Spiced Yellow Plum Jam Recipe
I have a delicious Yellow Plum Jam Recipe, spiced with cardamom, cinnamon & ginger, for you today. This is the perfect plum jam recipe for canning, morning toast, or biscuit. And not for nothing, this jam makes a wonderful hostess gift idea.
Several years ago, I began making and canning jams and preserves, and it’s become one of those seasonal traditions for me. In the early summer months, it’s blueberry and peach jam. In the late summer and fall months, I turn my preserving and canning attention to apples, pears, and plum jam recipes.
Table of Contents
One of my all-time favorite fruits to make jams and preserves from are golden or yellow plums. The brightness of both the color and taste of these fruits make especially lovely preserves.
this yellow plum jam makes a great gift
Not only does my family relish having homemade preserves for their toast, but these small jars of deliciousness make great gifts. I like to attach a little spoon when I gift these jars of spiced plum jam. When I go to antique stores, I always look for old spoons to have a little stash of them for gifting or for my own use.
But, for a quicker solution, you can order these unique spoons to gift with your jar of jam from Amazon.
Decorative Spoons
- 4.7″ spoon
- stainless steel
- dishwasher safe
These spoons are lovely additions to a jar of gifted jam, jelly, or preserves.
10 Pcs 4.7″ Stainless Steel Silver Leaf Coffee Spoon
While plums are technically a ‘summer’ fruit, the addition of the warm spices of cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger in this yellow plum jam recipe seems to make it more of a fall preserve, perfect for your toast or biscuit with your cup of coffee or tea on a cool-ish morning.
You Can Water Bath Can or Refrigerate your Jam
Whether you water bath can or refrigerate/freeze your jam is up to you.
Water bath canning is a method of preserving preserves, jams, and jellies to make them shelf-stable for up to two years. I walk you through the water bath canning process, but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving if this is your first time making canned preserves.
To make your jam shelf stable, all you need is an additional 30 minutes of your time, a water bath canner or pot deep enough to cover your jars by 2 inches, and Half-Pint Mason Jars with Self-Sealing Lids or something similar. A few more inexpensive pieces of equipment make your canning experience more enjoyable and efficient: a jar/can lifter, magnetic canning lid lifter, and headspace gauge.
if you’d rather refrigerate or freeze your jam
The only equipment you still need to prepare is your jars and lids. Just make sure that they are clean and freezer-stable jars. The best jars for freezing are those without shoulders, but instead are straight-sided. Mason jars are great jars to freeze jams and jellies in.
Follow the directions as written, ignoring any references to preparing canning equipment. When you reach the directions to ladle the jam into the jars, leave 1″ of headspace instead of 1/4″. Place lids on the jars and let them come to room temperature. Once they are at room temperature, you can refrigerate or freeze the jars. Your jars of jam will keep in the freezer for 1 year and 1 month in the refrigerator.
Pop on over here for a complete discussion on Jam Making Basics. This Jam Making Basics post discusses the basic ingredients for all jellied fruit and why they are important, basic equipment, and the differences between Jam, Jelly, Preserves, Conserves, and Marmalade.
If you are looking for something even easier, pop on over and give this Easy Plum Jam recipe a try. In addition to the recipe, this post includes a list of flavorings if you want to put your own spin on a jam.
Spiced Golden Plum Jam Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 pounds plums any type but I prefer golden
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 tablespoons strained fresh lime juice
- 1/2 ” slice of ginger cut in half
- 6 green cardamom pods crushed (1/2 teaspoon ground). If using pods/seeds place in tea infuser or wrap in a square of cheesecloth.
- 2 cinnamon sticks
Instructions
- Prepare canner, jars and lids. See The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving for instruction and additional reference.
- Place a saucer with 3 spoons on it in your freezer
- Wash, pit and coarsely chop the plums
- Put plums and sugar in a wide, 6-8 quart preserving pan or stainless steel saucepan.
- Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, then continue to cook for 5 minutes.
- Pour into a colander set over a large bowl and stir the plums gently to drain off the juice.
- Return the juice to the pan, along with ginger slices, cardamom and cinnamon and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Boil, stirring occasionally until the syrup is reduced and thick, about 10 minutes.
- Return the plum and any accumulated juice to the pan, along with the lime juice and bring to a simmer.
- Simmer, stirring frequently, until a small dab of the jam spooned onto the cold plate and set in the freezer for a minute becomes somewhat firm (it will not gel), about 15 minutes.
- Remove from heat.
- Remove cinnamon sticks, ginger and (if using) bag with cardamom seeds.
- Spoon your jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
- Remove air bubbles and wipe rim.
- Center lid on jar
- Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight.
- Place jars in canner, making sure they are completely covered with water
- Cover pot and bring to a boil
- Boil for 10 minutes
- Turn heat off, remove lid and let sit for 5 minutes
- Carefully remove jars with jar lifter and place on a rack where they can be undisturbed for 24 hours.
- Refrigerate any jars if their lids don’t pop down.
- Notes
- This recipe assumes some knowledge of proper and safe canning techniques. Please see the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving for guidance.
Notes
Nutrition
If you would like to add this Spiced Plum Jam recipe to your canning repertoire, then please bookmark this page or pin the following image for your future reference:
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We are jam lovers around here. This sounds delicious! I will have to try it. 🙂
Hi Tammy, I do hope you and your crew enjoy. It is really a lovely, faintly spiced delicious treat. Do you have snow yet? Joking…but just a little.
Have a great day!
Hugs, Lynn
You think that is funny but it will be snowing here soon! 🙁
Greetings from Oregon. Found your recipe on Pinterest while searching for golden plum recipes after my sister surprised me with a box of slightly overripe plums from her tree. Your Spiced Golden Plum Jam is AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS!! Next year I’ll make sure to get twice the amount of plums so I can make extra for Christmas gifts. Thank you. Christine
Oh Christine…you just made my day! Like you, I love that jam and in fact, need to see if I can find some golden plums soon! We just moved, so my canning has really suffered this summer.
Do tell…how do you like to enjoy this jam? I love it on scones!
Hope you have enjoyed your Oregon summer! I imagine it is lovely out there this time of the year!
Hugs,
Lynn
This is a great recipe! Straight forward directions made it fun to make! I ended up making three batches! I love the flavor and how it turned out! I may have even used a little more ginger! Delicious!
Oh Kat,
I am just thrilled to hear that you loved it so much! It is one of our favorite jams as well. Will you be giving them as gifts?
I love the idea of adding a vintage spoon as a gift!! Very clever! There is nothing better than homemade jams on toast in the morning and this recipe sounds amazing! Thanks.
Hi Sherry! The only problem with collecting vintage spoons as gifts is that in reality, I’m having a hard time parting with them…I keep them in an old baby cup on my hutch and really love looking at them. We’ll see how many actually leave my home this Christmas!
Many hugs to you today…I know you are crazy busy.
Lynn
Hi Lynn! This sounds absolutely delish! I’m a jam/preserves kinda girl. I love to put them on toast, or English muffins, or bagels…. This makes a great gift & I love the idea of including a pretty spoon with the jar. Great idea!
~Mindy
Good Morning Mindy and I hope your day is off to a good start. I’ve gone almost gluten free and one of the things i miss most is jam on toast or english muffin! And the GF bread, it just doesn’t do it for me most of the time. So I know how much you enjoy that simple but delightful little treat. Enjoy!
Thanks for coming by today and wishing you a lovely week ahead.
Hugs, Lynn
Mmmm I’ve been bingeing on plums recently, so this jam recipe looks extra delicious! 😀
Hey Liz…it’s quite tasty.Give it a try! And…thanks for your restaurant suggestions. We ended up at Al’s Burger Shack and I had a burger with the bacon caramelized onion jam and blue cheese! So good.
Have a great day.
Lynn
Love the idea of including a spoon with the gifted jars of jam. What a neat idea. And they are so pretty too!
Thanks Sarah! My challenge is parting with them…I get to love these little spoons. But I’m accumulating quite a stash, so I really do need to do a better job of gifting them.
Have a great weekend.
Hugs, LYnn
HI! Thanks for linking up last week at Your Inspired Design, you are being featured this week! Stop by tomorrow to see and to link up some more of your fabulous creations! We love it!!!
Hi Holly, Thanks so very much for the feature! I am heading over right now to share and visit. Have a great day.
Lynn
Your recipe looks delicious, but I have a question. The recipe does not say to pit and peel the plums. Are you actually leaving the pits in the jam? Are the plum skins soft enough to leave in as well?
Hi Sandra,
Good question…obviously I need to go in and make some clarifications! Do pit the plums, but I leave the plum skin on.
Happy Canning my friend!
Hugs,
Lynn
Hi! In your ingredient list you have the ginger listed as “1/2 slice of ginger, cut in half “. Of course I assume you mean fresh ginger root, but how much is a half slice? I can buy ginger-root from very small roots up to 7″ or 8″ long and 4” or so in width. Approximately how much is a 1/2 slice of ginger? Thanks!
Ugh…so sorry Jo! It’s actually a 1/2″ slice of ginger. Thanks for pointing that out and I will go correct it immediately.
Hi Lynn, BTW I love your name, I have another friend with it! Sounds amazing yum Jams! A question for you, I got the purple plums picked then hurt my back. I couldn’t waste them, so I juiced and bottled them. Could I make a sort of jelly with this recipe as the plums are long gone, just the pure juice remains?
Regards,
Judy
Aw thanks Judy! It is a good name!
I think it’d be difficult to make this jam recipe with your plum juice, but you could definitely make plum jelly. You would need to add pectin since you don’t have the plum skins, but it’s completely doable.
I have seen several recipes for making jelly with juice, but haven’t tried it myself.
Wishing you a wonderful day my friend and hope your back is on the mend!
Hugs,
Lynn
I made a batch of your plum jam and boy was it a hit! In fact, it was so good that a friend and I are going to make a bunch and give jars as Christmas presents . . . .along with apple butter and pear butter and your cranberry conserve! Yes, the fruit trees did exceptionally well this year. Have you ever tried making the plum jam in a crock pot?
I just love your blog! Lori
Hey there Lori! Girlfriend, you just made my day! I love to hear that my friends and readers enjoy these recipes as much as we do! And I so appreciate you taking a minute to chime in! Means the world to me.
To answer your question, no, I have not tried the jam in a crock pot, but I can’t think that it would be a problem. If you get around to trying it before I do, let me know!
Have a wonderful weekend my friend,
Hugs, Lynn
I’m doing this recipe right but now I’m so confused–there’s no direction about what to do with the cinnamon sticks, ginger chunks, and cardamom pieces during the process. Surely you don’t just leave them to bite into in a bite of jam?
You are so right Annie! Somehow a step was left out. Remove the spices before you put the jam in the jars. Thanks for pointing it out and I’ll pop over and fix that right now.
Sorry for any frustration!
Hugs,
Lynn
I have an abundance of golden plums, and this jam seems a good recipe. However, I am perplexed by the method of preparing the fruit. Some of the plums are tiny and others are big. So I am wondering how to prep the fruit. DO I pit and skin it first? Or just toss them in whole, all 4 lbs, and then there will be some loss from skins and pits? Any insight would be helpful.
Amanda,
I just roughly chopped the fruit and left the skin on, it will all cook down to a jammy consistency by the end of the process. Do remove the pits while chopping…toss them aside as you won’t need them. I see in reviewing the recipe that I didn’t make that very clear…I will go back in and clarify that.
Happy Canning, my friend.
Hugs,
Lynn
I was just gifted with a lot of golden plums – this recipe sounds delicious – will try making a double batch.
You lucky, lucky lady! Enjoy the jam!
Hugs,
Lynn
I just made this jam from plums I had in the freezer from this summer. It tastes delicious, but the consistency is quite runny. I simmered it for a long time, and did the frozen plate test, but I wasn’t really sure what “somewhat firm” is supposed to feel like haha. Is this recipe supposed to set quite firmly?
Hi Melissa,
While it isn’t as thick and set as a jelly, it should not be dripping when you spread it…it should be more a of a fruit spread consistency. Does that make sense?
I made the spiced golden plum jam last night. I did not have fresh limes, so I used 2 tablespoons of bottled Key Lime Juice. (bottle says that is equivalent of 1 key lime) It tastes mostly of lime. Still good, but I can’t taste the plum. Next time I will get a fresh lime before I start.
Hmmm…I have never used key lime juice in my recipes. My understanding is that they are more aromatic and tarter than regular limes, so that may be the issue. Let me know if you try again.
Hugs,
Lynn
Thank you, your recipe was so easy to follow and although I was afraid it may be a bit too sour with the lime juice,but it adds a beautiful tang, love the spices in it as well! Thanks again for sharing!
Hi Mady,
I’m thrilled that you enjoy this jam as much as we do. It really is a lovely, fresh jam.
I really appreciate you taking the time to comment and leave a review. It really helps!
Hugs, LYnn