Peaches are some of the most prized southern fruit. Known for its gentle sweetness and hunger and thirst quenching flavor, its fresh window of opportunity closes rather quickly. So, in order to capture that summertime Georgia Peach flavor, we need to preserve them in a way that is not damaging to the texture, flavor, and color. Now, we all have had, or at least heard of apple butter, but peach butter? Yep!
Recipe-
- 18-Ripe Peaches/4 lbs. (a little on the soft side is o.k.)
- 1/2 Cup-Water
- 4-Cups Sugar
- 1-Cinnamon Stick
- 1/8 tsp-Nutmeg
- Peel, halve, and seed peaches -You can do this by hand or by blanching in boiling hot water for a few minutes, transferring to an ice-water bath. Then peel. This makes the skins very easy to remove without losing any pulp.
- Place in sauce pan over medium/low heat-At this point, use a potato masher to crush the peaches while cooking
Once the liquid pools have evaporated you can continue with the next step, or transfer pulp to a food mill or processor for further mashing. (we prefer the food mill)
Once to desired pulpiness, bring to a rolling boil, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.
- Slowly stir in sugar
- Add cinnamon stick and nutmeg
- Let simmer over rolling boil at medium/low heat and stir by scraping the bottom very frequently to prevent scorching. This should take about 30 minutes or so. This is a great time to get your water bath canner and jars ready!
- Check for readiness by dipping spoon into mixture to check its slump.
- Ladle into 1/2 pint or pint jars, and process in a hot water bath for 10-15 minutes.
Do you make your family’s jams? Have you ever tried peach butter? What are your favorite recipes?
Looks so delicious. I hope our peach trees do something exciting next year – this was their first season.
Julie-We had no idea you planted peach trees. Gotta love that Cali. weather.
I can’t wait to read your recipes next year!
I make strawberry, blueberry, peach and grape jam. Have to hand it out to all the neighbs too, lol. I’ve never made peach butter. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I plan on trying this soon. I make pumpkin butter every fall.
Denise-there’s nothing better than fresh fruit preserves of any kind. But, there’s something special when it’s made from the heart.
I swear, if we were to stop supplying the neighbors, family, and friends with our goods, we may actually be able to stockpile a little better. But it feels good to share!
Let us know how yours turns out and any variations you make. We’re always ready to try something new!
Thanks for stopping by.
Hi. I just wanted to say I made the peach butter today. It’s totally awesome. I made it just the way the recipe says. I will say that I had to cook it down a long time since the peaches I have are so juicy and I probably shouldn’t have added the 1/2 cup of water. Next time I’ll know, lol. It’s really very good though. Thanks again for sharing the recipe. Oh btw, I also made 3 batches of jam and I have enough peaches left for a pie or two : )
Denise
So glad to hear you tried the recipe, and that it is totally awesome. The cook time can be longer when making fruit butters and such for the fact that there is no added pectin. The first time we made it, we thought “are we doing this right? Seems like it’s taking a while to cook down.” The added water is for reduction purposes, just like when adding wine to sauteed onions and such when creating a savory dish. Gotta have that reduction, or everything will start prematurely sticking to the pan. You are correct in that if your peaches are blissfully watery, then 1/4 cup water may work.
When we make a batch, it never lasts. The kids go through it so quick! Not to mention our neighbors and friends we give it away to.
Just made this today and it is delicious! We used allspice instead of the cinnamon and nutmeg. YUM. I’m making this again.
Crystal-So glad you tried it and worked out for you. We thought about using allpsice too. While we like it, some of the folks we share with don’t. So we wanted to make sure everyone we give it to loves it. Thanks for giving it a try!
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