blue and blobby
when i was a child i didn't really like powidl per se but i indulged in sweet dishes and pastries that use powidl as a main ingredient most willingly (like germknödel).
i never thought of making powidl at home because i imagined the long cooking time and frequent stirring to be rather tedious but it was half as bad. so far i have made two batches of powidl - one at my aunt's in styria and one here in vienna. they both came out great though different in consistency and taste because i only added cinnamon to the first and cinnamon, cloves and a swing of rum to the second.
powidl (my version)
- about seven and a half pounds of very ripe plums
- one pound of sugar
- cinnamon and/or ground cloves, two generous teaspoons on the whole
- optional: a glug (or two) of rum
remove stones from plums, throw into a big pot and heat slowly while mashing the plums a little to help release their juice. you can now turn the heat on medium/high and let them bubble away until they are almost covered in liquid (this takes about half an hour).
add the sugar (yes, there is no sugar added in the hardcore traditional method but adding just a little sugar reduces the cooking time and does not harm the taste too much, it's a good compromise in my opinion) and spices and continue to simmer on medium heat, stirring occasionally. after one hour the mixture should look like this:
i decided to stop the cooking process after about three hours to achieve pasty, spreadable powidl. this should be the case when the mixture is more or less homogenous, dark purple to blackish blue in colour and drops heavily from the spoon like cake batter.
the more traditional method is to cook the powidl until the mixture is pretty stiff and the surface feels like a rubber ball when cooled down (after about four hours of cooking). the required amount is then diluted with rum or some such directly before use.
sterilize glass jars and twist-off lids during the last half hour of the cooking time: put the opened jars and lids into a pot of water, bring to the boil and leave on high for five minutes.¹ carefully (!!!) fish out of the water with tongs and place upside down on a clean tea towel to dry.
pour/spoon piping hot powidl into the prepared jars (it's best to use one of those special funnels with an extra wide opening to avoid dripping the lava-like mixture on your fingers and the rims of the jars. in case you do not have one of these, be careful not to burn your fingers and wipe the rims with a slightly dampened paper towel should there be any "accidents".) close tightly with twist-off-lids, turn upside down and cover with one or two tea towels. leave to cool a couple of hours et voilà...
¹ Of course you can't actually sterilize anything as simple as that, but you get the idea.
