This plum bread is sweet and tart, filled with fresh plums and chopped pecans. It’s delicious for dessert, a healthy snack, or for breakfast!
This plum bread is so moist, flavorful and delicious. It’s bursting full of flavors from cinnamon and cardamom and pieces of fresh plums, and crunchy pecans.
We have two plum trees. They ripen at different times, and are different types of plums. One is the Santa Rosa plum, which is a dark purple color and juicy when bitten into. The other is the Satsuma plus which is red and hardier. Both are delicious to eat, and both trees are good for different types of recipes. We grow both types of trees because you can’t have one without the other. The trees need each other to produce fruit because they require cross pollination.
The Satsuma plum is perfect for making plum jam, or freezing. I like to use the frozen pieces in plum smoothies. The Santa Rosa plum I like using for baking, like in this delicious plum bread. These plums would also be good for juicing to drink, or to make a syrup, or for plum ice cream, and like I said, just for eating too.
The two spices I used in this bread are two of my favorites, cinnamon for it’s lovely aroma, and cardamom that adds a slight citrusy spicy flavor, that compliments the plums so nicely.
You’ll of course need plums for this bread. Then you’ll need normal baking ingredients, like flour, sugar, baking soda, and an egg. I also used some honey for sweetness too. Then you’ll use applesauce and greek yogurt for moisture. Vanilla extract, cinnamon and cardamom for flavor, salt for flavor. And pecans for a crunch.
How do you make plum bread?
First you’ll chop up or dice your fresh plums. Discard the pits. Chop up your pecans too.
In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, honey, sugar, and vanilla extract until just combined. Then add in the applesauce and greek yogurt. I enjoy baking without any added oil. I replace the oil with two things in this plum bread – both greek yogurt, and applesauce. You can also substitute one of them for oil for a lighter crumb in the bread. You can also use just greek yogurt, or just applesauce if you only have one on hand.
Then mix in your dry ingredients. Your flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom. Fold in the chopped plums and pecans. Scoop the batter into a greased loaf pan. Sprinkle a couple more of the plum pieces on top of the bread to show the color through. You can also sprinkle coarse sugar over the top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. If the top of bread starts to get too dark as the bread bakes, loosely drape a piece of foil over the top to prevent it from darkening more.
This plum bread is the perfect way to use up ripe plums this time of year. It’s sweet, with bursts of plums and crunchy pecans throughout. It’s great for a snack, or for a quick breakfast.
Looking for more Sweet Bread Recipes?
Connect with Like Mother, Like Daughter
Be sure to follow us on social media, so you never miss a single post!
Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Email
Plum Bread
Ingredients
Plum Bread
- 1 1/2 cups plums (chopped, about 3 or 4 plums)
- 3/4 cup pecans (chopped)
- 1 eggs
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup applesauce*
- 1/2 cup Greek vanilla or plain yogurt*
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 2 TBS coarse sugar
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
Instructions
Plum Bread
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
- Grease a 9x5inch loaf pan.
- Chop or dice the plums. Set aside.
- Chop the pecans. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, honey, sugar and vanilla extract.
- Mix in the applesauce and Greek yogurt until all combined.
- Stir in the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom.
- Gently fold in pecans and plums, reserving a few plums for the top.
- Scoop the batter into greased loaf pan, gently place remaining plums on top of the batter.
- Sprinkle the top with coarse sugar if desired.
- Bake for 50 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean
- Cool in pan on a cooling rack for 15 minutes, then remove from pan to cool completely.
- Store any leftover in plastic wrap for a 2 to 3 days on the counter.
Notes
Nutrition
This plum bread was originally posted on August 12, 2013. The pictures and text were updated August 21, 2020
Christine says
We really enjoyed this loaf! I used einkorn flour and 1 cup of yoghurt instead of the applesauce. Added some lemon zest as well. So good toasted with jam and butter!
Joe cox says
Can I some how use plum jam instead of chopped plums? I used all my plums for jam.
Ellen says
The jam would add moisture like or instead of the applesauce but it would not give you the bits of plum sprinkled throughout the bread. So instead of plums no, but in place of the applesauce maybe.
Victoria says
This was a delicious, fluffy, moist and flavorful bread! Thank you!
Ellen says
So glad to hear that. I have lots of plums growing right now, I need to make this again.
Nancy Wolven says
Hi can this recipe be made in a bread machine? Thanks!
Aimee says
This is more of a quick bread recipe, I’m not sure if bread makers can make that style of bread — like banana bread, zucchini bread, etc.?
sally says
I made this today! Absolutely delicious. I used 100g sugar and 60g honey, and 130g yoghurt and 100g sesame oil as that was what i have. Added 340g chopped plums in total. The bread still rose well n was very moist and yummy.
Aimee says
So glad you liked it!!
Alicia says
I love this recipe. I always have come back to it over the years. It even tastes amazing with half wheat and half white flour. The cardamom in the recipe gives it a unique and special flavor.
Ellen says
What a great review, especially knowing it is a recipe you continue to use over the years. Thanks! So glad you love it.
Rachael says
Can this be made with coconut oil in place of the applesauce/yogurt? If so, what amount to substitute?
Thanks!
Aimee says
I’d do a 1 to 1 substitute so 1/2 cup of coconut oil for the applesauce, or 1 cup if you want to substitute it all.
Catherine Maxey says
Great recipe. I used walnuts. Used 7 ounces by weight of chopped pitted fresh plums. Reduced sugar to 1/2 cup and honey to 6T. Used 1/2 cup evaporated milk with 1T vinegar for the yogurt. Baked in an 8 slot mini loaf pan. 18 minutes.
Nancy DeFever says
This is really good! I still have plum jam from last year, so decided to take some of the ripe plums from our tree and make this bread. I followed the recipe exactly, but with 1 cup of apple sauce instead of 1/2 apple sauce and half yogurt. I also had salted pecans with me, so omitted the half teaspoon of salt. I love how the cardamom and cinnamon bring out the plum flavor. This bread is just sweet enough. I just realized there is no oil or butter in this recipe, but it is not missed at all! It’s a winner!
Ellen says
Yay! so glad you enjoyed it. I agree the cardamon and cinnamon are great with the plums. Thanks for letting us know your thoughts.
Rohtak says
I think of this bread! My kids love these! The husband loves these ! I love the chunks of fruit in the bread.
Ellen says
That is great. We are so glad. Thanks for letting us know.
joan says
I made this for a dinner at a friend’s house last night. Everybody just loved it!! But let me tell you, what happened while I was making it. Mixing the honey, sugar and yogurt I said this is not going to work. My plums were hard and not sweet. But I liked your picture of the plum bread. I like a challenge, the finished product was fantastic. I always make a recipe the first time exactly it it written. This does not need any changes. Oh! I used yogurt and applesauce and walnuts. Keep up the good work.
Ellen says
Joan,
I am so glad this was a good recipe for you and your friends. That makes us feel so happy. It’s exactly what we want recipes that you are going to love. Thank your for sharing.
Ellen
Catherine maxey says
This is wonderful. I used about 12ounces of chopped plums. Didn’t hav yogurt so used buttermilk. Fabulous.
Ellen says
I am so glad to know that you liked our plum bread, thanks for letting us know. And buttermilk sounds great.
Haley says
I found this recipe via my CSA’s website. I used all plain greek yogurt (no applesauce) and only had about 1 cup of plums but it still turned out absolutely delicious. Thank you!
Aimee says
Love hearing that! So glad you enjoyed it!
Susan says
I loved this recipe! I made 3 loaves at the same time in separate bowls as 1 person requested no nuts. I ran out of applesauce so all loaves got 50/50 applesauce and oil. I didn’t have Greek yogurt on hand, so I used up what sour cream I had – regular and low fat. I was a little apprehensive about the cardamom, but used the Recommended amount. A LSU used walnuts instead of pecans. I got rave reviews all around! Baked perfectly, not too wet as some had said. They were beautifully browned and cut easily into perfect slices! I will use this recipe for all my fruit breads! Thank you for such a lovely recipe.
rachel says
I made this with fermented plums I had left from making plum brandy and used Pumpkin instead of applesauce. I thought it was really good! Will try regular frozen plums next time. Would like to make it as a cake too and put frosting on it. How do you think that would be?
Ellen says
Wow, what an interesting twist to the plum bread. I really like the idea of pumpkin! I am glad you like it.
I think the bread would be great with frosting maybe an almond or cream cheese frosting. But not sure how it would work as a cake. It might be on the dry side for that. And you would have to watch your cooking time closely.
If you do it, let me know how it turns out.
Alicia says
I had too many plums that were getting ripe and it reminded me that my mom used to make plum bread growing up. Sadly she couldn’t find the recipe. But happily I found yours. I love it. I have made it multiple times. This time I didn’t have pecans but I did have crystalized ginger just sitting around in the cupboard. I finely diced it and put it in. It makes me cardamom take a background but is so tasty. Thank you for your recipe. It brings me joy 🙂
Aimee Berrett says
Aww I love that so much Alicia!! So glad you enjoyed it! It sounds delicious with the ginger too!
Kelly Shepherd says
Delicious!!!
triedandtasty says
Plum bread?? I never would have thought of that! I’ve been meaning to pick up some plums from a friend with a tree that’s graciously offered them to me for canning – if I end up picking them up, I’ll have to reserve some of them to try this bread!
marissa | Rae Gun Ramblings says
I love this idea pinned