This oven roasted spiced plum butter is a delicious way to preserve early autumn plums. Also known as pflaumenmus, it’s a traditional German preserve that is very much worth making.
I first discovered The Wednesday Chef sometime in early 2006. I had become an avid reader of blogs about a year before (they were a great way to keep my mind off my terrible day job) and was always on the hunt for new sites to add to my list of bookmarks. Luisa’s voice and perspective on food resonated with me immediately. I spent a morning engrossed in her archives and once caught up, tried never to miss a new post.
In fact, it’s fairly safe to say that I’ve read nearly everything that Luisa Weiss has ever posted to the internet (I hope that doesn’t make me sound like a stalker. I swear, I’m just a fan). And, when an advanced copy of My Berlin Kitchen arrived just before the mini-vacation that Scott and I took few weeks back, I tucked it into my travel bag and proceeded to read it in a single, giant gulp.
As I read, I dog-eared recipes I wanted to remember. I marked the Pizza Siciliana and the Poppy Seed Whirligig Buns. I’m hoping to make the Yeasted Plum Cake before their season is entirely gone and, come Christmas, I’m definitely planning on making the Fruit Bread on page 161. It sounds dense and divine.
As I read, there was one recipe that jumped out at me more insistently than the rest and cried out to be made immediately. The Pflaumenmus or Spiced Plum Butter on page 237 had my name written all over it (particularly since I had the necessary four pounds of Italian prune plums at home, thanks to the Washington State Fruit Commission and their Canbassador program).
Of course, I’ve made plum butters before, but never with this particular technique. Luisa has you quarter the plums, stir them together with a bit of sugar, a cinnamon stick, and a couple cloves and let them sit overnight. The next day, once they’re nice and juicy, you pop the pan into the oven and bake them them at moderate heat.
After their time in the heat, the plums are incredibly tender and fragrant. The liquid has thickened a great deal and the slumping fruit just smells incredible.
Once pureed, she has you funnel the prepared butter into sterilized jars and use the inversion method to seal. This is the only place where I diverged from the recipe as written and I chose to run my jars through a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Because this is a relatively low sugar preserve, I wanted to ensure that all bacteria was killed and the best way to do that is with a hot water bath.
Now, just a note about the yield. The recipe says that it makes four to five jars, but doesn’t specify the sizes of those jars. I found that after pureeing, I had exactly enough butter to fill three pint jars. I imagine the jars Luisa used were a bit smaller than a standard pint and so figure my yield was just about right (I did the math and found that had I used the 1/5 L Weck jars, I’d have filled exactly five jars).
I plan on applying this same overnight maceration and oven roasting to other fruits, because it made for such a nice finished product and filled my apartment with the most delicious smells.
Disclosure: Viking sent me an advanced copy of My Berlin Kitchen and are providing the copy for this giveaway. However, I’ve not been paid to host this giveaway and my opinions are entirely my own.
Spiced Plum Butter
Ingredients
- 4 pounds Italian prune plums
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 whole cloves
Instructions
- Pit and quarter the plums and put them in a heavy 4-quart pot. Add the sugar, the cinnamon stick, and the cloves. Stir well and let sit overnight or four 8 hours.
- The next day, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the pot, unlidded, into the oven and cook for 2 hours, stirring the mixture occasionally.
- Sterilize the glass jar and lids in boiling water.
- When the plums have broken down and the liquid has reduced to a thick jam, remove pot from the oven and fish out the cinnamon stick (if you can find the cloves, fish them out too).
- Puree the jam with an immersion blender until it resembles a fruit butter, and then fill the sterilized jars with the hot puree, screw on tops and immediately turn the jars upside down. If you prefer a jam with discernible chunks of fruit, however, don’t puree the jam; simply ladle the hot jam into the sterilized jars.
- Let the jars cool complete before turning the right side up again and labeling them. The jam will keep for at least a year.
(Marisa’s note: You can also process the jars in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes if you’d prefer to do it the American way.)
Recipe from My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes) by Luisa Weiss, published by Viking, 2012.
Earliest and favourite food memory. The bacon my Father would cook for me while we were out camping together. He would wake me up with a big plate of it every morning. Nothing has ever tasted so good as sitting with my Dad in the middle of nowhere, just the two of us eating bacon and eggs as the sun rose.
My favorite food memory is decorating my birthday cake with my grandmother when I was five. She had flown to NC from Texas to celebrate with us and I was just captivated by her. She is movie-star beautiful, warm and gentle, and just seemed to know everything. She is still my favorite person (outside of my own family!). The cake was a beautiful chocolate three-tiered heart shaped affair. Delicious!
I loved eating dinner with my family growing up- didn’t really matter so much what we were having, although, Sunday dinner was my favorite, just being together around our table in our home is a memory that I still relish and want to replicate all the time.
I can’t wait to try this receipe!
My most favorite memory of cooking and sharing is when my son moved out on his own and I got a phone
call saying he didn’t feel well, he was at the market and wanted to know all the ingredients in my homeade chicken noodle soup..We shopped together (I was on the phone) When he got home he called me back and we made the soup together.
He was happy and healing and said his soup tasted just like mine…he
contined to enjoy cooking..now we’re teaching his bride..Sharing receipes is love,Patrica
Sitting at my grandmother’s table, waiting for brioche to come out of the oven
Making old-fashioned fudge with my Aunt Frances. I was so excited that the candy turned out well, when my uncle came home I ran to him and told him that Aunt Fudge and I made Frances! She was Aunt Fudge after that. Very fond memory.
I loved watching my mom make Christmas cookies and candies late into the night. She was such an inspiration and a giver.
oo! i need a new good read. pleasepleaseplease.
all my favorite food memories are times when a food i previously didn’t enjoy was revealed to me as completely awesome: rhubarb tea cake at Baker & Spice in Portland, my first homegrown tomato (courtesy of my grandfather), justhowawesome refried beans are when combined in fried egg breakfast burrito.
being picky when i was little made for a lot of awesome discoveries these last few years.
One of most favorite food memories is hearing my dad cooking Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, pans clanging and steam rising out of the kitchen and smelling all of the good things he was making- such a great chef; one of the things I still make is his famous stuffing- we would have it for breakfast and watch the parades.. I miss those times so much.
My favorite food memory is actually a scent. The smell of dinner roasting when I used to walk into my grandparents house is printed indelibly on my brain. Whenever that smell is encountered elsewhere, I’m instantly transported back in time to family gatherings. Love it.
I worked at a resident camp for many summer. While roasting s’mores is a good memory, I remember Wednesday night cookouts more. It’s more about the friendships and memories than the food (isn’t it always?), but we did pretty good for a bunch of late teen, early twenty- somethings. A favorite recipe from camp is Bag’s of Gold. Basically, it’s tomato soup (yes, from a red can) with dumplings that are filled with cheese. A favorite meal that I still like to make on snowy days when school is cancelled. And you would think we invented waffles with ice cream, but those square frozen waffles with the neopolitan ice cream slices- they were the best!! And evening snack of Applesauce Gingerbread, moist, warm, spicy and delicious.
I remember canning watermelon rind pickles with my grandmother when I was a little girl. She canned everything. But I remember that one the most.
Eating an apple cider donut in a park in Charlottesville, VA on my first vacation with my girlfriend. Perfect day. The donut was too hot to eat at first because we had just watched it roll off this contraption the guy who owned the donut truck had set up to pull them out of the fryer. He seemed really in love with making and selling donuts.
I’m not sure I can pick one food memory, but I’ll go with eating fresh applesauce with cinnamon and sugar, in my parents’ kitchen as a child.
My favorite food memory surrounds the strawberry pies my parents would whip up together to serve us kids each summer. YUM!
My mother baked a pie every Sunday for dinner. Strawberry rhubarb was always my favorite. I make a pretty good pie, but it isn’t the same…
When I was in elementary school, my mom let us play hooky from school to spend the day making Christmas cookies every year. (The first year, we had to have a discussion about how no, I probably shouldn’t tell everyone including the cashier at the grocery store that we were playing hooky.)
Helping my grandma with Thanksgiving dinner. I enjoyed all of her cooking, especially the pumpkin pie.
Oh, so many food memories! One that sticks out in my mind right now is helping my mom make cinnamon rolls and then eating them warm with a cup of hot chocolate.
Thank you, thank you for posting this recipe! I have a large bag of plums in my fridge and wanted to make something other than the spiced plum jam I just made last week. My favorite food memeory is more of an ongoing ritual. Every Sunday my boyfriend grills while I chop, sautee, and prepare the rest of our meal. We sit outside by the fire and enjoy it. Great cap to a weekend and start to a new week!
My favorite food memories are related to the Thanksgivings I hosted over the years. When my parents were living, they came to town for the day, and we always had an eclectic group of friends and friends of friends join us so it was always a different crowd. My dad used to tell stories of coaching football in 1950’s reform schools and being a repo man in Montana when they were young newlyweds. Great food with friends and family always makes the best memories.
I remember the very first time I baked something on my own: I was 10 years old, baking a triple chocolate cake (with cake mix and pudding, natch) on New Years Eve. Right Said Fred was playing on the radio, ’twas a grand time! I was so impressed with my parents to trust me in the kitchen alone. Ha!
I read this recipe at the perfect time! Just earlier this morning I was wondering what I was going to do with the basket of plums my husband picked this weekend. I’ve already made the plum star anise jam and spiced plum jam. Can’t wait to try this one.
My favorite memories (and ones we still laugh at) involve my dad “building” salads for family dinner. They were never small. In fact, by the time he was finished, he had used the largest bowl available! The dog loved leftovers as long as it had salad dressing on it!
making christmas cookies every year
Drinking chocolate at Angelina’s on Rue de Rivoli in Paris. Amazing!
You had me at plum butter. My folks used to have an Italian prune plum tree, but it caught black knot from the peach tree, and both died. I’ve only made plum butter once since then, and clearly need to do it again!
I live in Canada, so this isn’t an entry! 🙁
However..
My earliest food memory.. is either my Mom making homemade chicken soup (which Dad and I would always try and get her to make with just broth and egg noodles.. none of those other vegetable goodies!)… Or! Mom making pizza sauce with the bounty of tomatoes from the backyard. I’m not sure which would be first.. she stopped doing the latter years ago, too much work. Though, now that my brother and I have “grown up”, maybe she’ll find time for it again.
Also, this post has given me a reason to go visit a certain Farmers’ Market tonight – that one always has the best fruit! Plum butter sounds fantastic 🙂
It’s so hard to pick one memory! A more recent memory is going to Mitchell’s Fish Market (I know, I know, it’s a chain! but it’s yummy!) for the first time, and getting engaged that same night! I’ll forever have a love for pecan-crusted whitefish that I never thought I’d have!
My mom usually did the cooking growing up, but on occasion, my dad (who worked as a cook several times in his life), would take over the kitchen and makes stacks of soft, buttery pancakes, crisp bacon, and mounds of golden hashbrowns…
It wasn’t until I got to college that I discovered that most people make pancakes from box mixes. Go figure!
While working for a farmers’ market as a young teen, being introduced to Muenster cheese (previously to that, I had only tasted Velveeta!). And about that same time, teaching myself how to make jam.
one of my favorite food memories is helping my grandmother make concord grape jelly – I’m just about to harvest my first crop of concord grapes and she has been very much on my mind. I’d love to have her old chinois!
My favorite food memory is making Christmas cookies with my mother. We always doubled and tripled batches because their were so many of us in the family. We started shortly after Thanksgiving and baked, baked, baked and froze them after baking to bring out on Christmas Eve. However by the time Christmas Eve rolled around there was only half as many as we started with because everyone had their favs and couldn’t wait for the holiday! LOL
I make new memories everyday that my grown, 23yo son and I make a new recipe together.
Favorite food memory? That’s next to impossible, so I’ll write *one* of my favorite food memories: apricot croissants on Saturday mornings with my dad. Heaven!
One of my favorite food memories is of this spontaneous, late-evening meal I threw together when we had some close friends call late, say they were in our area and could they come over? Basically, I just emptied out my pantry and spread out everything that looked good on our coffee table …. crackers, cheese, nuts, salami, apple butter, chocolate bars, a few mandarin oranges (it was the holiday season) and a bottle of red wine – it was festive, simple and yummy! Now it’s my go-to meal whenever we have guests over in the evening. 🙂
My Gram’s pork and sauerkraut with potato dumplings drizzled with melted butter and her green beans. When I was little we would sit on the wooden swing under a huge maple tree and string those beans…lovely memories…thanks for helping me remember.
It has to be the time my mom took her hand off the blender when she was making chocolate milkshakes for my brother and I. Ice cream went everywhere, and we ended up laughing in a sticky mess as we cleaned up the kitchen together.
During canning season we used to beg my mom to let us turn and shove the tomatoes into the large saucer machine. I used it this year myself and it brought back so many memories!
My favorite memory is going to my grandparents house on Sundays after church. We got a piece of german pumpernickel bread with butter and were told to sit quietly on the horse hair couch and watch tv until dinner was ready. The smells of Sauerbraten wafted from the kitchen.
I have lots of fond memories of baking orange rolls with my grandma every time she came to visit us.
I canned around fifty jars of sweet Colorado peaches last fall. We stood in the kitchen of our college co-op and listened to African music while the lids sealed. Beautiful!
Having lived in Berlin till the beginning of my teens, I will never forget splurging on a piece of cheese cake at allowance time. Many times I have tried to duplicate this cheese cake but it never tasted as wonderful as what I bought in that little deli store.
I think my favorite food memory was eating langositino risotto in the Cinque Terre in Italy. Sitting along the water with local wine, my 8 year old son and significant other. The fresh food, the ocean breeze the sweet wine all made for a magical evening.
One of my favorite food memories is of my grandmothers layer cake. My cousin and I used to fight over it whenever the family was together. My grandmother baked the most buttery yellow cake, separated into many many layers, sandwiched together with a rich fudgey frosting. One year, she made two, so that my cousin and I could each lay claim to one (even though we shared with others of course!). I treasure the recipes for that cake and for her special pound cakes and think of my grandmother every time I make one to share with others. Isn’t that what great food is about? Sharing the love.
My favorite memory is watching my paternal Grandmother roll out pie crust. She used this heavy weight pastry cutter (metal, shaped like a tear drop with a handle, cut the pastry & had cutouts on the side of flowers to make vents), a rolling pin with a cloth liner on it (the crust never stuck to it!), & a shortening which came in a can, was southern, & had no preservatives to it. She made the best crust! (if anyone knows what sort of shortening this is, please post it! )
My Grammy’s fresh baked bread. It’s the most perfect bread for grilled cheese – gets crispy fast and the insides stay super soft and fluffy and light. Nothing like it!
One of my favorite food memories will always be my mothers mac and cheese. Even though it’s a simple dish, she made the cheesiest, yummiest, most perfect homemade mac and cheese. With crushed crackers sprinkled over the top. My siblings and I beg her to make it all the time, even now. Soon, she’ll be showing me how she does it. Can’t wait!
Rainy days, poached eggs and toast. A favorite childhood staple.
OMG that plum butter sounds DIVINE. I missed the season for Italian Prune plums here, but I have a load of yellow plums in my fridge that I’ve been itching to do something with…
My favorite food memories will always involve Christmas. My grandmother used to have us all over for three days, and my aunt took over after my grandfather died. Christmas has always been pretty food-intensive for us (we’re French-Canadian). Tourtière, turkey, pork roast (for my uncle who hates turkey), sucre à la crème, baked beans, homemade fudge (mine) and so many other dishes we have every year. A few years ago, my aunt introduced us to a new favorite – Pâté du Lac St. Jean. OMG SO GOOD. It’s like tourtière in the way that a hand-frosted ganache cake compares to a Joe Louis.
I have a lot of bad food memories from childhood (don’t get me started) and I’ve had some major ongoing battles with food that I’m still working on. But Christmas? It’s all about the food and the family, and it has nothing but happy memories for me 🙂
My earliest food memory would have to be when my family and I were living in Port ‘d Pille, France. My dad was with the US Army.
My mom and I would walk into town and buy very long (to a little kid), skinny loaves of warm French bread.
We would eat some of it right after we arrived home…..slathered with creamy butter.
Never found anything that would come close to that crusty outside, chewy inside loaf!
Making popcorn balls with my grandma when I was younger. It’s about that time of year!