Thick plum and apricot lekvar, cooked slow in Austin.
We are three cooks in one Austin kitchen. One of us runs the pans, one sorts and pits the fruit, one fills the jars and answers your inquiry. We make ten thick preserves for toast, kolaches and cheese at roughly 1 part sugar to 4 parts fruit, with no boxed pectin in the lekvars. Jars from $10 per 8 oz, tubs and pails for bakers.
Ten thick preserves, priced per jar.
Every price is a from figure for an 8 oz jar. Bigger sizes, reduced-sugar batches and delivery change it. The kitchen confirms the number by phone or email before anything is made.
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01Plum Lekvar
Prune plums, skins on, about nine hours in wide pans. Holds in a kolache at 375°F.
From $11 / 8 oz
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02Apricot Lekvar
Dried and fresh apricots cooked together into a dense orange paste. The linzer filling.
From $12 / 8 oz
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03Damson Plum Butter
Small, tart damsons sieved after cooking. Darker and sourer than the lekvar. Cheese and roast meat.
From $13 / 8 oz
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04Sour Cherry Jam
Montmorency cherries, whole and halved, set thick enough to sit in a thumbprint without spreading.
From $13 / 8 oz
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05Quince Paste
A firm block that slices clean. Pale to deep amber over five hours. Wrapped, not jarred.
From $14 / 8 oz block
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06Hill Country Peach Preserves
Texas Hill Country peaches in chunks. June to August only, then gone until next summer.
From $12 / 8 oz · seasonal
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07Fig and Orange Jam
Figs with thin-cut orange peel. Thick and seedy, for toast, pork chops and fig bars.
From $13 / 8 oz
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08Pear Cardamom Butter
Pears reduced smooth with crushed green cardamom. The breakfast jar.
From $11 / 8 oz
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09Cider Apple Butter
Apples reduced in fresh cider until dark brown. No spice mix. The lowest price in the range.
From $10 / 8 oz
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10Blackberry Jam
Seeds left in, set firm. For Victoria sponge, scones and stirring into yogurt.
From $12 / 8 oz
Sizes run 8 oz jar, 16 oz jar, 2 lb tub and 5 lb pail. Quantity breaks start at six units. The estimator shows the band for any mix before you write to us.
Thick fruit filling for baking that stays in the pastry.
The failure we see most: thin jam boils out of a kolache in the oven and burns onto the tray. Ours is reduced until there is almost no free water left to boil. These are the figures we work to, every batch.
9hours
Plum lekvar cook
Plum lekvar takes about nine hours. Most of that is waiting and scraping the bottom of the pan. Wide copper and steel pans, low gas, a wooden spatula that never stays still for long.
1:4sugar : fruit
By weight
One part sugar to four parts fruit. You will taste the plum first. Supermarket jam often runs closer to one to one. A reduced-sugar 1:6 batch is possible on request.
375°F
The bake test
Each lekvar batch gets baked into a test kolache before it is jarred. If the filling bubbles over the rim, the batch goes back in the pan.
60kolaches
Per 2 lb tub
A 2 lb tub fills roughly 60 kolaches. We have counted. That is about half an ounce of plum lekvar in each one, pressed into the well of a standard round.
If it runs off a spoon held sideways, it is not finished.
Who does the work
The pans
Stirs, scrapes, decides when it is done
Runs the long reductions and makes the call on every batch. Nothing leaves the pan until it passes the cold-plate test.
The fruit
Sorts, halves, pits, tastes
Takes the deliveries, throws out what is past it and pits the plums by hand before the pans go on. Tracks the Hill Country peach season.
The jars and the phone
Fills, seals, labels, answers you
Jars the hot fruit, checks every lid, writes the batch line and replies to inquiries. Your message is read by someone who had their hands in the fruit that week.
Lekvar for kolaches, by the tub and the pail.
Bakeries and cafés can take plum and apricot lekvar in 2 lb tubs and 5 lb pails, the same batches that go into our jars. It pipes cold straight from the tub, holds its dome at 375°F and does not need cornstarch added to stop it running.
We do not ship across state lines, and we do not sign standing contracts before you have baked a tub of it yourself. Ask for one tub first. If it behaves in your oven, we talk about the weekly number.
- 2 lb tub
- ≈ 60 kolaches
- 5 lb pail
- ≈ 150 kolaches
- Bake test
- 375°F
- Quantity break
- From 6 units
What people ask before the first jar.
Short answers. If yours is not here, put it in the inquiry and one of us will reply.
How do I order if there is no cart?
Send an inquiry with the products, sizes and how many. We check what is in the pantry, reply by phone or email with a confirmed price and a pickup or delivery time, and only then is anything set aside or cooked. Payment is arranged when we confirm, never on this site.
Is this low sugar jam?
Lower than most. The standard ratio is about 1:4 sugar to fruit by weight, and 1:6 if you ask for a reduced-sugar batch, which costs $1 more per 8 oz because it cooks longer. It is not sugar free, and we do not use sweeteners. Sugar is part of what keeps an unopened jar safe on the shelf.
Can you ship to me in another state?
No. Pickup at the kitchen in Austin, or local delivery inside Austin for a flat $8 per order. Glass jars and summer heat on a parcel truck end badly, and we would rather say no than replace broken jars.
Who is this not for?
If you want a loose, pourable jam that slides across a pancake, ours will disappoint you. Lekvar sits where you put it. We also do not do private-label jars or custom flavours on request.
Send an inquiry. One of us answers it.
Tell us the jars and the count. We reply with what is on the shelf, the confirmed price and a handover time. No account, no checkout.
68 Oak Lane, Office 12Austin, Texas 86853