Recently my friend Kathy scored several boxes of peaches
straight from Colorado. These were freshly picked, perfectly ripe, huge,
beautiful and juicy peaches that you could never find at the grocery store. Of
course I had to get some but I’m not a big fresh fruit eater. I made a peach
cake, then decided to can the rest of them using a new recipe for peach butter.
I’ve shared with you the exact measurements I used but if
you have more or less peaches, you can adjust the recipe accordingly.
Peach Butter
7 extra large peaches
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
Pinch of salt
1 ½ t. pumpkin pie spice
Peel, pit and slice the peaches. Place them in a large
saucepan and heat over medium low. Cook until the peaches are softened (this
could take more than half an hour, depending on how ripe the peaches are). Let
cool slightly and press through a sieve.
Place the peach juice (you should have 4 cups of it) back in
the saucepan. Add remaining ingredients. Cook over low heat until reduced to a
very thick paste. To determine if the butter is ready, spoon a small amount on
a plate. If no liquid separates from the butter, it is ready to put into jars. Note:
cooking down the peach juice could take longer than two hours.
When peach butter is ready, ladle into sterilized jars to
within ¼ inch of top. Wipe off rims. Top jars with sterilized seals and rings.
Store in refrigerator. The peach butter will keep for several months as long as
it stays cold.
OR if you have a lot of peach butter, you might want to
process it in a hot water bath. If so, use new seals when closing the jars.
Place them in a large pot of gently boiling water; make sure the lids are
covered by an inch of water. Boil jars for 10 minutes (below 1,000 feet above
sea level) to 25 minutes (above 6,000 feet over sea level).
Makes 4 half pint jars.
