Bourbon-Vanilla Peaches

Peach season is both a sacred time for bakers and the utter bane of our existence. You have the wonderful, flavour-filled, local fruit that pairs beautifully with SO many flavours, in so many different ways; peach pie, peaches and cream, peach pavlova, you name it, there’s a way to incorporate peaches!

You also have to skin the peaches. 

Skinning peaches is time consuming and tedious, but is it worth it? Yes. 

Every year, my mum and I can bourbon peaches to have for the rest of the year as hostess gifts and to serve on top of ice cream. They’re so so delicious, and once you have the process set up, it becomes a bit of an assembly line. Is it a lot of work? yes. but you get to have beautiful peaches for the rest of the year, so just grab a couple friends and a couple bottles of wine, and dedicate a day to it. Trust me.

First of all, use local peaches. The flavour is so much better, they’re fresh, and you’re supporting local farmers! It’s a win-win-win situation. We got ours from the local farmer’s market. In our approximation, one basket makes two large jars of bourbon peaches, so you can scale this recipe as you like; go crazy and make ~20 jars, like we do, or just stick to one or two. Your choice!

To skin the peaches, score the skin along the natural cleft, all around the peach. Do a quarter turn, and score another line. Then it’s just a five-minute dip in boiling water and transfer to an ice bath. The skin should slip right off. You can adjust the time in each bath depending on how your peaches react-if it slips off without an issue, perfect! If it’s still a pain in the butt, leave them in for another minute or so. You want to end up with a totally skinned, intact peach like above.

Once skinned, leave them in a lemon juice or citric acid bath until all of your peaches are skinned. Meanwhile, you will prep your jars/lids(sterilize and ensure they are at the correct temp) and syrup. Split your peaches in half along the natural cleft and pry out the pit. Place into your heated, prepped jars, add a vanilla bean, fill with syrup and bourbon, remove the airspace, and seal! In order to fully seal the jars, you then must replace them, filled, in the hot water bath, let it come to a boil, and boil them for 25 minutes. Let them cool in the hot water for 10 minutes and remove them, placing them upright on a cloth on the counter to dry. Do not refrigerate.

These are amazing served on top of ice cream, or as an addition to a pavlova or angel food cake. Or straight out of the jar, as a midnight snack. That’s also a good option.

Bourbon-Vanilla Peaches

Ingredients

• peaches-one basket makes ~2 jars
• 2 cups sugar
• vanilla bean paste
• bourbon of choice
• vanilla beans
• lemon juice or citric acid

Tools

• jars and lids
• canning pot+accessories
• funnel
• chopstick

Instructions

1. Prepare the jars and lids, sterilizing them in boiling water
2. Peel your peaches. To do this, create three baths-one of boiling water on the stove, an ice bath, and a lemon juice or citric acid bath. score an x into the bottom of each peach, dunk in the boiling water for five minutes, and then transfer to the ice bath. Work the peel off and transfer to the acid bath.
3. Split the peaches in two and remove the pit. return to the acid bath.
4. Boil together sugar and four cups of water until sugar is dissolved. Add the vanilla paste and turn to low. Keep it warm.
5. Working one jar at a time, remove from the hot water bath
6. Fill the jar with peaches
7. Add the vanilla bean
8. Ladle syrup over top, until 85% full. Add bourbon to top off, leaving an inch of air at the top
9. Using the chopstick, move the peaches in the jar around to ensure no air bubbles.
10. Wipe the rim of the jar, and top with a sealing lid. Screw on the cap until finger tight.
11. Return to the hot water bath and continue to fill the rest of the jars, one at a time. Get a helper, or this will take forever. Also get a glass of wine.
12. When all the cans are returned to the water bath, bring to a boil and let boil for 25 minutes.
13. Turn off the heat and let the jars sit in the hot bath for ten minutes. Then transfer them to a towel on the counter. Allow them to remain there for 12-24 hours. 

I hope you enjoyed this post! Let me know if you made these, and how you used them!