Honey Sweetened Gingery Peach Butter

This naturally sweetened gingery peach butter is fragrant, flavorful, and brightly hued. It’s great stirred into yogurt or eaten directly from the jar with a spoon.

A couple weeks ago, the annual box of peaches and nectarines arrived from the folks at the Washington State Fruit Commission. This is the seventh summer I’ve been part of their Canbassador program. I always enjoy the challenge of finding new and delicious ways to preserve all that goodness.

This year, I’ve made four different preserves. Today, I’m sharing a recipe for Gingery Peach Butter. Tomorrow, I’ll have a batch of Peach Habanero Hot Sauce. Next week, you’ll see recipes for Nectarine Conserve and Nectarine Ketchup.

I’ve got a new trick to tell you for prepping peaches. For this preserve, instead of peeling them, I gave them their initial cook in a pressure cooker (an Instant Pot, to be exact). The added heat and pressure helped break the skins down. That made it possible to blend the skins into the pulp for a perfectly smooth puree.

Now, if you don’t have a pressure cooker, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make this preserve. But in that case, you might want to peel the peaches to ensure a lush, smooth texture.

Once your peaches are pureed, you add just a little bit of honey and three heaping tablespoons of grated ginger and cook it down. Wanting to retain a softer texture and brighter color, I didn’t take this one as far down as I sometimes do. That makes it’s a lighter spread, better for drizzling over pancakes and stirring into yogurt.

How have you been preserving your peaches this summer?

PrintHoney Sweetened Gingery Peach Butter

Yield: makes approximately 5 pints

Ingredients

6 pounds peaches
1 cup honey
3 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

Instructions

Wash the peaches well. Cut them into quarters and remove pits.
If you have a pressure cooker, heap the peach quarters into the pot, bring it up to high pressure and cook for 8 minutes. Let the pressure drop naturally. Once the peaches have cooled a little, puree them with an immersion blender. Pour the peach puree into a low, wide, non-reactive pan.
If you don't have a pressure cooker, peel your peaches and place them in a low, wide, non-reactive pan. Simmer them until tender and then puree.
Add the honey and ginger to the peaches and stir to incorporate.
Set the pan over medium heat and simmer the butter until it has reduced by about 1/3 and you like the consistency.
When you're happy with the thickness of the butter, remove it from the heat and puree it again with the immersion blender to break up any clumps that formed during cooking.
Funnel the finished butter into pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes.
When the time is up, remove the jars and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. When the jars have cooled enough that you can comfortable handle them, check the seals. Sealed jars can be stored at room temperature for up to a year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly.
3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/08/gingery-peach-butter/

Related Posts:

Honey-Sweetened Roasted Nectarine Compote
Honey-Sweetened Peach Vanilla Jam
Spiced Nectarine Jam