Another fruit butter worth getting to know (besides the ever-popular apple variety): Plum Butter. With the sweet and slightly tangy plum flavor and a few spices to top it off, you will have yourself a tasty spread!
About a week or so ago, I found myself with a huge, huge bowl of plums. My mother-in-law said she had them on her tree, but had never really used them much, and would I like some? Well, of course! Who can turn down fresh anything, right? But, then I just wasn’t in the mood to straight up eat them, and I just wasn’t getting any inspiration of what to make with them.
Ben and I started doing some searching. Tarts, galettes, they all sounded good, but just not what I was in the mood for. And then it hit us: Plum Butter. We had just make a big batch of apple butter the week before and had been enjoying it on pretty much everything, so this seemed like a great compliment. I searched around on the web and to my dismay was only finding plum butter recipes that required a lot of attention over the stove top. I’ve heard too many complaints with fruit butters and how easy it is to burn them if dealing with stove top cooking so I didn’t even want to go there, nor had the time. I figured since I’d done some apple butter in the crock pot and that turned out great, I could have equally good results with plum.
It was getting kind of late at night, and I didn’t want to postpone this until the next day, so I figured I’d go with a low setting and see where things went from there. The plums seemed so juicy so I really wasn’t sure if I needed the extra water, but I thought, well, better safe than sorry, and that I could always let it cook a little longer if I needed it to thicken up.
Man, did this turn out well! I literally cleaned the plums, halved them, pulled out their pits, threw into the crock pot (skins on), and then worked on my night routine to wrap some work up before getting to bed while stirring a couple of times intermittently. Then off to sleep I went. And when I woke up, a fabulous aroma of plum filled the air! I hesitated about when to add the sugar and spices, but I figured with spices already ground, just adding right at the end would help everything stay nice and potent.
You may be past your bumper crop already, but if you do happen to have plums still hanging around, this is a great use! (I almost stole some off of someone’s tree the other day because I just sawing them go to waste. Feel free to do the same!) And if not, calendar it for next year. Planning ahead!
Overnight Crockpot Plum Butter
Ingredients
- 3 and 1/2 to 4 pounds 4 plums, skins left on washed, sliced in half, and pitted
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup water may not need - see notes
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
Instructions
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Place plums in crockpot with a little water.
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Simmer on low heat for about 1 to 2 hours, stirring about every 30 minutes to encourage the plums to break up.
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Once plums have broken up well, give mixture one last good stir to make sure it is evenly distributed in the crockpot.
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Cook overnight (about 8 to 10 hours) on low heat (no need to stir during this time).
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Stir mixture again. Add brown sugar and spices.
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Pour mixture into blender (or use an immersion blender) and puree until smooth.
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If desired, add a little more water to thin to your desired consistency, and blend in well. The best way I can describe the consistency is a velvety spread that spreads quite easily, but is not at all runny.
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Pour into quart-sized jars and enjoy over bread, meat, dumplings.....you name it!
Recipe Notes
What about.......
Water ratio - I have had plums where I needed to add more water at the end, and some where I literally was trying to steam off every bit of liquid there was on there because they were so juicy! So, this varies a ton. My rule of thumb is put in just enough water to start so that you are not worried of scorching skins during the initial breakdown process. And then just go from there. If it seems like there is too much liquid, I just remove the lid a few times during cooking, let some steam escape, and pour off all of the condensation that's on the lid.
Lazy upfront style - I have totally done this before without initially removing any of the pits or halving the plums. Literally just threw all the plums in the crock pot with the spices. And guess what? It worked! I mean obviously, still remove the pits from the broken-down plums before blending. I'm not sure which method I prefer. Depends if I want more work initially or at the end.
CANNING! A lot of people have asked about this. Please refer to the comments for advice. I myself am not much of a canner, and have canned this once, but not enough that I feel adequate to provide detailed instructions yet. To maintain vibrancy and flavor, adding a little bit of lemon is good (although not sure if necessary). A standard 10 minute water bath should do it for processing. However, once again, read the comments and do a little more research. Once I have had the chance to can this a few more times and am 100% sure on the process, I will update the recipe.
Dress it Down:
To keep it simple, leave out the spices to enjoy pure plum bliss!
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I’ve never used a crockpot to make fruit butters but I love how easy it sounds! Now why isn’t anyone offering me up huge bowls of fresh plums??
Jill – it seriously is THE EASIEST! I love it. And I will wish that you magically receive a bowl of plums on your doorstep (fingers crossed!).
I’m trying this with pi do palm fruit. It takes so long to clean and prep so I decided to try overnight crock pot problem is I already added pectin and lemon juice and sugar. If I keep it on low do you think it will scorch??
I had it cooking all night like the recipe said. My Mother turned it off when it still had an hour to go! I turned it back on, but it is ruined now?
You should be able to turn it on to let it finish. It might just take a little extra time if it’s cooled down a lot. Let me know how it turned out!
I made some plum butter last year and the crock pot on low boiled. It kind of scorched the sauce but it ended up being delicious! It did have a slight different taste but it was delicious!
This looks delicious! I have actually never made a fruit butter, and this looks like a great one to start with. Believe it or not, I’m already getting tired of apples, so plums would be just the thing.
This one’s definitely a winner Becky! I think it now trumps apple butter in my book for sure. Thanks for visiting!
Made some fantastic pear butter this way, no sweetener just w some lime and is delish
This sounds fantastic as pears are also a beautiful choice to use. I will have to try this. Thanks for sharing your idea.
Shared this on my crock pot recipe group too!
Thanks for coming and linking up at The Weekend Social. Please be sure to come back next week starting Thursdays at 9PM EST The Midnight Baker ! I hope to see you there!
Judy@ http://www.bakeatmidnite.com
Thanks Judith! Just joined that crock pot group – I think it’s great!
Can you tell me if this can be canned? If so, do you know how long for hot water bath canning? Thanks!
I would also like to know if this can be canned or stored long term another way…???
Eva – I’ve never canned this but I’m assuming you should be able to. Not sure on the water bath. I’ll look into it for sure!!!
I have canned plum butter, and it works beautifully! I made a huge batch a couple of years ago, and it held up nicely. In fact I still have a couple of jars left. I gave it as gifts and people loved it.
I used a 10 minute water bath for the canning.
Just wanted to give a quick update for canning – adding a little lemon juice will help it maintain its color and flavor the best. Water bath processing works (pretty much the standard 10 min). I am working on getting very specific directions for this to add to the recipe. Should be up soon!
I will be making this tonight and attempting to can tomorrow morning. I’ll let you know!
Hello! How did this turn out with canning?
Did it can well ?I made some last nite wait to try and can this morning.
My plums are pretty “over ripe”. Do you think it’s still ok for this recipe?? Thanks!!!
As long as they aren’t moldy or starting to have that fermented taste, they should be fine.
Can you used dried pitted plums
Can you use frozen plums
Absolutely! Let them thaw for about an hour, then cut and pit. You may not need to add water.
Has anyone canned this? Wondering if an acid would need to be added to can.
I just tried making apple butter for the first time 2 weeks ago. I tried 2 different crock pot recipes, both were no sugar added recipes, and I love the way they turned out. Being diabetic, I didn’t want the added sugar. I’ve been thinking a lot since then about making a delicious plum butter the way my Mom made … and jarred…. when I was a child. Hers was so much better than the the plum jellies and preserves sold commercially. I can’t wait until plums are in season so I can try my hand at a “no sugar added” version. If it’s bland, I’ll add sugar. No big deal.
That sounds great! I don’t think it would be bland at all without the sugar, maybe just a bit more tart. As long as you are getting plums of a variety that are sweeter, I think that it would work well!
You do not need sugar. I put maybe a 1/3 of a cup of some sort of local honey in an entire crock pot. I actually like the taste better with no or very little (non sugar like honey) sweetener. You can actually taste the plums then unmasked by too much refined sugar.
My mother made plum butter too with Italian plums/prunes. It was so good. I have a lot of plums right now and am going to try this. Brings back the memories.
If you need sugar, use the stevia. I used the stevia brown sugar with the plum recipe and it turned out great. I’m diabetic as well
Well I have 2 and a half big bags of plums to try this with. How long does it last if you don’t can? I guess I could just give it away too. 🙂
Hi Cristina! If it is refrigerated, I’ve had it last for quite a long time – months and months. Except when we go on a ravenous plum butter rage and then eat it all! haha. Anyway, hope that helps. It should keep for a long time. My neighbors also do LOVE this as a gift – I have given quite a bit away! I win over people’s hearts with food. Always a win!
I have a “fruit cocktail” tree that produced a TON of plums this year. I have made 2 batches of Plum Butter in the last couple of days using this recipe and have canned some of it to give away. All of this is a first for me, but both the Butter and the canning have come out great!
I made this over night last night I used 1/2 cup water and it’s a runny mess
I used over 41b plums. I would make next time with a tiny bit if water and do it during the day so I could it.
Sharon – scaling back the water is a great idea – and I’ve totally made this during the day as well – always makes the house smell great so how can I complain?!? Honestly, it totally depends on the batch of plums for the consistency! Some varieties are way more juicy than others. When it seems too juicy, I try to drain some of the liquid that’s condensed on the lid and also leave the lid off for a little. Just gotta play that by ear sometimes! I plan on trying to do a batch without any water in a couple of weeks just to see if that will work as well. If the plums are super juicy, I think they will break down quickly and prevent any scorch since it’s much lower temp than a stove top. I’m hopeful! I’ll report back how it goes!
I actually freeze my butters. Apple. Peach. Pear this is a first for plum butter and I’ll freeze it as well.
Great idea to help them last longer! Hope you loved the plum butter. It’s srsly one of my favs.
Has anyone tried freezing the plum butter?
I have never tried but that’s intriguing! I’m hoping to make a batch in a couple of weeks. I’ll definitely give it a go!
My neighbor gave me some fresh plums…. wasn’t wanting to mess with at the time so I pitted them and froze them individually on cookie sheets. I’d love to give the plum butter recipe a try. Can I use the frozen plums? Would you defrost first or use from frozen state?
Hi Kim! I have never made this from frozen plums, but I feel like I would probably just try straight from frozen, and then steam off liquid if needed. Let me know if you tried it and how it turned out!
Just made your Crockpot Plum Butter and its great ( I used Coconut Sugar as it is Low GI, as well as the spices) and bottling it this morning. Easy way of stoning is immerse the plums in boiling water, like you would to skin tomatoes, and then squeeze and the skins break and the stone slides out. As the plums are already warm, they melt down quickly in the crockpot.
That sounds fantastic with coconut sugar! I’ve been wanting to try it with some variations on the sweetener. Now this for sure is going on the list. Also, thank you for your tip about getting out the pits! I do agree depending on the variety and how ripe the plums are, getting the pits out can be annoying. I’m going to add your suggestion to the notes section. And I also agree that a quick boil can aid in the first step of breaking the plums down. Thanks again for visiting and sharing your input!
I just made this, it is absolutely delicious and wonderfully simple! I used the basic recipe except that I exchanged 1 cup of brown sugar for 1/2 cup of Brown sugar Splenda blend and it tastes great! I also sped up the 1st two hours of stirring in the crockpot to approx 10+ minutes on the stove top. It made 5-1/2 pint jars. It certainly beats standing over the stove for a long time. This was my first time to make a fruit butter, and I am excited to make more for gifts.
Jackie – so glad that you liked this. I seriously can’t get enough of it! I make sure to always have a jar at the Thanksgiving table. It has definitely replaced the cranberry jelly. – Christina
I have 25 # of Italian prune plums from my tree. I needed ideas for new ways to use them up. Thanks for the recipe. I have a crockpot full of plums simmering today. I just washed, pit and blended them, and filled crockpot. Smells wonderful.
I’m making plum Butter today. If I jar it up will it last till Christmas ?
I hope it turned out well! I have my jar ready to accompany the Thanksgiving turkey! Way better than cranberry sauce 😀
Oh, wow! The part about leaving the pits in reminded me of my Grandparents. Grandma always left the pits in, she never took them out, just canned it up like that. My Grandpa would always comment on how the pits improved the flavor. I’m going to get some plums tomorrow! Thanks for the memory and the recipe!
Aww, what a sweet memory! Also, how awesome that she just left them in when she canned it?!? That’s cool. Will have to try. – Christina
I made Golden plum butter in my crockpot today and added the sugar right away on accident along with a little water. 7 hours later I have plum soup, very thin. I will try turning to high overnight.
Sorry that it turned out runny. I hope you were able to cook a little bit of that extra liquid off and come out with something nice. Let me know! Seriously varies a lot with the batch of plums. Some are just sooooo much juicier than others. – Christina
Can I use dry pitted plums. I have too large bags
Delicious… waiting to hear if someone has tried freezing…
To can this recipe does the sauce have to be hot or cool to room temperature?
Luv the flavor of this plum butter, but could you comment as to what the desired finished consistency should be? I am also going to water bath can my batches for 10 minutes. Looking forward to test-tasting! Thanks much.
Hey Catherine! The best way I can describe is like a velvety spread. Really easy to spread, but not runny at all (like it’s not just gonna drip off of your knife). It really does remind me of room temp butter in the consistency – I’m guessing that’s maybe where fruit butters get their name from! I am hoping that I can get up a video by this weekend that will show the consistency a little bit better than these pictures! -Christina
Just wondering if you can use frozen plums for this recipe – it looks great but I have no fresh ones left! I have a couple of frozen bag lots though – I assume I would just leave out the water?
I made pear butter in the crock pot. The tip was to put a wooden spoon between the top of the crockpot and lid- at an angle across one side to allow a little opening to let the steam escape. Was perfect in the morning to can up! I used apple butter tips for canning.
3 1/2 -4 lbs 4 plums?? What does this mean?? Only 4 plums?? That doesn’t sound like much of anything
Is the amount of plums before sliced? I have about just shy of 3 pounds plums whole could I add an apple or two and leave the apple skin on?
I used yellow plums and they seem extra juicy
Just made this overnight last night/this morning. Used VERRY ripe, clingstone, exceedingly juicy plums and I added the sugar and cinnamon at the beginning the propped the lid open with a wooden spoon to encourage evaporation of all those juices. This morning I used the immersion blender to puree the skins that hadn’t broken down, then cooked it another good hour, stirring every so often to get it to the consistency I liked (again, just letting it reduce ever so slightly more). It turned out great! All in all, it took about 15h. My husband was so excited, he made crepes for breakfast, which we enjoyed with the still warm plum butter! Oh, and BTW this was my first time making anything like this! Thanks much! I’ll definitely do this again.
With a glut of plumbs this year, have tried this, and came out great, has to let some steam off due to high jucr of plumbs, jared very well, great tast, will be be doing this again
How much does this recipe yeild??? I don’t see that information anywhere. I am hoping to make some later today and wondering how many canning jars I need.
I got 2 quarts using 4 lbs of plums
Can you use this same recipe with other fruit? Like maybe peaches? It was so easy and tasty!
Making it right now.. two crock pots going:-) so looking forward to eating your advice:-) cause we are plum crazy:-) Always, Sandy
Finished 6 jars today.. had some left over.. put it on my cinnamon raisin toast…
Pure Heaven on Earth! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. And it was super easy!
I made this recipe exactly and did not add any water and it is REALLY runny. I am finishing it on the stove to hopefully condense it, but not sure why it is so runny. Definitely not velvety….
I am about to try this with plumcot but I’m still unsure about long term storing… I have read all the comments someone said it worked well but did you add lemon juice? Or did you water bath as is…
has anyone done this with lakanto brown sugar and if so do you change the amont of water, etc
Does the lid get put on during the cooking time or no?
Hello I made this recipe 4 times and each time a double batch. I opted to pit at the end since the plums were holding on pretty tightly and it seemed a labor intensive task either way. The nerve wracking part was being certain I removed all pits before I blended the plums with a stick blender. I also found my slow cooker low setting to be too high to leave the plums unsupervised, so warm was the setting I used most of the time and it took days to cook off all the liquid. Once the liquid seemed sufficiently low, I hand sifted through for pits, checked again, then blended and added spices before tasting and jarring. With the fourth batch I decided to try sugar free, so I pitted and added 2 cups of Madjool dates to the 7 lbs of whole plums and opted not to add the spices to that batch. Both versions were liked well.
I am wondering if it’s necessary to refrigerate the jars of plum jam and how long after opening will they be safe for consumption.
Thank you Christina for sharing your recipe. You saved many pounds of plums from a certain fate of waste.
I just made this overnight and it is very runny, with only a quarter cup of water added initially. I’ve taken the kid off and hope over the next couple of hours it evaporates and thickens up. The house smells amazing though!
This sounds great and yummy. I have a plum tree with lots of fruits this year and my husband just mentioned about plum butter. Will surely try this and will post the outcome.
I’m going to try leaving the pits in snd then running the cooked batch through my food mill. It worked for my applesauce, separating skin snd seeds from pulp. Easier than pie!
So……I don’t do this kind of stuff…but I ended up being given FORTY POUNDS of yellow plums and thought plum butter would be a good way to use them up and have something yummy. I put them in with the pits still in because I saw inthe comments that you can always pit them at the end instead. When I woke up, my beautiful bright yellow plums I used had turned about the cor of a deep red plum. Does that mean I ruined it? Or do all plums become that color when they’re cooked that long? Full disclosure, I may have had them in the slow cooker waaaaay longer than what this said to do. But it was on low.
I was blessed with 2 CASES very ripe plums when I went to food pantry last week, and I made 14 qts jam 1st.
I am using this crockpot to make plum butter next. Thank you so much!!!
I was also gifted with a CASE of nectarines.
Have you ever made nectarine butter in
the crockpot???
A friend brought me some plums small they taste great my plum butter has a great consistency a bit on the tart side any suggestions on taming it down I followed the recipe. It’s not bad actually it’s very good my first ever. Awesome easy and a beautiful color. I used a sieve and pestle. Thank you .
This recipe never says when to put in the brown sugar or the cinnamon or anything, but the plums and the water. It all the sudden starts talking about a mixture, but I don’t know when I’m supposed to put in the other stuff. Do I put it in right in the beginning? Or do I put it in after the first two hours?
I put it in all at once. Being diabetic however, I omit the added sugar, and love the not so overly sweet flavor. If the plums are ripe, it’s sweet enough.