Tart Plum & Rose Jam

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Know what my jam is? Making jam! Okay, okay terrible joke, but really, I love making homemade jam. Nothing makes me feel quite so much like a domestic goddess as canning. Tom use to live a town over from me, which out here in the country, means another island and a 30 minute drive! He had a huge plum tree in his backyard, along with a pretty killer sunset view. This one tree produced hundreds of plums. So many we couldn’t possibly just eat them all, and believe me, I tried.

Out of desperation of not wanting all the plums to go to waste we brainstormed ways to use the plums. We talked about making sauces, or wine. But, in the end, we settled on making plum jam. Looking back, I don’t know why we settled on plum jam. Homemade plum wine sounds pretty dang good! But jam it was and it turned out marvelous! It was hard not to eat it by the spoonful. However, I was a little shocked at how much sugar went into making traditional jam. If you haven’t made jam before, take my word for it, it calls for so much sugar. I thought that there had to be a better way so I did my research on low sugar jam.

This past spring, Tom and I moved in together, best decision ever! It really has been awesome, ladies I got so lucky. Not only is the man a total dream boat but he also is a master chef, cleans AND gives backrubs. The past half year of living together has been heaven! However, as good as things are for my relationship, when we moved in together we decided my place made more sense, which meant no more plum tree!

I went to a kind of crazy place when I realized this, maybe we could befriend the people who moved into his old place and get plums from them! Maybe we could take ninja courses, sneak into the yard at the dead of night and liberate some plums. Like I said, I went crazy. Clearly, I wouldn’t actually do that, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t cross my mind! Luckily, I had been storing up my karma points for not stealing plums out of a stranger’s yard, and turns out my parents moved in the same time period, and their new neighbor has a giant plum tree that sits halfway on my parents property. They generously offered my parents any of the plums on their side of the property. So, I was back in plum heaven!

This year, I perfected my low sugar plum jam and created this tart plum and rose jam. I wanted something a little different, and exciting, so I thought rosewater would be the perfect addition. I love the addition of floral undertones that really make the jam unique and pop. This recipe only uses a small amount of rosewater, so what do you do with the rest? Fun fact, turns out rosewater is awesome for your skin! I’ve been spraying rosewater on my face in the morning and night which makes my skin downright heavenly.

Tools I use to make jam:

Tart Plum & Rose Jam

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

• Author: Jane Davidson | Typically Jane
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 cups roughly chopped plums
• 2 + Tbs rose water
• 1 1/2 Tbs low or no sugar pectin
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 2 half pint mason jars with lids and rings

Instructions

1. Pit and roughly chop plums, how big the chunks are will determine how chunky your jam is. Small bits will be a very smooth consistency, while larger chunks will have larger pieces of fruit in the finished product. I cut each plum into 8 or 12 pieces depending on size. This gives my jam a nice amount of fruit chunks without being overly chunky.
2. In a pot, add the plums, rose water, and pectin. Bring to a boil stirring regularly. Note on rose water, you can double the amount stated here if you would like more floral flavor in the jam.
3. Once fully reduced, add sugar and bring back to a boil, continue stiring.
4. While waiting for the jam to boil, bring a large pot of water to a boil.
5. Ladle hot jam into half pint jars, leaving a little room at the top.
6. Place lids on jars and secure with rings.
7. Put jam jars, upright, into boiling water for about 10 minutes.
8. Take out jars and let them sit out to cool.
9. Within 24 hours, lids should seal with popping noise, not flex in the center when pushed, and can be stored for 1 year.