It all started with a doughnut.
A milk-chocolate and passionfruit doughnut, to be exact.
I’d had passionfruit before, but it never really crossed my mind. Maybe I knew it would be so hard to find and unconsciously avoided it.
But after one bite of that doughnut, I was madly, obsessively, in love.
The infatuation held steady at a tolerable level of interest. It crossed my mind, I would casually look around in the frozen fruit and Latino foods aisles in the grocery stores, hoping I might get lucky and find some passionfruit puree or nectar. I saw plenty of mango and guava and even some dragonfruit, but never any passionfruit.
But as the months went on and I had yet to find any, the obsession grew to, well, full on stalker status. It didn’t help that the passionfruit seemed to be the new ‘it’ fruit, making its way into macarons and cocktails and sorbet. Whenever I saw passionfruit anything, I got it. And my obsession grew.
Finally it got to be unbearable. Poor little me in this passionfruit-dessert that is Nashville. So I went to my trusted source for hard-to-find food stuffs, and sure enough, he was able to procure me one container of precious frozen passionfruit concentrate.
With my tub of passionfruit safely in the freezer, I could finally start to play with the ingredient that had haunted me for so long.
I also happened to have one bag of peaches leftover from our picking surplus, and decided that peach and passionfruit, despite their vastly different origins, would make a perfect combination.
This jam.
Let me tell you, it’s like a peach took a vacation to a tropical island.
It’s bright and fruity and peachy, but so peachy that it’s surprising. Like my blueberry peach jam, I still wanted it to be first and foremost a peach jam, with just enough passionfruit to make you take notice (that and I also didn’t want to use my whole stash of passionfruit on one recipe… call me stingy, but whatever).
Of course, as soon as I made the jam with my concentrate, I actually saw, for the first time EVER, fresh passionfruit at Whole Foods. I cringed a little bit at the $3.99 a PIECE price tag, but splurged on two or the deep purple orbs for these photos. If you can find fresh passionfruit, great (color me jealous), although you’ll want to strain out those pesky seeds first (have fun with that).
Otherwise, go out of your way to find yourself some passionfruit. I ended up with a large tub of passionfruit concentrate from Perfect Puree. You can buy it online, but brace yourself for the shipping charges. Or, if you have a friend in the food industry like I do, they might be able to order some for you.
I’ve also heard that you can find frozen puree in Mexican grocers or sometimes the frozen foods aisle of major grocery stores. I never found it, but lucky you if you do.
This might just be one of my favorite jams yet.
Peach Passion Jam
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 pounds (8-10 medium) peaches, peeled and pitted
- 1/2 cup passionfruit concentrate or purée
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons Pomona’s Universal Pectin
- 4 teaspoons calcium water (included with the pectin)
Directions:
- Prepare canner and wash/sterilize 5 half-pint mason (or equivalent) jars. Keep jars in hot (not boiling) water until ready to use. Warm lids in hot (not boiling) water to sterilize and soften seal.
- In a food processor, pulse peaches until coarsely chopped; do not liquefy as you still want chunks of fruit in your final jam. You should have approximately 4 cups of chopped fruit.
- Pour fruit into a large, heavy saucepan along with passionfruit concentrate, lemon juice, lime juice, and calcium water. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring occasionally.
- Whisk together pectin and sugar until evenly incorporated. Whisk in to fruit, stirring vigorously until completely dissolved. Continue to stir until mixture returns to a full rolling boil. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes, skimming off any foam that may have formed.
- Ladle jam into jars, leaving 1/4-inch of headspace. Wipe jar rims and threads. Screw on lids and rings. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Remove from water and let cool completely, 12 to 24 hours. Check seals. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used within 3 weeks.
Did you make this recipe?
Let us know what you think!
Leave a Comment below or share a photo and tag me on Instagram with the hashtag #loveandoliveoil.
Bonus Printable Labels
Is there anything better than free stuff? This jam perhaps, but since I can’t exactly share it with all of you, you’re going to have to make your own. And if you do, I’ve got pretty pretty labels for you! Because the jam isn’t really done until it’s sealed and labeled.
The downloadable PDF file includes two dozen 1.25-by-2.25-inch rectangle labels, designed to perfectly fit my 6oz hex jars, but would also fit nicely on the side of just about any smooth-sided jar. I used some awesome new clear gloss labels (inkjet friendly!) for these, since the light color of the jam would contrast beautifully against the black lettering (where a darker jam would render it all but invisible). But you could certainly print them on white labels as well.
To use, simply download the printable file by completing the form below. Print your labels onto full-sheet sticker paper, cut out, and apply directly to the the finished jars.
Hi, I actually came across this recipe not too recently. I’m also new to jamming. I’m from Florida and I recently came from a trip to Virginia. We came back with a lot of peaches and we got some passion fruit pulp (with the seeds in it) from a local grocery store and it resulted in one of the best jams I have ever made.
This makes me so happy to hear, glad you loved this as much as I do! (also, there’s an equally delicious mango-passion version of this recipe in my jam cookbook which is coming to print very very soon!)
What is calcium water? Where do I get it, or how do I make it?
Calcium powder comes with the Pomona’s brand pectin, mix with water according to the package instructions.
You can find perfect purées at whole foods in the freezer section. So no shipping cost :)
Lindsay,
Your photos are amazing and I wish that I had a jar of the peach passion jam and some toast to go with my coffee. Thank you so much for mentioning us in this post. Much love :)
so I shouldn’t tell you that I hack back my passionfruit vine every autumn and when it fruits stand in the garden sucking them dry while watering the garden
Awesome recipe! Will try this with our DGF Passionfruit Ambient Fruit Puree! Our apologies for the shameless plug, but to those interested, we carry this on our website as well as Passionfruit Flavor Pastes, and we ship US-wide. Thanks!
Where do I find calcium water or can. I use bottle water
This jam looks incredible – I love the little hint of passionfruit (and the obsession that grew into this jam!). My husband gets passionfruit often on his travels, but I’ve never purchased one myself…going to check out the prices at our little market next time I’m there!
Can someone please tell me what Calcium Water is, where do you get and what’s it’s purpose? Thank you
You did it again!! Created a fantastic receipt. Thanks a lot….
Lindsay, I do not have Pomona pectin, can I use the regular pectin? If so, should I use the low sugar one or the regular sugar one?
If you substitute a different pectin, I’d recommend following the basic peach jam recipe that’s likely on the pectin insert. Both for ingredients (quantity of sugar, mainly) and the process. Then just add some passionfruit to that. Different pectins require different proportions of fruit to sugar, and a specific order/timing when cooking them. I think you’ll find that a low-sugar pectin is probably closest to what I’ve done here though, a regular pectin would probably require more like 5-7 cups of sugar instead of just 1 1/2.
I have passion fruit planted in my yard, my friend also have them, I’ve been making passion fruit jam for the last 2 years, they are really good, my whole house will smell like passion fruit for days after I made the jam.
I’ll definitely try to make this jam next time. Thanks for sharing
Hello. Love your recipes. I want to put this jam in some croissants I am making. So, is the calcium water included in the box? I’ve been looking it up and can’t seem to find it.
Yes, Pomona’s pectin comes with two packets in each box, the pectin itself and calcium powder that you mix with water per the box instructions. :)
Beautiful jam, Lindsay. Yeah I definitely thinking buying some puree is the way to go. I wouldn’t even know how to start with dealing with those seeds!
There’s just something about peaches that makes the perfect jam consistency. And with my denial for the coming of winter, I can totally get down with tropical flavors like passionfruit!
This jam looks yummy.
I love passionfruit Lindsay and this jam sounds like perfection! Also love using Pomona’s Universal Pectin to keep the fruit flavors front and center rather than using tons of sugar.
I buy fresh passionfruit online. It comes from Florida, I made peach/passionfruit jam last year, FABULOUS, but I include the seeds…… heavenly….
Lindsay, whatever you do, do NOT ever (EVER) plant a passionfruit vine! We made that mistake years ago. It is extremely invasive and nearly impossible to eradicate. Once you realize the mistake you’ve made, it can take decades to get rid of. And, even then, it will pop up if you’re not vigilant! (Sounds like a movie, doesn’t it?)
What if it was just in a container on our balcony? :) Ah who am I kidding, I don’t think the climate here could support it even if I tried!
I had a similar experience with passion fruit and fell madly in love! Only to find…I can’t find it anywhere! SO thankful for this tip to buying the concentrate! Thanks for sharing that link! This jam sounds wonderful…and love those labels! Pinning now!
Any post that starts with ‘It started with a doughnut’ is a winner in my book! p.s. Your labels are always the prettiest!
YESSSSS! You found passion fruit! Finally! :) This jam looks perfect, by the way!
I don’t think I’ve ever had passion fruit before, maybe in a mixed fruit drink. This sounds incredible and I enjoy the labels you made for it.
I have no idea how to even imagine the flavour of passion fruit! I’ll have to see about getting my hands on some of that concentrate!
I absolutely LOVE passion fruit, but have a tough time finding it, too. Thanks for sharing your source with us :) Passion fruit is SO pretty :) This jam is gorgeous and I love the labels!
This looks simply delicious.
Do you have any idea why passion fruit is so hard to come by in Nashville? Here in England not being able to find passion fruit is like not being able to get peaches in Summer. Though, dragon fruit is one we have to go to specialist places for!
Gorgeous jam and next time I’m in Aruba, I’ll pick you up passionfruit stuff. Seriously it’s as common there as Smucker’s Grape Jelly is here. In every grocery store, tons of stuff – jelly, jams, chutneys, juice is a little hard to bring back but now I know what to get you :) Your jam looks amazing and I love the tropical vacation reference!