2-Ingredient No Pectin Plum Jam
Easiest Sugar Plum Jam Recipe – No Pectin, Just Sugar & Plums!
I’ve never tried sugar plum candies, but this festive sugar plum jam sure tastes sweet as candy—in spreadable form! Plums are in season in fall, making for naturally-sweeter, extra delicious plum jam. I love the hint of tang, vibrant color, and that I only need 2 ingredients to make it!
Honestly, I’m a huge fan of plums in their whole fruit form because I love their super-sweet yet subtly-tart flavor. They are higher in natural sugars than some other fruits, yet plums are rich in fiber and still low on the glycemic index, so they don’t cause large blood sugar spikes!
Unfortunately, plum jam isn’t the most common option available in grocery stores. Which is a bummer because it’s just as delicious (if not MORE delicious) than any grape or strawberry jam! Seriously, this sugar plum jam recipe became my new favorite the moment I tasted it.
It’s sweet, tangy, and totally smooth—and I even left the skins on my plums! Plus, that gorgeous pink color looks especially lovely packaged into jars for DIY Christmas gifts. Spread it on toast, or pair with my pumpkin spice peanut butter for a festive PB & plum jam sandwich!
How to Make Plum Jam without Pectin
Typically, fruit jam recipes involve pectin—a type of fiber that occurs naturally in fruits. Or, you can also buy commercial pectin to add into jam recipes to help them gel. Personally, I don’t like to mess with it, so I went about making my plum jam without pectin!
Some fruits are higher in pectin than others and work better in no pectin jam recipes. Luckily, plums are one of those high-pectin fruits! And, leaving the skins on when you make this recipe is actually a smart idea, since most of the pectin resides in the fruits’ skins.
So, to make plum jam without pectin, simply slice up your plums—skins and all. Toss them into a pot (with NO heat), sprinkle them with sugar, and allow them to sit for about an hour. Trust me, giving your plums time to macerate is worth it for the increased sweetness and flavor!
After macerating, you can then turn on the heat, bring the pot to a boil, and simmer on low for 45-60 minutes. Finally, give the soft, fragrant, simmered plums a good mash until your jam is as chunky or smooth as you like! Bada-bing, bada-boom—plum jam, no pectin, so much deliciousness.
To Make Low Sugar Plum Jam:
If you’re watching your sugar intake, you can adapt this plum jam recipe to suit your needs. For a totally sugar free jam, you can substitute the sugar for stevia instead!
It will taste a bit different than the classic sugar plum jam, but still perfectly scrumptious. And, the texture may change slightly since sugar helps the natural pectin in the fruit to gel.
Or, meet in the middle and make a low sugar version by using ½ cup of sugar and ½ cup of stevia!
Find healthy holiday and seasonal recipes galore…
In my 150+ Healthy Holiday Recipes eBook!
Sugar Plum Jam without Pectin
Ingredients
- 2 lbs plums, ~12 medium-sized, or ~6 cups pitted & sliced
- 1 cup sugar or sweetener of choice
Instructions
- Slice plums and remove the pits. (You can leave the skins on!)
- Add slices to a pot—over NO heat or with the heat OFF—and sprinkle with sugar. Allow to sit and macerate for about 30 minutes to an hour. (This will make your jam sweeter and more flavorful!)
- After macerating, turn on heat and bring pot to a boil. Turn heat down and allow to simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally.
- Mash plums to desired consistency, until jam is as smooth or chunky as you like.
- Transfer to jars and store in the fridge up to 3-4 weeks, or top mason jars with festive cupcake liners for homemade holiday gifts! Or, use a sterilized canning process and store 2-3 months.
- To freeze, store the cooled jam in airtight containers (like mason jars), leaving about 1/2-inch of free space at the top of each container in case the jam expands during freezing. Lasts about a year stored in the freezer. (You can also store in plastic freezer bags if desired!)
- Yields ~4 cups homemade plum jam.
Notes
Doubling the recipe:
- I do not recommend doubling this no-pectin jam recipe because it will change the ratio of liquid to pectin in the batch.
- This means your jam is more likely to turn out runny, or you’ll need to reduce it for much longer to get it to thicken.
- For best results, work with only 6 cups of fresh plums (or 4 cups of jam) at a time.
Making this recipe with different fruits:
- If you decide to make this jam with berries (or any other low-pectin fruits), a member of this community has recommended using more sugar than listed in this recipe.
- Since berries have less natural pectin than plums, you may need to use 2 to 3 times as much sugar for 2 lbs of berries. (We have yet to try this personally so we can’t speak to the exact amount.)
Nutrition:
- Per 2 Tbsp plum jam made with stevia, yields 32 servings (~4 cups):
14 calories | 0g fat | 10g carbs | 0g fiber | 3g sugars | 0g protein
22 Comments on “2-Ingredient No Pectin Plum Jam”
I used wild plums and it was a bit tart but so were the plums. It worked out well as i have to watch sugar intake anyways. It tastes great and I will do it again with the rest of the plums i have frozen.
Hi David, the tart flavor of a wild plum jam sounds pretty tasty! We appreciate you sharing what worked for you, and thank you for trying out the recipe 🙂 Would love to know how your next batch turns out using your frozen plums!
Thanks for your reply Alyssia.
I asked a friend who makes lots of jams and canning. I poured all the jam back into a big pot, added one more cup of sugar and two diced green apples (for pectin), cooked it for an additional hour, and came out delicious. The quantity of jam got reduced by half.
Thanks and enjoy the rest of your summer.
Much love,
Hi Veronica, I’m so glad to hear your jam turned out well! What a brilliant fix your friend suggested 🙂 We’re going to have to try using diced green apples as a powdered pectin alternative sometime! We appreciate you getting back to us about what worked for you – that information will surely be helpful to anyone else who might run into a similar issue.
Take care, and sending love your way
Hi! Thanks for this simple recipe. Finally got to harvest plums for my tree. I followed your recipe, except that I doubled it. Cooked for an hour, put in the sterile jars, but now it looks runny.
I’m planning on cooking it longer tomorrow, perhaps even add a minced apple for additional pectin….. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Hi there! Thanks for trying out our plum jam recipe 🙂 I’m sorry to hear your batch has turned out a bit runny – unfortunately, I suspect doubling the batch diluted the total amount of pectin in your final product.
For any homemade jam without pectin, I’d recommend working with no more than 4 cups of jam at a time (which is how much our original recipe yields). So as you go back to try and thicken your jam, it might help to only work with only half of your batch at a time (4 cups of jam max). I apologize that there’s no disclaimer about this in the recipe – I’ll make sure to update it with this info!
First, if you haven’t opened up your jars already, I’d recommend waiting 24-48 hours to see if your jam improves after sitting for a while. If it’s still runny, the simplest option is to put the jam back on the stove, bring it to a boil, then let it reduce until it starts thickening. Your batch might thicken up once some of the excess liquid reduces!
I’ve also read that adding 2 Tbsp lemon juice (per 4 cups jam) can help, so you might consider adding lemon juice to your jam before boiling & reducing it. We’ve never tried adding minced apple for pectin, but I’d love to know how that turns out if you give it a try!
If none of these help your jam to thicken, you might consider more technical options to fix it, like incorporating powdered pectin or even powdered gelatin. I hope these suggestions can help 🙂 Let me know if you have additional questions!
Couldn’t wait to comment: Making this recipe for the 1st time today. Only my 2nd time making plum jam.
Got the plums from my Satsuma tree cut up & macerating in the fridge. I added 1 tsp of ginger & from my taste test, boy did that add a new layer of flavor! YUM!! Cannot wait to finish it off either later this evening or tomorrow.
Thank you for sharing this recipe
Hi Kary, we so appreciate your kind words and your inspired idea! Adding ginger to this 2 ingredient plum jam recipe is brilliant, we’ll have to give it a try! Thanks so much for trying the recipe 🙂
Would it be alright to put the plums in a blender using the smoothie setting before proceeding with the recipe for plum jam? I am thinking a lot more plums would go into a six cup container after blending in this manner–would that require an adjustment to the sugar?
Hello Jean! We prefer to slice the plums and allow them to macerate to soak in the sugars. Cooking sliced plums with the skin on seems to allow the pectin to break down naturally over the heat, helping the jam to gel. We haven’t tried this recipe by putting the plums in the blender first, so I can’t speak to how it might turn out if you did. It may change the texture of the jam, and you may need to increase the sugar, yes.
If you decide to blend your plums first, you’d have to do some experimenting with the recipe. I’m not sure what the exact difference in volume would be between 6 cups of sliced plums vs. 6 cups of blended plums, but it would help if you measured the difference in volume and then adjusted the amount of sugar accordingly. (So perhaps measure 6 cups of sliced plums, put it in the blender, and then continue to measure & blend plums until you figure out how many cups of sliced plums produce 6 cups blended plums. Then, increase the amount of sugar, based on the original 6:1 ratio.)
Again, I’m not sure how exactly this altered recipe would work out, and I do recommend sticking with the recipe as outlined above! However, if you decide to try blending the plums, we’d love to know how your jam turns out. Hope this helps! 🙂
My neighbors just gave us a bucket of plums and I’m going to try this recipe. If I want to can these in a hot bath would I use the 10 minute bath or the 5 minute bath? Using 8oz. jars. Thank you!!
I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out.
Hi Tamara, what a lucky bucket to receive from your neighbors! Truthfully we haven’t tried at-home canning with this no pectin plum jam recipe (or any jam recipe), but we hope to give it a go in the future. From what I’ve read online, in looks like a 10-minute bath would be your best bet if using 8oz jars 🙂 we’d love to know how this recipe turns out for you!
I love this minimalist jam. Excellent flavor, set, and texture. The macerating step is key, I think. I let the mixture sit more like 2-3 hours, until the sugar was dissolved in the plum juices, just because I had things going on, and it turned out perfect.
That’s fantastic, Flora, thank you for your feedback and sharing that tip about a longer macerating time! So glad that you enjoy this recipe, and thanks for giving it a try 🙂
Hi Nadia – is it possible to freeze the jam? I have more than my immediate needs require. Thanks.
Hi Kerry, yes it is possible to freeze the jam! First, if you only need to store the excess jam for a month, you can store this jam in airtight containers (like mason jars) in the fridge for up to 4 weeks. If you’re storing longer than that, absolutely you can package it up to freeze.
To freeze, store the cooled jam in airtight containers (like mason jars), leaving about 1/2 inch of free space at the top of the container in case it expands during freezing. They’ll store for about a year in the freezer 🙂 (You can also store in plastic freezer bags if desired!)
Do you need to let it cool off before putting in jar
Hi Jen, yes it’s best to let the jam cool slightly before storing in jars. But, you can also transfer the still-warm jam into jars, just let it cool inside the jars for a bit before sealing up the lids and placing them in the fridge 🙂
Berries don’t have enough natural pectin to set the jam so you need to use a lot more sugar in order to make no pectin berry jam. For example, 3-4 cups sugar for 2 lbs berries versus 4 cups for 8 lbs of plums
Hi Thomas, thanks for your insight and suggestions about making this recipe with berries!
Can you use mixed berries for the jam? I have some blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries in the freezer and was wondering if I could mix them to make a mixed berry jam with this recipe.
Hi Rob, a fellow community member, Thomas, says “Berries don’t have enough natural pectin to set the jam so you need to use a lot more sugar in order to make no pectin berry jam. For example, 3-4 cups sugar for 2 lbs berries versus 4 cups for 8 lbs of plums”
Hope this helps! 🙂