Peaches and Plums – Crumble and Plum Jam

/ karen

It’s been a brilliant year for stone fruits. We’ve had a record number of plums and peaches at home. They are the easiest fruit to grow- just plant them and harvest delicious home-grown organic produce.

Here’s my favourite recipe for fruit crumble cake. You can use any fruit – peaches, plums apricots, apples. Takes only minutes to make, and can be frozen. The mini crumbles look fantastic for a party- or even a picnic.

FRUIT CRUMBLE CAKE

350g self-raising flour

2 level teaspoons mixed spice

175g butter

150g golden caster sugar

8 tablespoons milk (buttermilk if you have it)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 peaches or a handful of plums

Icing sugar for dusting

A 12 hole pan, or 18 x 28cm tin lined with baking paper, or any 7″ pie dish

20 mins at 190c /gas mark 5

Using only 3 tablespoons of the milk – Put all the ingredients – apart from fruit- in a food processor and whizz to form crumbs.

Tip out into a bowl, and put two thirds of the mixture- and the rest of the milk- back in the machine. Blend to create a smooth cake-consistency.

Spoon the cake mixture into the pans and arrange chopped fruit over the top. Add the reserved crumble mixture on top, leaving some of the fruit uncovered.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cut into chunky squares, if using the tin. Dust with icing sugar.

Note: You can used canned or frozen fruit, if fresh isn’t available

PLUM JAM

900g fruit

900g sugar

150ml water

Put all ingredients in a jam pan and cook gently until all the sugar is absorbed and the plums are soft. Gradually bring to a rolling boil. Check carefully to see that the jam isn’t burning on the bottom of the pan. After about 10 minutes put a tablespoon of the mixture onto a cold plate from the fridge. Leave to cool slightly and press with your finger or a spoon to see if the jam ripples. If it ripples it will set. If it stays soft and liquid it needs more boiling. This will fill about 4 or 5 jars which have been very thoroughly washed and warmed in the oven before filling. There are recipes with larger amounts of fruit, but this one works for me and is a manageable amount to cope with in one go.

Enjoy! Have you had a good year for fruit in your garden? And don’t forget to share your favourite recipes in the comments below.

27 thoughts on “Peaches and Plums – Crumble and Plum Jam”

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    • Oh that sounds divine! I love raspberries too. They freeze so well and are such a treat to bring out in the middle of winter when you need something to cheer you up. My autumn raspberries are just starting to fruit. For the last few weeks we have been picking blueberries. I can highly recommend Ivanhoe as a gap filler between summer and autumn raspberries. Thanks for reading 🙂

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    • Thank you Brian. Something a little bit different. Very useful for travelling as they don’t fall apart. Sprinkled with icing sugar, and decorated with fresh fruit, they look pretty for parties. A very adaptable recipe. I’ve written it here for my children to follow. They might come looking for family recipes one day 🙂

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  15. Apricots were fantastic here this year; I have a friend who has five trees of different varieties AND she was very generous with them so I have lots of jam, pickle and puree plus some frozen for pies or crumbles. I like the sound of your crumble cake. Later fruits have not been so good as it has been so hot!!! I’m hopeful of a reasonable quince crop.

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    • How wonderful! I’m thinking of getting an apricot for the greenhouse. British farmers have had a boom in apricots. Godshill Orchards on the Isle of Wight have 30 percent more fruit. They’ve produced 50 tons because of the mild spring and 30 degrees heatwave in June. Some of their trees have produced 1,000 apricots each! That’s a lot of pies! I like the sound of your jam, pickles and purée. My freezer is full of plums and there are rows of jam all over the kitchen. Thanks for reading.

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