Spiced Peach Butter

One thing I love about going down south in my state is all the awesome, fresh, and delicious local produce.  There is one particular farm stand near where my family is from that I have driven three hour (one way) to get to, buy apple cider, and then proceeded to turn around and drive directly home with my bounty.

On this particular trip, I bought some fresh local peaches.  The stand sold the peaches by the basket.  The attendant placed the peaches into a bag and I took them home.  I had some baking to do for an out of town event and just set the peaches on the counter.  Later that night after baking four bundt cakes, I finally inspected the peaches.  They looked good, but they were going down fast.

With the next few days being overwhelmingly busy, and not to mention going out of town, I would have no opportunity to use or eat the peaches.  Then the idea of peach butter entered my thoughts.  That would be different and tasty.  Without hesitation I crafted a recipe and begin peeling peaches at 10 o’clock at night.

After getting the peaches peeled, pitted, and rinsed off.  I took on the fruit butter making process.  The peaches softened quickly and beautifully.  The puree was heavenly and smelled super fresh.  I used a mixture of all spice and cinnamon to spice the batch.  I cooked the butter for a while before going to bed around mid-night.

The butter was not thick enough yet, so I placed it in the fridge and finished cooking it two days later.  Nevertheless, the main goal, preserving the freshness of the peaches, was accomplished.  During the two-day break, I thought not only would I make peach butter, I would challenge myself to can it.

All in all, the whole process went over very well.  The spiced peach butter is lovely and is waiting to be spread on a fresh homemade buttermilk biscuit, if only I was not required to ruin one of my perfectly cute wrapped jars to try it on a biscuit.

Update: I ruined one of my perfectly lovely, albeit less lovely than the other jars, wrapped jars to show you, my lovely reader (or readers, I am not sure how many people really read my blog), what the contents looked like.  My, oh my, was it good!  Plain and licked off the spoon.  I am currently working on a recipe to use this peach butter in a baked good… Stay tuned!

Spiced Peach Butter
**I ended up with four pounds of peaches. Therefore, I multiplied this recipe by 4.**

Ingredients:

1 pound Peaches
1 tsp Lemon Juice
1/2 cup Sugar (maybe less depending on your taste and the sweetness of your peaches)
1/4 tsp Cinnamon (or a little more to your taste)
1/8 tsp All spice (or a little more to your taste)

Method:

1. Peel, pit, and chop peaches.

2. Place in a heavy pan and pour in lemon juice.

3. Cook the fruit until soft, approximately 5 minutes.
4. Using an immersion (stick) blender, blend the peaches into a puree.

5. Add sugar and spices to puree and return to the heat.

6. Cook on medium/low for hours (depending on how large a batch you made) until the peach butter has the consistency of fruit butter (easily mounded onto the spoon when removed from the heat for approximately two minutes).

7. If you choose to can them, follow the instructions that came with your jars, leaving a 1/4 inch space between the top of the jar and the peach butter. Boil the jars for 10-15 minutes to properly seal them.

8. If not canned, or not canned properly, the peach butter will keep 3 weeks in the refrigerator. If canned, it will keep for 1 year prior to opening. Refrigerate after opening.