How To Make Mulled Wine Spiced Plum Jam

Small batch mulled wine spiced plum jam made with 12 plums, a splash of red and winter spices. No pectin, no canner, and it tastes exactly like Glühwein.

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Our mulled wine spiced plum jam is a small batch, no pectin plum jam simmered with red wine, cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg and a whole star anise until it tastes like a mug of Glühwein. It takes 250g of plums (about 12 small ones), 50g of red wine and 50g of brown sugar, cooks down in around 30 minutes on the stove, and needs no canner, no gelling sugar and no special equipment. Because the sugar is low it is a refrigerator jam rather than a shelf stable one, so it keeps about two weeks in the fridge or three months in the freezer. One batch makes enough to fill a batch of thumbprint cookies, layer into a coffee cake, and still have some left for toast.

We are, and we say this with our whole chests, absolute Glühwein fiends

If there is a market with a stall pouring something hot and red into a mug, we have found it. We have had Glühwein at Christmas markets in Canada, in the US, in Germany where it is a birthright, in France, and, to our genuine shock, in Japan. (That one we did not see coming.) Thomas lived in Germany for years and really found himself just adoring it. Sidney fell in love with it by collecting Christmas Market mugs. So this jam was never really planned as a Glühwein thing. It became one by accident, and then we could not un-taste it.

Why this recipe exists

Thomas is allergic to undercooked stone fruit. Raw plums, barely warmed plums, a plum that has technically been near a stove, all off the table. Cooked properly, he is completely fine, which means every plum recipe in this house gets cooked past the point where most recipes tell you to stop. This jam started as Sidney being slightly militant about it. Long and low, stir it, cook it again, make absolutely certain.

What we were not expecting was the flavour. Somewhere in that extra time, with the wine reducing down and the spices going soft and round instead of sharp, it stopped tasting like plum jam with spices in it and started tasting like the actual bottom of a really good mug of Glühwein. The kind you get at the end when the sugar has settled and the spice has had an hour to sit.

A note we want to be clear about: this is what works for Thomas and his particular situation. If you or someone you cook for has a fruit allergy, please talk to your own doctor about what is safe for you rather than taking our word for it.

Use the cheap wine. Genuinely.

We tested this with the red that has been living on our counter for a while as our cooking wine, and that is the version we kept. You do not need anything nice. Fifty grams of wine, which is about three and a half tablespoons, is going into a pan where it will be boiled down to almost nothing and then buried under cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg and star anise. A good bottle would be a waste, and honestly a very tannic or oaky red can turn slightly bitter as it reduces.

If you want a guideline: something dry, red and unremarkable. A cheap Merlot, a table blend, the box in the fridge, whatever you already cook with. If you have leftover actual Glühwein from a market or a pot you made at home, that works beautifully too, just cut the cinnamon back to 1 teaspoon since it is already spiced.

What you need

• 250g pitted plums (about 12) – we use small Italian plums, the oval blue ones sold as Zwetschgen or prune plums. They are firm, they hold their shape, and they are not watery, so the jam gets there faster. Larger round plums work but will need a few more minutes to cook down.
• 50g red wine – about 3 1/2 tablespoons. Cooking wine is fine, see above.
• 50g brown sugar – light or dark. Dark gives you a deeper, more molasses-y jam.
• Zest of half a lemon – do not skip this. It is not there to make it lemony, it is there to keep the whole thing from tasting flat and syrupy. Plums are low in acid once they are cooked and sweetened, and the zest brings the edges back.
• 1 to 2 tsp cinnamon – We personally prefer 2, but if its not your thing no worries.
• 1/4 tsp ground clove
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg – freshly grated if you have a whole one.
• 1 whole star anise – the one non negotiable. Star anise is what makes it read as Glühwein rather than as generic spiced fruit. It comes out at the end.
• A splash of vanilla – roughly 1/2 teaspoon, added off the heat.

How to make it

1. Halve and pit your plums and put them in a small saucepan with the wine, brown sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg and the whole star anise. Give it a stir so the sugar and spices are through the fruit rather than sitting on top.
2. Cook on medium low for 15 minutes. It will look alarmingly liquid at first as the plums release their juice. That is correct. Stir now and then and let the skins soften and the fruit start collapsing.
3. Turn it down to low and keep going, stirring occasionally, until a lot of the wine has cooked off and what is left is thick and glossy rather than soupy. You are looking for a spoon dragged across the bottom to leave a track for a second before it fills back in. Do not rush this part on higher heat, the sugar will catch.
4. Fish out the star anise. Do this before anything else so you do not forget it and end up with a pod in someone’s cookie. It has given you everything it has by now.
5. Off the heat, stir in the vanilla. Adding it away from the burner keeps it from cooking straight back out.
6. Blend it or leave it. An immersion blender gives you a smooth, spreadable jam. We keep ours chunky with the plum pieces suspended in the syrup, because we like seeing the fruit and it looks better in a thumbprint. Your call.
7. Let it cool in the pan, then jar it. It thickens noticeably as it cools, so judge the final set cold, not hot.

One batch, three ways

This is a small jar of jam, and we have never once had it go to waste. Our three regulars:

• On toast. Obvious, but it is the reason we make it. Good butter, sourdough, this on top. It is a very specific cold morning experience.
• In Glühwein thumbprint cookies. (recipe coming soon!) Cinnamon sugar cookie base, a spoonful of this in the middle. This is the one we make it for at Christmas.
• In spiced plum coffee cake. (recipe coming soon!) Layered through the batter so you get a dark ribbon of it through the crumb.

One batch covered the cookies and the coffee cake for us with jam left over, which is the whole appeal. You are not committing to a case of fruit and an afternoon of canning to end up with twelve jars you have to give away.

Storing it (and why we are not telling you to can it)

This is a refrigerator jam. The sugar is deliberately low, there is no pectin, no gelling sugar and no added acid beyond the lemon zest, which means the ratios have not been tested for water bath canning and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Plenty of plum jam recipes online are built for canning and use roughly equal weights of fruit and sugar to get there. This is not one of them.

• Fridge: about 2 weeks in a clean sealed jar.
• Freezer: about 3 months. It freezes well and thaws without splitting.

If you want a shelf stable spiced plum jam for the pantry, use a properly tested canning recipe from a source like the National Center for Home Food Preservation rather than adapting this one.

Tips from making it more times than we can count

• It thickens as it cools, so stop earlier than feels right. If you cook it until it looks like finished jam in the pan, you will have plum candy in the jar the next morning. Still delicious on a cheeseboard, less spreadable.
• If it does go too far, stir a tablespoon of hot water in while it is still warm and it will come back.
• If it is too loose, put it back on low for a few more minutes. There is nothing in here that can break, so it is very forgiving.
• For thumbprint cookies specifically, cook it slightly further or blend it. A loose chunky jam can slump out of the well in the oven.
• Taste before you jar it. Plums vary enormously in sweetness depending on how ripe they are. If yours were very tart, a little more brown sugar off the heat is fine.
• Double it happily. The recipe scales cleanly. Use a wider pan so the extra liquid still has room to reduce, and add a few minutes.

FAQ

What spices go with plum jam?

Plums take warm baking spices better than almost any other stone fruit. Cinnamon is the backbone, clove and nutmeg add depth, ginger brings a little heat, and star anise is what pushes the whole thing into mulled wine territory. Cardamom and allspice also work well if you want to play with it. A strip of orange peel simmered in and removed at the end is a good addition if you want it more citrus forward.

Does the alcohol cook off?

Most of it does. The wine is simmered uncovered for around half an hour and reduces down to very little, and 50g of wine spread across a whole jar of jam is a tiny amount to begin with. We would not call it alcohol free, though. If you need it to be, simmer the wine on its own for a few minutes before adding it to the fruit, or swap it for red grape juice with an extra squeeze of lemon.

Do I need pectin?

No. This is not a firm set jam and it is not trying to be. The plum skins bring some natural pectin and the reduction does the rest, which gives you a loose, spoonable, syrupy jam with real fruit in it. If you want a firm set, you want a different recipe.

Can I use a different kind of plum?

Yes. Italian or prune plums are our favourite because they are firm and not watery. Larger round plums, black plums and damsons all work, they just need a little longer to cook down. Damsons are tarter, so taste before you decide on sugar.

Can I make it with leftover mulled wine?

Absolutely, and it is excellent. Use 50g of it in place of the red wine and reduce the cinnamon to 1 teaspoon, since the wine is already spiced and sweetened.

Why does my jam taste bitter?

Usually the wine. A very tannic or heavily oaked red can turn bitter as it reduces. A cheap, soft, everyday red genuinely gives a better result here. The other possibility is that it caught on the bottom of the pan, which happens fast once the sugar concentrates, so keep the heat low at the end.

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About us

We are Sidney and Thomas, and Tasty Cue has been ours since 2023, when we started cooking our way around the road and writing it down. Thomas has worked in kitchens for 25 years, most of them in Germany in Großküchen, which is where the Glühwein habit was properly formed. Sidney has been in food for 15 years. Longer if you count her starting in an after school culinary program and selling baked goods off a Tumblr food blog at 13. 15 years working through industrial kitchens, catering and restaurants before landing in pastry, which is what she studies now. Between us we have taken culinary classes in Germany, Canada, Japan, China, Mexico, Thailand and the US, and we have had Glühwein at markets in five countries, one of which was Japan, which we are still not over.

Everything on this site is a recipe we actually cook in our own kitchen, tested small batch after small batch, and photographed the day it turned out right.

Much love,

Sidney & Thomas