My Plum Marmalade

3 kilos of uncleaned ripe plums (makes around 2,7 kg of the clean stuff), washed, deseeded and diced
300g of caster superfine vanilla sugar
2 splashes of juice from lemon

You can also mix caster sugar and gelling sugar 1:1, instead of lemon. It consists of pectin, however, you get gellier texture and assurance that marmalades do not go bad. I used to mix as per following: 1 layer of gelling sugar, 1 layer of caster superfine vanilla sugar.

The evening before

Prepare the plums.

Mold them into a large deep pan into 3 layers. Each layer cover with the caster sugar. Therefore, the top layer is covered with the sugar too. Put a lid on and place it in a cold place overnight. Not in the fridge. I always use the trunk of my car, parked in the garage, depending on what is the temperature outside, of course.

The Next Day

Bring the pot in. Give it a good stir and start cooking. I am cooking in smaller amounts, around 4 large spoons of the mixture, placing them in a smaller deep pan.

Add a splash of lemon juice. If you work with gelling sugar, skip the lemon.

You can see the difference in color. The cooked plums get brighter and more homogenous as per the pictures above. The amount of 4 large spoons takes around 30 minutes. You can make the cooking go faster by turning up the heat under the big pot (remaining mixture), too. Just to make your job faster and easier.

Once the marmalade is ready, do a test. Place a small spoon of the marmalade onto a serving plate. If the thickness is to your liking, you are done. Fill up the sterilized glass jars. Close them tight and wrap them up-side-down in a blanket. Let them cool down completely.

Enjoy them with a piece of fresh bread or My Brioche Recipes.

Makes 8 small jars.