Plum jam with cinnamon (sugar free)

I can’t even imagine autumn without plum jam with cinnamon.

If you drive through beautiful Bosnia in autumn, around almost every village house, there is traditionally a plum orchard with thousands of blue and purple plums hanging off the branches. Picking the plums is often an obligatory family meeting that lasts for days and somehow celebrates the end of the summer.

Plums are used in hundreds of recipes, like plum dumplings, plum strudel, and plum cakes. But what every house with a plum orchard does is plum brandy and homemade plum jam.

Why you’ll like this plum jam recipe with cinnamon

In this recipe, we’ll show you how to make homemade canned plum jam with cinnamon without any added pectin. Doing that is very easy and very simple. If you have a plum tree, or you just bought plums, you can store the plum jam for the whole year or even more and use it for breakfast, desserts, pancakes, and baked goods.

This plum jam contains no sugar and is keto and low-carb diet-friendly. Have you ever tried eating it without bread, just like that? Well, I do that often.

Mix it with yogurt, and you’ll always have the best keto-friendly yogurt dessert at arm’s reach. Plum jam with cinnamon combined with sour cream on cloud bread…that’s so yummy.

It can be made only from plums and contains no preservatives. For a more traditional taste, add a tablespoon of rum and a pinch of grated lemon peels.

If you can the jam following a simple canning process, it will last very long. I’ve got jars in the pantry that were made three years ago, and they still taste delightful, just like they were made yesterday.

Ingredients you need for the jam

PLUMS – Whether you grow your plum trees or buy them in the store, try to pick the ripest ones for the jam. Plums that are picked the latest and already soft inside are a lot sweeter, juicier, and of better taste than the ones that are picked early.

If you have more plums, we suggest you use the solid ones for dumplings and other recipes and pick out the ripe ones for the jam. In short, those plums that look too ripe are perfect for the jam! Just be careful that the plums are not showing any signs of white-colored mold.

SWEETENER – in this recipe, we used a little bit of erythritol. Any kind of sweetener, or sugar, is absolutely not obligatory for the recipe. You can skip it entirely without a doubt. The recipe will still work because the plums, if ripe enough, contain enough sugar for the jam to taste still sweet.

CINNAMON POWDER –Plums and cinnamon somehow go together like bread and butter. Pancakes will smell great, and especially for winter-season recipes, the cinnamon in the plum jam will add a bit of winter magic when combined with baked goods. If you prefer the plain taste of delicious plums, skip the cinnamon and make the jam with plums only.

Tools you need

Canning jars with lids

A blanket

Step-by-step instructions – How to make plum jam with cinnamon

preparing the plums

STEP 1: Wash the plums. Half them and remove the stones. Do not remove the skin, as the skin adds a special flavor to the jam. If you don’t like pieces of the skin in the jam, blend the plums in the food processor before cooking.

STEP 2: If you prefer a more smooth jam, cut the plums into pieces. Otherwise, plum jam is traditionally made with halved plums, with only stones to be removed.

cooking the jam

STEP 3: Place the plums in a wide cooking pot or a large saucepan. At this step, we added 1 1/2 cups of erythritol. You don’t need to add water because the plums will release enough moisture.

STEP 4: Bring the plums to a simmer, then cover the cooking pot with the lid. Keep cooking the plums on low heat. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon so the plums don’t get burned at the bottom of the pot.

sterilizing the jars

STEP 5: In the meantime, prepare and sterilize the jars. Place them open with the lids in a pot full of water and bring them to a boil. Boil the jars for at least 5 minutes. The jars should come straight from a boiling pot when you put the jam in them.

The alternative to boiling the jars is sterilizing the jars at 100 C/212F for 15 minutes.

ADDING THE CINNAMON

STEP 6: Add a tablespoon of cinnamon powder to the simmering jam and stir. Cook for at least another 15 minutes.

STEP 7: When the jam is ready to move to the jars, it’s a matter of personal preference. The longer you cook the jam, the thicker it gets. If you don’t like the jam to be thick, remove it from the heat sooner.

Using a tablespoon, take a small amount of the jam. Place it on a small plate and set aside for a few minutes to cool. If the jam stays on the plate when you turn it upside down, it’s definitely ready.

canning the jam

STEP 7: Remove the sterilized jars from the boiling water. When the jam is ready and still boiling, carefully transfer it to a sterilized jar using a big spoon. Fill the jar with the jam almost to the top.

STEP 8: At this point, the jam will probably contain air bubbles. Remove them by pressing the jam down using a long, clean teaspoon. It’s highly recommended that the teaspoon be sterilized.

When the air bubbles are gone, seal the jar with the still-hot lid you’ve kept in the boiling water. The jar should be closed as tightly as possible.

Repeat the same with the rest of the jam. When filling the jars with the lids, make sure the jam and jars are hot.

STEP 9: The jars with the plum jam must cool as slowly as possible. When they are all sealed, place them upside down on a blanket. Cover them with another one and let them rest for 24 hours.

When cool and ready, check the lids on the jars. If the canning is done thoroughly, you won’t be able to push the center of the lid down.

Tips and notes

🥄 Always pick healthy and over-ripe plums for making the plum jam with cinnamon.

🥄 The riper the plums, the less pectin they contain.

🥄 When preparing the plums, do not remove the skin. The pieces of the skin will be visible when the jam is cooked. If you don’t like them, blend the plums before cooking the jam.

🥄 Be scrupulously thorough when canning the jam. The most important thing about canning is that the jars and the lids are sterilized and that both jam and jars with the lids are as hot as possible when pouring the jam into the jars. Let all the tools you are using be washed clean, preferably sterilized.

🥄 If you make the jam sugar-free, it won’t thicken as much as the one with added sugar. However, if you stick to the procedure and ensure that the jam and the jars are really hot when canning, sealed well, and using only clean tools, success is guaranteed.

Storage

Store your canned jam in a dry and cool place. If the canning process is done correctly, it will last at least a year.

Keep an opened jar in the refrigerator. Because this recipe doesn’t contain any sugar, the jam in the refrigerator will not last as long as a traditional one but probably up to 14 days.

However, we recommend canning the jam in smaller jars for the same reason.

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