The word PEACHES always makes me think of this song:
Probably because Dan starts singing it whenever I say ‘peaches.’ You can imagine, then, what I got stuck in my head yesterday…
As I mentioned in my post on canning, my most recent canning endeavors involve peaches. I found local (but not organic) peaches at our co-op for $1.59 a pound this week...what a steal!
I’ve also been on a fruit butter kick. Fruit butters are basically concentrated, cooked down fruit purees with some spices or sweeteners added. I love the creamy smoothness of apple and pumpkin butter, but it is hard to find such spreads made of other fruits…unless you make them yourself! Plus, they are super easy to make, and require much less attention and babysitting than jams or jellies do. Though I’ll admit, I still haven’t tried to make jelly myself, mostly because fruit butters are just too good!
I know, I promised this recipe yesterday. However, I was not 100% happy with the flavor of the first batch, so I decided to make a second batch, tweaking the recipe.
Now it is perfect! When I can, my goal is to keep the jars sealed until well after the fruit’s season has passed. Luckily, there is always a little extra that doesn’t fill a whole jar, so I have some to eat right away! I ate the extra peach butter straight up with a spoon this morning. It is that good.
Spiced Peach Butter
Yields 5 half-pint (8 oz) jars, plus a little extra for immediate consumption
4 1/2 pounds peaches (about 9-10 large peaches)
3/4 c honey
2 T white tea of your choosing: I used Ginger Peach White from Cha Cha Tea (optional)
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves (edited to note: powdered, dried cloves, not whole cloves!)
Optional: Wrap the tea leaves in a cheesecloth or jelly bag, and press into the honey to allow the tea flavor to infuse into it. Do this an hour or so in advance of your canning, but you could even do this the night before! Press the tea out of the cloth/bag, and discard the leaves (or make a cup of tea!).
In my first peach butter attempt, I put the bag of tea directly into the crockpot. However, the heat released all the tannins from the tea, and the final result had a bitter aftertaste. Infusing the honey works much better!
The tea is optional. I liked the extra touch of flavor it added, but you can skip the tea if you’d like!
Wash, pit and chop all peaches. Most recipes call for removing the skins because of their texture, but I elected to leave them on. It saves a lot of hassle, and everything is going to be blended and creamy by the end anyways!
Fill a crockpot with the peaches. Cover and set the temperature to High for one hour. Using an immersion blender, puree the peach mixture until it is relatively smooth. It doesn’t have to be perfect– you’ll puree them further later! Add the honey, brown sugar, cinnamon and cloves, and decrease the heat to Low.
Tilt the lid at an angle so that steam can escape and the butter will reduce. Allow to cook down for 11-14 hours, until it is reduced by half. At this point, the fruit butter should be thick enough to mound up on the backside of a spoon without flowing off.
About 45 minutes before the butter is done, wash all the jars and lids (not the rings, though) in hot soapy water. Put them on the rack of your canning pot, cover with hot water, and place over high heat on the stove until right before you are ready to can.
Go ahead and give the peach butter a whir with the immersion blender to make sure it is super smooth and creamy. Follow the canning instructions found here (don’t forget to adjust for altitude if you need to!), leaving 1/4″ headspace in each half-pint jar. Process in the canning pot for 20 minutes.
Make sure to leave this headspace (empty air space) in the jars. The peach butter will expand during processing, then contract and create a vacuum as it cools later.
Note: this picture is of batch #1, which is darker than the pretty red-orange color of the final recipe, shown above.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
hoooooly deliciousness. when i saw you tweet about this post, i hopped right over! i LOVE pumpkin & apple butter, but have never heard of peach butter. it sounds amazing!
this would be such a neat homemade gift, too!
I love apple and pumpkin butter too but I”ve never had peach butter! Mmmm.. I bet this would be great on some warm homemade biscuits. Must make.
Because of this comment, I plan on making fresh biscuits ASAP when it comes time to open the first jar!
Lovely job. I’ve never tried to make anything like this. So, I can’t wait to try sometime!
Hehe, Chris sings that song whenever peaches come up, too. I’ll have to make sure if/when I come visit you that it’s in the winter so I can get some of this peach butter
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If you come visit, I will break open a jar of peach butter, no matter what time of year it is!
My favorite thing about the fall is pumpkin butter. I’ve never tried making my own fruit butters before but have always wanted to try peach chutney.
Ahahaha- I’m not a fan of peaches, but I LOVE that song! All the “cool” highschoolers would sing it so of course us little kids loved it, too… right?
The food can was first introduced 200 years ago this week. It was a metal can. Why isn’t this called “jarring”
So ironic! I was singing myself this song yesterday. I love using other places/foods for the song too! My friend and I were planing on getting frozen yogurt on campus (in style of song)- Going to The Canteen, gonna eat me a lot of fro yo!
What is your very favorite way to eat peach butter? What do you like to put it on?
Ha, I love this!
If the peach butter makes it past my spoon (which is not always the case), I put it in yogurt or on toast. I really want to try it on scones or biscuits, too!
Thanks for posting the recipe! My mom used to can spiced peaches when I was little and we had a peach tree in our yard. They were so delicious. Can’t wait to try these.
I brought home a large amount of diced peaches from my daughter’s school (they were extra from the hot lunch). I would love to use them to make peach butter. They are already in a light syrup (I’m not sure if they were canned peaches) so I’m not sure how much more sugar to add to these. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks so much.
I’m not sure… I think you could add sugar to taste, but canning is such a precise thing that I’m not fully comfortable advising that. Sorry!