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Sunday, September 16, 2012

Peachy Keen

Two years ago, when I was first learning how to can, I experimented and made Peach Butter. For those who don't know, Peach Butter is not actually butter but just really reduced and condensed fruit puree, like jam but thicker.

I made several other things that year too but the Peach Butter was what I got the most feedback on  and it was all very positive.

I decided to make it again this year since it was so well received. The best part of making peach butter, I think, is how amazing the house smells while it's being made.

If you want to make this yourself I will tell you it's incredibly easy but also amazingly time consuming. I used a crock pot and it took about 15 hours for my peach butter to be even CLOSE to the consistency I was looking for.

First you start with amazing peaches. These are Palisade Peaches which are grown in Palisade Colorado and which I purchased yesterday at a farmers market. Now, it's true, these were probably expensive compared to what I could have bought at the grocery store but they are from Colorado, which I love, and their carbon footprint is so much smaller than the ones from Georgia or wherever else peaches are grown.


You peel them which means blanching them and then cooking them down. What you see here is the ring of how far they've cooked down in the crock pot and also that I've used an immersion blender to make them smooth. You could have just as easily mashed them with a fork but they would be a little chunkier.
 I take my jars out of the hot water bath canner where they were sanitizing.

 They are now prepped with the funnel for a cleaner pour.

 Pouring the amazing peach butter into the sterilized jar.

 Placing them back in the boiling water. They then sat there, with the lid on for 20 minutes until they were sealed. I will take pictures of the completed butter later.

Now I'm going to allow them to rest and seal. The great thing about jams and butters is that as they sit the flavors just meld and get deeper and richer.

Now you may be asking, what do you do with peach butter or any fruit butter for that matter? Well you can use it just like jam and put it on toast or in sandwiches. You can also use it for a marinade for meat, particularly pork or chicken, you can spread it on pancakes, you can add it to crepes. It works well as a topper for ice cream or even as a cake filling. Basically it's versatile and delicious.

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