About a week ago, I decided I had let the little yellow mirabelle plums I picked off our neighbors' tree — with permission — had ripened enough. Instead of sitting for an hour or more and pitting them, I decided to make more jelly.
As you can see, I also went and picked some more red plums to add to the mix. The reason is that the red plums weren't as ripe as the yellow ones. They would give the jelly some acidity that would improve the flavor and would also help the jelly jell, activating the natural pectin in the fruit.
The first step is to bring the fruit to a boil in a pot of water and wait for the plums to burst, releasing their juice. Mashing them a little as they simmer is a good idea. The next step is to pour the cooked plums into a colander lined with a kitchen towel or some cheesecloth and them them drip for a couple of hours.
For every liter of juice that you end up with, add about a kilogram of sugar and wait for it to dissolve. Stirring it helps. When the sugar has all dissolved into the fruit juice, bring the pot back to the boil and let it simmer for... well, this is the hard part. You just have to decide at what point you think the juice and sugar have boiled enough to turn into jelly when it cools down. Skim off any white foam that rises to the surface as the liquid simmers.
I ended up with these jars of plum jelly. It's good on toast for breakfast, or stirred into plain yogurt to be eaten for breakfast, dessert, or a snack. It will make a good glaze for fruit tarts over the fall and winter. It's tart enough, though pretty sweet. Just a little jelly like this makes a good serving, however you eat it. I'm thinking about jelly roll cakes this winter.
So lucky to have these plums and so skilled to make the jelly. I wonder if it has enough substance to be used with crepes.
ReplyDeleteYes, it does work with crepes. Just as honey (and lemon) would work.
DeleteYou make wonderful jellies!
ReplyDeleteWonder if it could be made with less sugar? Would it still jell?
ReplyDeleteWell, you can use agar agar or carrageenan to make it jell without so much sugar. But since you only eat about a spoonful of the jelly once a day, or maybe twice, the amount of sugar isn't excessive. Some recipes call for 800 grams of sugar per liter of fruit juice, but the instructions on the bag of sugar I used said to put in a kilogram of sugar per liter.
DeleteI like the idea of that stirred into plain yogurt.
ReplyDeleteWe always have yogurt in the refrigerator. I use it in American recipes as a replacement for butttermilk, and I use it in salad dressings. We eat it as a dessert with jam, jelly, honey, or sugar stirred into it. Walt also makes frozen yogurt using Greek-style yogurt.
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