I made Chocolate Plum Jam!

After sampling my friend Tamzen's Chocolate Plum Jam I had to make it. She found the recipe online on the GrowItCookItCanIt.com website. For me it's more like buy it, cook it, eat it. LOL. The ingredients are pretty straight forward.

I decided to take a cue from the photography sessions I attended at BlogHerFood 2012 and use part of my kitchen as the backdrop of these photos instead of my usual white background.

Start with fresh or frozen Santa Rosa plums.

I cut them in half to remove the pits. I did this over a pot to save the three tablespoons of juice that ran out as I cut into them.

Dice the plums.

Add sugar.

Then honey.

And cocoa powder.

A little vinegar (I used balsamic fig) & lemon juice.

And a sprig of fresh sage. I actually bought a sage plant just for this recipe and pulled off four leaves because the plant was really small. This turned out to be not so convenient later.

You'll combine all of the ingredients in a pot and heat to 220º.

It gets pretty messy!

I didn't get a shot of the jam cooking because it was splattering quite a bit. But you can tell by the sides of the pot how as the jam oooked it came up the sides then receded.

Chocolate Plum Jam!

Remember those sage leaves? I had to run the mixture through a strainer to remove them.

On a slice of bread with Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam. It's a triple cream cheese like brie. It was fantastic! The flavor of the jam is more complex than your typical sweet strawberry or blueberry. It's sweet and tangy at the same time. Combined with the earthy flavor and smooth texture of the cheese and a slice of toasted bread it was a great combination.

A confession, because this was my first time ever making jam I overcooked it so the texture wasn't as soft and jammy as it should have been. It ended up somewhere between jammy and a very soft plum caramel. LOL. But it tastes great and I've been sticking a spoon in the tub and eating it one spoonful at a time. This is definitely something I'll make again and again.

CLICK HERE for the full recipe on GrowItCookItCanIt.com