used a good mix of spices here; cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, allspice, fresh ginger and a bay leaf. You can select the spices that suit your own tastes and what you happen to have in the larder.

Sugar notes;

I’ve used a combination of two types of sugar in my plum and apple jam. You can easily just use all white sugar if you like. But I love the depth that the muscovado sugar adds to this jam.

Spice options

If you don’t have whole spices as I’ve used here you can use ground spices. For this plum and apple jam recipe, I’d use 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground cardamom, 1/4 tsp ground allspice and 1/4 tsp ground ginger.

How to make plum and apple jam

Peel the apples core them and chop into chunks. Try to keep the chunks about the same size as that helps things cook quicker and at same time.

Remove the stones (pits) from the plums and cut into quarters. You don’t need to peel the plums.

Now make a little spice bag out of a piece of muslin and pop in the plum stones and the spices you’ve chosen. Tie this together with string.

Toss all ingredients (apart from the sugar) into a deep pan, add water and simmer gently for about 15 minutes till the fruit is soft and tender. Give it a good squish with a potato masher to crush everything down to pulp.

Add the sugar and let it dissolve, then raise the heat to a boil and skim off any scum that forms as it’s boiling.

Once it reaches the magical setting point of 105C (about 10-12 minutes) remove from heat, scoop out the spice bag and ladle into sterilised jars.

Pro tip

Using the plum stones adds extra flavour to your jam. The plum stones themselves give off an almost almond like flavour. So don’t let them go to waste.

How long will this jam last?

Like most of my jams (only the sugar-free jams are different), this plum and apple jam will keep for up to a year. Once opened store it in the fridge and use within a month.

How to use plum and apple jam

Don’t just think of this tasty jam as something to spread on your morning toast.

Oh no, this spiced plum and apple jam is way more versatile than that. Think outside the jar my friends!

I like to use mine on a cheeseboard, it goes really well with rich mature cheeses.

Add plum and apple jam to a simple toasted cheese sandwich to lift it to new heights.

Thin the jam a little with water and use as a glaze on pork when roasting. You can do the same with root veggies too.

You can make a great plum sauce with this jam by adding some soy sauce and water. Or just thin it down and use as a glaze on roast duck too.

Stir the plum and apple jam into Greek yogurt or your overnight oats for the perfect quick breakfast.

Want a hearty winter brekkie, then stir this plum jam into your porridge for a great start to the day.

Add some brandy (just a splash) and then use this jam as a topping for really good quality vanilla ice cream and you have the perfect almost instant dessert!

How much jam does this recipe make?

I got 5 little 150ml jars from my plum and apple jam recipe. I like making small batches of jam with any fruit I have to hand. Just double up the recipe to make a bigger batch.

I like giving my jams away as presents at Christmas and little jars are great for this.

Looking for more plum jam recipes? Then check these out before you go;

Completely sugar free spiced plum jam

Plum jam with walnuts and brandy

French mint and mirabelle plum jam

Plum jam with Chinese spices

Refined sugar free chia plum jam