A simple homemade plum and apple chutney with cider vinegar, brown sugar and warming spices. Make it now while plums and apples are plentiful and give it time to mature ready for autumn cheeseboards, cold meats and Christmas.
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Easy Plum and Apple Chutney Recipe
- Total Time: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
- Yield: 20 1x
Description
I have definitely got the preserving bug at the moment.
After making my blackberry jam and seeing the jars sitting there, I started thinking about what I could make next. Plums are plentiful at this time of year, apples are starting to come through, and chutney seemed the obvious answer.
I do like a good chutney. Especially one that has had a bit of time sitting quietly in the cupboard doing its thing.
This plum and apple chutney is fruity, tangy and sweet, with some lovely warmth from cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Nothing overpowering though. I still want to be able to taste the plums and apples rather than feeling as though I’ve accidentally made Christmas potpourri.
And actually, making chutney now makes perfect sense if you want some for Christmas. It gives those jars plenty of time to sit in the cupboard and mature, allowing the sharpness of the vinegar to mellow and all those flavours to settle down together.
I’ve kept the ingredients fairly traditional. Plums, apples, onion, sultanas, cider vinegar, brown sugar and spices. Nothing particularly fancy and, importantly, everything I either already had or could easily get hold of.
In fact, I was originally going to use allspice and then discovered I didn’t have any.
Typical.
So I used cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves instead, and I was really pleased with the flavour. That’s the version I’m sticking with.
Why Make Plum and Apple Chutney?
Apart from the fact that it tastes rather lovely with a decent piece of mature Cheddar, chutney is such a useful way of using seasonal fruit.
And you certainly don’t need your prettiest plums and apples for this.
If you’ve got a few that are perfectly good but perhaps looking a little past their best, this is exactly the sort of recipe I save them for. Once everything has spent a couple of hours bubbling away in a preserving pan, nobody is going to care that an apple started out looking slightly wonky.
I also like my chutney to have some texture. I don’t want enormous pieces of fruit in there, but neither do I want everything cooked into brown mush.
Ingredients
- 500g plums, stoned and chopped
- 500g apples, peeled, cored and diced
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 150g sultanas
- 300g light brown soft sugar
- 350ml cider vinegar
- 20g fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon dried chilli flakes, optional
Makes approximately 4 x 250ml jars, depending on how far you reduce your chutney.
A Note About The Fruit Weight
I weigh the fruit after preparing it.
That means 500g of plums after I’ve removed the stones and 500g of apples after peeling and removing the cores.
It might seem a bit fussy, but particularly with plums, the size of the stones can vary quite a bit. If we weigh everything before preparing it, we don’t really know how much fruit is going into the pan.
It also makes the recipe much easier to repeat next time.
Instructions
Start by preparing the fruit.
Remove the stones from the plums and roughly chop the flesh. Peel and core the apples and cut them into fairly small pieces.
Finely chop the onion and grate your fresh ginger.
Add the plums, apples and onion to a large preserving pan or heavy based saucepan.
Add the sultanas, light brown soft sugar, cider vinegar, grated ginger, mustard seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, sea salt and chilli flakes if you are using them.
Give everything a really good stir.
At this point it can look as though there is an awful lot going on in the pan and you may wonder how on earth it is going to become chutney. It will.
Place the pan over a low to medium heat and allow everything to warm gently.
Stir regularly while the sugar dissolves and the fruit begins to release its juices. I don’t rush this bit. You want the sugar properly dissolved rather than sitting on the bottom of the pan.
Once the sugar has dissolved, bring everything up to a gentle boil before reducing the heat.
Leave the chutney to simmer uncovered for around 1½ to 2 hours.
You don’t need to stand over it stirring continuously for two hours, thankfully, but don’t disappear and forget about it either.
Give it a stir every now and again, making sure you scrape across the bottom of the pan.
As the chutney reduces and becomes thicker, keep a closer eye on it and stir more frequently. This is when it is much more likely to catch on the bottom.
Don’t be tempted to whack the heat up because you’re getting impatient. It needs time for the fruit to soften, the liquid to reduce and all those flavours to come together.
How Do I Know When My Chutney Is Ready?
I wouldn’t rely entirely on the clock here.
Your fruit will vary, as will the size of your pan and the heat you are cooking it over.
What you’re looking for is a chutney that has become darker, glossy and considerably thicker than when you started.
Take your wooden spoon and drag it across the bottom of the pan.
You should be able to see the bottom of the pan for a few seconds before the chutney slowly moves back into the space.
If watery liquid immediately rushes back in, it isn’t ready yet.
Give it a little longer and try again.
Remember that your chutney will thicken further as it cools, so don’t keep cooking until it resembles cement. Nobody wants to tackle their Christmas chutney with a knife and fork.
Potting The Chutney
Have your sterilised jars warm and ready before the chutney finishes cooking.
Carefully spoon the hot chutney into the warm jars. I press it down gently as I go so there aren’t large air pockets hiding inside.
A wide jam funnel is extremely handy for this. You can certainly manage without one, but I find it considerably easier and there is less cleaning up afterwards.
Fill and seal your jars according to the manufacturer’s preserving instructions.
I use proper preserving jars for recipes like this because they can be sterilised and reused again and again.
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Wipe around the rims of the jars before adding your lids or seals and always follow the manufacturer’s instructions for the particular preserving jars you are using.
How To Sterilise Jars For Chutney
Wash your jars thoroughly in hot soapy water and rinse them well.
I sterilise my glass jars in the oven at 140°C, or 120°C fan, for around 10 to 15 minutes and keep them warm until I’m ready to fill them.
You don’t want to ladle piping hot chutney straight into cold glass.
Treat lids, rubber seals and other components according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Don’t automatically put rubber seals into the oven along with your glass jars as they may need to be sterilised differently.
Does Homemade Chutney Need To Mature?
This is the annoying part.
You’ve spent a couple of hours making something that smells rather good and then I’m going to tell you to put it in the cupboard and leave it alone.
You can taste it once it has cooled. And yes, obviously I did.
But chutney gets better after it has had time to mature. The vinegar becomes less sharp and the fruit, sugar and spices start tasting more like one chutney rather than lots of separate ingredients.
I’d try to give this at least four weeks before opening a jar properly.
Longer is even better.
That’s another reason I like making this during plum and apple season. By the time Christmas comes around, you’ve got homemade chutney sitting there ready for the cheeseboard.
Assuming nobody has opened it beforehand.
Notes
See below for my useful questions and answers
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Cook Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
- Category: Jams and Preserves
- Method: Boil and chop
- Cuisine: British
Can I make plum and apple chutney without sultanas?
Yes. You can leave the sultanas out, although they add sweetness and absorb some of the liquid as the chutney cooks. You may therefore find that your chutney takes a little longer to reduce and your final yield is slightly different.
Can I use normal eating apples instead of Bramley apples?
Absolutely. Bramley apples work particularly well because of their tart flavour and the way they soften, but ordinary eating apples can also be used. Sweeter apples will give you a slightly sweeter chutney and may retain more texture.
Why is my homemade chutney still watery?
It probably just needs longer.
Keep simmering the chutney uncovered so the excess moisture can evaporate. As it gets thicker, stir more frequently to prevent it catching.
Use the spoon test rather than relying purely on time. Draw your spoon across the bottom of the pan and look for a clear channel that remains visible for a few seconds.
How long should plum and apple chutney mature before eating?
I recommend giving it at least four weeks if you can.
That gives the sharp vinegar flavour time to mellow and allows the fruit and spices to develop.
You can leave it longer, which is why making chutney in late summer or early autumn works so well if you’re planning to serve it at Christmas.
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