Peaches

[msmemory_archive]

OK, so I was at the Nashoba Valley Winery on Saturday with jducoeur, and they had fresh peaches for sale. They'd sell you a small bag and let you select your fruit from their baskets (or for a different price, you could go out to the trees and pick your own).

Anyway, the small bag wasn't nearly as small as it had looked empty, and I now have lots of fresh peaches.

Serving/preserving ideas are invited! (Note that I have never canned anything & don't yet know how.)

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Make pancakes or waffles or toast. Slice the peaches, place flat on a plate with some sprinkled sugar/cinnamon/ginger/cloves or whatever. Seal tightly with plastic-wrap and microwave for a minute or less. Serve over same pancakes/waffles/toast.

Anna likes them cut thinly, and used in place of jelly in a peanut butter sandwich.

Cook them down slightly with some sugar and make a peach glaze for chicken or duck.

My favorite summer lunch is a half a canteloupe, filled with sliced peaches and blueberries, and covered with lemon yogurt and some Grape-Nuts as "crunchy".

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Peach cobbler is one of the most perfect substances in the world. Peach dumplings are also wonderful, and I can give you the recipe for the entirely too easy Sore Loser Peach Dumplings, official reject of the 2001 Pillsbury Bake-off... :)

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Peach cobbler? Do I do the same as apple crisp (peel and slice/cube the fruit, top with mixture of brown sugar, butter and flour)?

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

It's like apple cobbler, more than apple crisp (though you can make peach crisp, too) - peel the fruit, slice it in big chunks (the texture of the peaches is part of the appeal). Melt some butter in a casserole dish, put the peaches in, top with some cinnamon and sugar. Make a sweet biscuit dough and glop it onto the peaches, bake until it looks done. :)

I can bring the recipe with me tomorrow night, if you like. I can also throw in a marvelous recipe for Peach and Blueberry Pie....

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Yes, please! There are blueberries going to waste around here too :)

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

canning fresh fruit is easy easy easy. make a simple syrup (instructions are in any cookbook..consists of sugar and water. thats it! you can jazz it up using spices if you like, or not :).)

wash, peel if desired, pack in a screaming hot canning jar (I run mine through the sterlize function of my dishwasher, or just hot wash plus dry cycle), and can according to directions. (a big pot of boiling water). the box o' canning jars should have directions.

alternately, just slice em and stash 'em in a freezer bag, and freeze them until you are ready to do something with them :). that's what I tend to do with less than a bushels worth of fruit.

bonne chance!

[matildalucet.livejournal.com]

Brandied peaches. Canned in a hot water bath (I have directions and actual recipe here if you need/want them) with a light syrup and some brandy in each jar. Store them in a cool, dark place for a while. Break them out in the dead of winter with vanilla ice cream and relive the better parts of summer. :-)

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

mmmmm recipe please!
And do I want cheap brandy (like I put in my Sangria) or the real stuff?

[matildalucet.livejournal.com]

from "Putting Food By" by Ruth Hertzberg, Beatrice Vaughan, & Janet Greene, 2nd edition, 1976

Peaches, Brandied

GENERAL HANDLING
Boiling water bath only. Use Hot Pack only. Use jars only (because they look so pretty, which is part of their fun). The peaches should be small to medium in size, firm-ripe, and with attractive color; blemish-free of course.

Wash. Using a coarse-textured towel, rub off all their fuzz. Weigh them.

For every 1 pound of peaches, make a Heavy Sirup of 1 cup sugar to 1 cup water. Bring sirup to boiling and, when sugar is dissolved, add the whole peaches and simmer them for 5 minutes. Drain; save the sirup and keep it hot.

Without crushing, fit peaches in hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headroom. Pour two tablespoons of brandy over the peaches in each 1-pint jar, using proportionately more brandy for quarts. Fill jars with hot sirup, leaving 1/2 inch of headroom; adjust lids. Process in a Boiling-Water Bath (212 F.) -- pints for 15 minutes, quarts for 20 minutes. Remove jars; complete seals if necessary [only if using bail-top lids].

I *think* I've done this with sliced peaches and less brandy, too, but my memory might be faulty. If you can't readily get instructions for boiling water bath canning, drop me an email and I'll either loan you a book or type out the directions. I'd loan you my canner but after many years it sprung a slow leak and was given over to Steve for immersion water of his plants. Any deep (like 3-4 inches deeper than your jars) pot should work.

I wouldn't go for top of the line brandy, but I'd get something I wouldn't mind tasting because you will taste it. Mmmm...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Whatever you do, do it soon. They're no fun when rotten.

[redsquirrel.livejournal.com]

If you freeze them, they make good smoothies. (Works well when they are a wee bit past ripe but not yet gone.) Peel, slice, freeze in a single layer on waxed paper on a cookie sheet, then store in a plastic bag. Melba smoothies with raspberry syrup, apple juice, and malted milk powder are way yummy!

[asdr83.livejournal.com]

My mom's receipe for pickled peaches is easy and delicious and they can be canned using heat seal lids from the store (put fruit in jar, put lid on, boil). I can e-mail the receipe if you'd like, they're savory with cloves and stuff, very yummy.