12 Days of Christmas: Cherry & Prune Chutney
Day 2 with Camilla Wynne
Hello and welcome Day 2 of the Kitchen Projects 2025 ‘12 days of Christmas’, our festive recipe advent calendar delivered straight to your inbox. Think of this as your Christmas post!
Today we have a real treat - the fantastic Camilla Wynne is here with a completely divine prune and cherry chutney. This needs to cure for a few weeks, ready for your cheese boards, so I’d definitely suggest starting this sooner rather than later!
And, btw, if you are looking for a book or gifting recommendation for the festive period, I simply adore all of Camilla’s books. The most recent is the transportive All That Crumbs Allow, a co-authored book with Michelle Marek, all about breadcrumbs. I just love it - you want to read it by candlelight! Equally, Nature’s Candy, on candying fruit, and Jam Bake, are two forever favourites. Ok, over to Camilla!
A jar of chutney is indispensable during the holiday season. It will prove a star of any cheese plate or charcuterie board and is the perfect condiment for a sandwich of leftover roast—or a cozy fireside grilled cheese. Best of all, you can make it well in advance so that you have a stockpile ready to open at a moment’s notice or to throw in your bag to gift to a host.
This chutney has roots in my grandmother’s well-loved rhubarb relish (recipe in my first book!), but has morphed over the years as I’ve livened it up with ingredients she wouldn’t have found in rural Canada—tamarind concentrate, Aleppo pepper, garlic, and fresh rather than ground ginger. Then one year I wanted to make a batch but had run out of frozen rhubarb. A bag of dark frozen cherries was subbed in, which led me to change the currants to dark, plump prunes, and this star was born.
I like the ample chunkiness of this chutney—there’s something very regal about a whole cherry atop your cheese cracker—but you could halve the cherries if you like, or, alternatively, buzz the whole thing a bit with a hand blender.
If you don’t care to sterilize the jars you can simply keep this chutney in the refrigerator for many, many months, but it’s really very easy to do. Just take care to use new lids and fill nearly to the top while the chutney is still piping hot, and your jars will be shelf stable for at least a year. And if you’re only after a bit of chutney, this recipe is easily halved.