Stone fruit jam is very versatile. It can be used as a filling or topping in kolače/vatrushki, pierogi/vareniki, nalisniki and various other sweet goods from around Eastern Europe. I’ve made it successfully from both plums and peaches. It’s just fruit and sugar; no pectin needed! (If using peaches a little lemon juice is necessary to help it set up properly). And you don’t even need to peel the fruit. An immersion blender will help you get a really smooth consistency.

The trick to making this jam set up without adding any pectin is the boiling and then thorough cooling of the fruit multiple times. It’s not hard work just time consuming. While you’re boiling you will want to watch the pot, stirring occasionally. I learned the hard way that if you step away too long you might end up with a burned mess.

That pot required a LOT of soaking and scrubbing to get clean. This happened on my last boil of peach jam. I was able to salvage some of the jam that sat above this burnt layer. So several hours of boiling/cooling did not go completely wasted!

Getting started

Wash about a pound of fruit and then pit them. Cut them in half, remove the pits and then cut the halves into smaller pieces. No need to peel them–this jam uses the whole fruit (minus the pit of course).

When you have all the fruit cut, put it in a small saucepan and add the sugar. For one pound of fruit add 3/4 cup of sugar. If using peaches (or nectarines) add a teaspoon of lemon juice as well. Peaches and nectarines are less acidic than other stone fruit so the lemon juice helps the jam set up.

Peaches also benefit from a quick mash by hand before you cook them. Somewhere I read a tip that you should cook the peaches with their pits (I do not recall the reason why). Add the pits to the pan after you give them a mash, though! And remove them if you’re going to use an immersion blender later, too.

Bring the fruit to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. The fruit will start to break down as it cooks. You can give them a quick mash by hand while they’re simmering to help break them down. The contents of the pot will get bubbly and there may be some flying missiles of fruit from your pot so be careful not to get burned by boiling hot projectiles. Stir the fruit frequently to prevent burning. Simmer for ten minutes then remove from the burner. Let the pot cool completely to room temperature. You can stir it occasionally to help release some of the heat.

Now repeat

After the fruit has completely cooled to room temperature, repeat the boiling/simmering process a second time. This time after about ten minutes, you can use an immersion blender to puree the jam and make it smoother. Just be careful if it’s still really hot.

Now repeat the whole process at least two more times for a minimum total of four boiling/cooling cycles. The jam thickens a little upon cooling each time. Stop when you have it the consistency you want for your application, maybe thicker for a filling and looser for a spread.

The plum jam turned out beautifully! Because I had a mishap with my first batch of peach jam, I only got about half as much jam as I needed. I repeated the recipe with another pound of fruit and then combined the two batches. The peaches were slightly different varieties so the resulting color was a little different.

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