Peach Honey

As You can see I am in a Peach mood this Year, I love this recipe because it uses the skins that are left when you can peaches or make peach butter. Hope You enjoy!!!!

Ingredients

* 8 cups peach juice (either fresh, from washed, sound pieces and peelings from fruit used for preserves, pickles, etc - OR canned peach juice)
* 6 or 7 cups of water - if you are starting with peelings, you will need the water to cook them in.
* 4 cups sugar or Splenda or 3 cups of bee honey! (Sugar or honey work best; Splenda doesn't allow it to thicken very well)

Equipment

* Jar funnel ($2 at Target, other big box stores, and often grocery stores; and available online - see this page) or order it as part of the kit with the jar grabber.
* At least 1 large pot; I prefer 16 to 20 quart Teflon lined pots for easy cleanup.

* Ball jars (Grocery stores, like Publix, Kroger, Safeway carry them, as do some big box stores - about $7 per dozen 8 ounce jars including the lids and rings)
* Lids - thin, flat, round metal lids with a gum binder that seals them against the top of the jar. They may only be used once.


Peach (and/or Nectarine) Honey-making Directions

This example shows you how to make fruit honey from peaches (and other stone fruits)!

If you are starting with peach juice, skip to step 6.
Step 1 - Pick the Peaches! (or buy them already picked)

Step 2 - How much fruit?

It takes about 5 to 6 cups of peach peelings, which takes at least several dozen peaches to get this many peelings. It does require a LOT of peelings, as they cook down!
Step 3 -Wash the fruit and sort!

I'm sure you can figure out how to wash the fruit in a colander of plain cold water.

Then you need to pick out and remove any bits of stems, leaves and soft or mushy fruit. It is easiest to do this in a large bowl of water and gently run your hands through the fruit as they float. With your fingers slightly apart, you will easily feel any soft or mushy fruit get caught in your fingers.

Then just drain off the water!



Step 4 - Peeling the Peaches

Peaches and nectarines should be peeled, as their skins can be tough / chewy in jam. Peaches have such thin skins, you really don't need to peel them.

For those you want to peel, here's a great trick that works with many fruits and vegetables with skins (like tomatoes): just dip the fruit in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds.

Remove from the water using a slotted spoon and put into a large bowl or pot of cold water and ice.

The skins will easily slide off now IF the peaches are ripe! The more unripe they are, the longer you'll need to heat them. You can now eat the peaches, or can them or make peach jam, etc.

For this recipe, we only need the peelings. Save all washed, sound pieces and peelings from the peaches. (if you are peeling the peaches in advance, keep the peelings refrigerated until ready to use).

I mentioned in the ingredients section that you can use canned peach juice. That's true, but it is much more difficult. The peelings add a lot of solid particulates which help the "honey" to thicken.






Step 5 - Make the juice from the peelings
Cover the peelings with water and slowly cook in a covered saucepan until they are soft. Then put in a cheesecloth bag and press to remove all juice. You may then drip the juice through a jelly bag and measure; or use the juice that was squeezed right from the cheescloth. The goal is to remove large chunks.
Step 6 - Wash the jars and lids

Now's a good time to get the jars ready, so you won't be rushed later. The dishwasher is fine for the jars; especially if it has a "sanitize" cycle, the water bath processing will sanitize them as well as the contents! If you don't have a dishwasher with a sanitize cycle, you can wash the containers in hot, soapy water and rinse, then sanitize the jars by boiling them 10 minutes, and keep the jars in hot water until they are used.

NOTE: If unsanitized jars are used, the product should be processed for 5 more minutes. However, since this additional processing can result in a poor set (runny jam), it’s better to sanitize the jars.

Put the lids into a pan of hot, but not quite boiling water (that's what the manufacturer's recommend) for 5 minutes, and use the magnetic "lid lifter wand" to pull them out.

Leave the jars in the dishwasher on "heated dry" until you are ready to use them. Keeping them hot will prevent the jars from breaking when you fill them with the hot jam.

Lids: put the lids into a pan of boiling water for at least several minutes; to soften up the gummed surface and clean the lids. I just leave them in there, with the heat on very low, until I need them!



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Step 7 - Cook

Place the juice in the saucepan and heat over medium to high heat. When it boils vigorously, add the sugar at the rate of one-half as much sugar as juice. Boil it down rapidly until it achieves the consistency of honey.

If it doesn't thicken, you can mix 1/3 of a packet of pectin with 1/3 cup of sugar and mix it in. That will thicken it.

Or you can cook it down in a Crockpot overnight, on low!





Step 8 - Fill the jars and put the lid and rings on

Fill them to within ¼-inch of the top, wipe any spilled jam off the top, seat the lid and tighten the ring around them. Then put them into the boiling water canner!


Step 9 - Process the jars in the boiling water bath

Keep the jars covered with at least 2 inches of water. Keep the water boiling. In general, boil them for 5 minutes. I say "in general" because you have to process (boil) them longer at higher altitudes than sea level, or if you use larger jars, or if you did not sanitize the jars and lids right before using them. The directions inside every box of pectin will tell you exactly.

Note: Some people don't even boil the jars; they just ladle it hot into hot jars, put the lids and rings on and invert them, but putting the jars in the boiling water bath REALLY helps to reduce spoilage! To me, it makes little sense to put all the working into making the jam and then not to process the jars to be sure they don't spoil!

Step 10 - Remove and cool the jars - Done!

Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight) You can then remove the rings if you like. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that's a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner, it's usually ok.

Once cooled, they're ready to store. I find they last up to 12 months. But after about 6 to 8 months, they get darker in color and start to get runny. They still are safe to eat, but the flavor and texture aren't as good. So eat them in the first 6 months after you prepare them!