Easy Plum Jam (No Canning, Little Sugar)

This is a no-canning easy plum jam recipe with little sugar. No pectin and no overcomplicating involved either. You can store the low sugar plum jam in the freezer or the fridge and use it on toast, for cookies, pancakes or even French toast.

Okay, so I just made a small batch of plum jam and I had to tell the world. I know, I’m one of them now. You can judge me as much as you want, but I couldn’t care less, because I just used up a huge bag of ripe plums and made jam with just few tablespoons of sugar and couldn’t be more proud of myself. Do I check off all the boxes for a narcissist? I’m okay with it, I have jam.

After ruining a few batches of fresh plums and freezing some over the summer months, this makes me so happy. I consider myself a magician because I shrank six whole cups of sweet plums into one and a half big jars of delicious plum jam.

Reasons To Make Your Own Jam From Plums

• it’s delicious
• it can be healthier – this recipe is over ninety percent fruit and is relatively low in added sugar
• you can make it your own by adding natural flavors like vanilla or cinnamon
• you get to preserve lots of plums while they’re still in season
• it’s easy and fun to do!

So if you’re looking for the perfect solution to the question: “What do I do with lots of plums”, the obvious answer is the best. Use those plums to make jam! It’s easy to do, it’s delicious and you will not regret it!

Plum Jam Ingredients

Plums. The best plums for plum jam are ripe and sweet. You really can use any color you wish. Here I used red plums, some were even yellow. All super sweet. However, a few years ago we went apple picking and we also picked up some blue plums. (as you can tell I’m an expert on plums and colors!) I made this plum jam back then and it was super good. So I think any type of plum that tastes good to you and is sweet enough will be suitable for jam. You can even use frozen plums if that’s what you have.

Brown sugar. As 50 cent said a few years ago: just a little bit. I find ripe plums very sweet and that they don’t need a lot of sugar. A few tablespoons are more than enough, make sure to taste test while preparing the jam on the stove and to adjust for sweetness.

Salt. I put a pinch because I wanted to make the flavors pop.

Cinnamon and vanilla. These are optional, but complement the plums so so well! I really recommend you add at least one of these spices.

Coconut oil. To prevent the plums from sticking to the bottom of the cooking pan and because I love the slight hint of coconut. When cooled off it also makes the jam appear thicker, because coconut oil is saturated fats mostly. Don’t worry, we’ll just use a small amount.

The Easy Way To Make Plum Jam

Wash and sort through your plums. Place all plums into a large bucket or a bowl and give them a nice bath. Make sure to remove fruit that is very spoiled. You can cut off bruised or soft spots in the next step, but I had a few I just had to reserve for compost (or rather to make some vodka…kidding).

Stone and chop the plums. Cut the plums in halves to remove stones, then cut again into smaller pieces. This will speed up the jam cooking process. Don’t forget to cut out any bruised or bad spots to ensure the best quality of your jam.

Add washed and chopped plums, water, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, some salt and coconut oil to a large saucepan and turn the heat on to high.

Bring to a boil and keep boiling for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burning/sticking of the plums to the bottom.

Reduce heat to medium / medium-high and cook for another 15-20 minutes until the jam thickens. Make sure to stir occasionally at this point as well.

Turn the heat off and let the jam cool off for a few minutes. It will thicken some more once it cools off.

Transfer it to a clean, preferably sterilized jar. Once it’s all cooled off, close the lid off and store in the fridge.

Plums To Sugar Ratio

This jam recipe is low sugar in comparison to common jam. There are only 4 tablespoons of brown sugar and six cups (or 96 tbsp) of fresh plums. Taken all other ingredients into consideration, this makes the fruit content of the jam over 90%.

How Long Will The Jam Last In The Fridge

The plum jam lasted me around two months in the fridge, even a bit longer.

If you do want to freeze the jam, it could be a good idea to do using an ice cube tray or in silicone muffin cups. This way you will have it portioned out for practical use. Don’t need to thaw an entire jar if you’re only going to use a little bit.

Fill the ice cube tray or the muffin cups with as much jam as you desire, let freeze for 5-6 hours (I usually leave them overnight). Quickly transfer cubes or jam cups to freezer bags or an airtight container and put in the freezer again. Frozen the jam can stay good for about 6 months.

How To Use Plum Jam

There are many ways you can use this delicious plum jam. Here are some options you can try:

• add to pancakes or crepes with some nuts or nut butter
• spread on toast with or without some peanut butter
• top no-bake cheesecakes or other creamy desserts
• use it to top yogurt or overnight oats
• make thumbprint cookies or cookies that can be stuck together using jam
• top French toast for an easy treat
• use it to top rice pudding

You can also experiment with some cheeses like Brie, but that’s the last one on my list, as it’s not really my jam.