Once a year I scramble across the roof of our chicken coop to pick a bucket of cherry plums. The tree hangs right over the roof, and conveniently the neighbour’s chicken coop is right next door and the tree hangs over that too … It’s just one little step from our roof to their roof and I do it, cheekily never asking for permission. Up there I’ve got full view of their whole yard, but with my head in a fruit tree I get a bit bold and reckless – I just want to fill my bucket! My six-year-old daughter now wants to join in! (Fruit-focused recklessness carrying on into the next generation.)
This tree came with the house when we bought it. It is quite nondescript, with spindly branches and small leaves; it doesn’t have much wow factor. Before we realised it was a plum we actually thought we might cut it down.
I admit that cherry plums don’t stand up against the many other amazing plums out there, like the angelina with its lovely sweetness and edibility, or the blood plum with its depth of flavour and of course its amazing colour. Only a mother could love the cherry plum. (And, well, my kids love them too, fresh off the tree by the dozen; they have no plum snobbery!)
But a bucket of orangey-red cherry plums is like a bucket of sunshine. In flavour, what they have is a nice tartness. They make a fantastic, dark-amber-coloured jam. The tartness is a little marmalade-esque but not as strong or intense. I just leave the pips in as it’s really not hard to pick out a few pips when you’re spreading the jam.
Lately I’ve been making plum paste, cousin of quince paste. Totally delicious. This time I take out the pips. Other than the task of the pips, making paste is easier than jam as there is no sterilising involved.
There are a few other things I make with our plums and I thought the category was just about fulfilled, but this year I had another idea. I’ve made apricot curd before and imagined that the tang of these plums could be perfect in curd; it might taste a little like lemon curd. So right! It’s amazing how close to lemon curd this plum curd really is, but with an extra layer of fruitiness. And plums are in season right when lemons are scarce.
Other plums would work in this curd too. Imagine what blood plum curd would look like. I’m looking forward to trying that.
Plum curd
about 1 cup stewed plums (with sugar added as you usually would), pips removed after cooking
60 g unsalted butter
extra sugar to taste
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
Puree the stewed plums and put them in a saucepan. Place over low heat and add the butter, stirring until melted. Taste the mixture and add sugar as required (my stewed plums have the minimum sugar, but curd needs more, partly to cut through the rich butter and eggs. I added a few tablespoons of sugar, then tasted and added a little more. The flavour should be like lemon curd – tangy and just sweet enough.)
Once the butter and sugar have been added, remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes. Whisk the eggs and egg yolk in a bowl, then whisk in a few tablespoons of the plum mixture to warm the eggs. Now tip the eggs into the saucepan of plums and stir well. Return to low heat. Stir constantly until the mixture has passed the custard stage and become a thick curd (which takes around 5 minutes). Taste again (you can stir in more sugar at the end if you think it still needs it). Leave to cool. If you are not using the curd straight away, you can store it in the refrigerator for a week or so.
Use plum curd to fill a tart or little tartlets (serve or garnish with whipped cream), spread it inside a cake, or have it with pancakes.
Thanks for the comment Brooke. Now I can see that’s a little confusing. When I use our cherry plums, I stew them whole, then remove the pips afterwards for recipes like plum curd. If using larger plums I remove the pips before cooking (easier and not so fiddly). Either way, 1 cup of stewed plums without pips will work best in this recipe 🙂
Just curious but is it one cup after you take out the seeds or before?
Thanks for your comment Aidan! Plums cooked in any way (and then puréed) could be used for the curd, and sweet plums would still work fine … The curd would taste a little different but I think it’d still be delicious. Plum ice-cream is another idea for you. Yum!
Found your page whilst looking at plum curd recipes. At first I thought you were stealing your neighbor’s plums, which was funny because I almost stole mine. They came from an untended patch next to an unoccupied retail shop; I was just taking a walk through the city and I came upon a squishy, discolored, polka-dotted patch of sidewalk. I recklessly tasted in of the soft, frosty-purple fruits without a wash, and I fell in love. I filled my outer bag pouch with as many as I could fit without any bursing open and soiling the bag. I got home with a few pounds of plums and minimal stickiness.
I don’t know if I’ll end up using your recipe because they aren’t stewed, and they aren’t the sour plums, either. I already made them into a purée so I need to start from there. But I am going to enjoy poking around the rest of your site and seeing what other delicious recipes you have. :). And maybe I will make these into tarts, because I have a thank-you gift to bake, and that might do the trick.