As the supply of peaches is the highest during this time of year, this Bourbon and Peach Preserves recipe give you another reason to keep buying them! This peach preserves recipe is made with fresh peaches with a touch of Bourbon to heighten the flavor.
Guys, I am so excited! I’ll tell you why. My friend “put me on to game” a few weeks ago by telling me in conversation that she ordered a 25-pound box of peaches from The Peach Truck. I had never heard of this, but the fact that she had a huge box of peaches was enough for me to become curious. The Peach Truck makes a yearly summer road trip to major cities to sell fresh and juicy peaches along with a slew of other products like jams, sauces, and even cookbooks! I could not believe that in my 37 years of living on this planet, I had never heard of this place.
So, did I order an obscene box of peaches? Uhhhh, yeah! I LOOOOOOVE peaches. It is arguably my favorite fruit, next to dark cherries.
When I told my husband about my peach box order, he immediately thought that I was a crazy person and asked me what I was going to do with my box of peaches? After I tried to convince him that ordering a 25-pound box of peaches was completely sane, I did start to think about what I would do with all of those peaches, and the first thing I thought of was canning. The only thing I know to do with canning fruit is making preserves. That, I know how to do it.
How to make Peach Preserves
Making this peach preserves recipe is simple. Also, this recipe requires no pectin. That’s right. It’s going to thicken up with its natural ability to do so.
Step 1: Boil and Peel the Peaches
All you have to do is take a bunch of ripe peaches and place them in a large pot of boiling water for a couple of minutes. Once they have sat in hot water, use a mesh-slotted spoon and place them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. This makes peeling the skin off the peaches super easy. I outlined this process in my blog post on how to freeze fresh peaches.
Once you have peeled the peaches, you’ll slice them and remove the pit, put the peach slices in a large bowl with some lemon juice and sugar, and seal the bowl with plastic wrap for about an hour, so the peaches will release their natural flavor.
Step 2: Cooking the peaches
After you’ve mascurated the peaches, you will boil them for about an hour and then smash them up using a potato masher and continue to simmer. Turn off the heat, and they will begin to thicken even more. Now that is the basic process for easy-to-make peach preserves.
Step 3: Adding the Bourbon
Of course, I had to go the extra mile by adding another flavor. Bourbon seemed to be a natural choice to me, and believe me, you can get a taste of it with every bite, but you can leave it out if you want. This Bourbon Peach Jam is a great option for gifts.
Because I’m thinking of ways to make these peach preserves more special when I give them out as gifts, I made my biscuits along with a delicious butter to top them that is also made of butter, cinnamon, maple syrup, and Bourbon (of course). My husband and I could-not-get-enough. We must have eaten half of the batch of the biscuits with the peach preserves combined. Needless to say, we were beyond stuffed. We couldn’t eat another bite. I cannot wait to make peach preserve and biscuit baskets! I think I’ll also make cute little recipe cards with this recipe for peach preserves attached for an added touch.
So, when you see those sales in the grocery store where a pound of peaches is about .88 to .99 cents a pound, grab as many as you can, make these preserves, and make a huge batch of these biscuits. You’ll come back and thank me.
Ways to eat the preserves
The majority of us place preserves on toast. But there are other ways to enjoy this recipe.
- Vanilla ice cream
- Pancakes
- Biscuits (duh)
- Donut filling
- French Toast topping
- Waffles
Commonly Asked Questions
For the best flavor, the peaches should be completely ripe. This will make for delicious and naturally sweet peach preserves.
The preserves can be used on toast, ice cream, pancakes, or even muffins. Because this recipe is so delicious and tastes so fresh, you may just eat it by the spoonful.
That is the best thing about this recipe is you don’t need a hot water bath or dry pectin. The natural pectin in the peaches will congeal the fruit to a jam-like consistency as it cools in the mason jars.
More Peach Recipes
If you like recipes like this one, you will enjoy the ones below!
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Bourbon and Peach Preserves Recipe
- Total Time: 1 hour 50 mins
- Yield: 4– 8 oz jars 1x
Description
Here is an easy recipe for Bourbon and Peach Preserves that is a perfect use for extra fresh peaches. Serve on fresh biscuits or toasted bread.
Ingredients
- 10 large peaches, ripe
- 1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
- 1 1/2 c. sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. cornstarch
- 1/3 c. Bourbon
BUTTER RECIPE
- 1 stick + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
- 2 maple syrup
- 1/2 tbsp. Bourbon
Instructions
- Bring a large saucepan of water to a slight boil. Also, fill a large bowl with ice and water. Set the bowl aside.
- Once the pot has come to steam, place a few peaches in hot water for about 2 minutes to loosen the skin of the peaches. Once the peach skin is loose to the touch, you use a slotted spoon and place it in the cold water immediately for about 30 minutes. Just long enough to cool the peach.
- Use your hands and peel the skin of the peaches. It should come off easily. Set the peach aside. Continue this process for all peaches.
- Cut the peaches into slices. They don’t have to be perfect. Discard the pit. Place the sliced peaches in a large bowl. Once you have all peaches cut, pour over the lemon juice, one and a half cups of sugar, and salt. Use a large spoon and stir. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and leave it out at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
- Pour the peaches and liquid into a large pot and bring to a boil on medium heat. Allow cooking for about 45 minutes on a steady boil, stirring intermittently. After 45 minutes, reduce the heat slightly and use a potato masher and smash the peaches leaving slight chunks of the fruit in the mixture. The preserves will thicken more. Add the Bourbon to the mixture and stir.
- After about 15 minutes, add the cornstarch with about 1 teaspoon of the peach liquid into a small ramekin and stir to dissolve the cornstarch. Add cornstarch to the peach preserve pot and stir. Turn heat down to low for about 5 minutes and then take off the heat and allow it to cool completely.
- Once cooled, ladle the preserves into half-pint jars until almost full. Close tightly with the lid and place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- Combine the 1 stick of butter, maple syrup, cinnamon, and Bourbon into a medium bowl and stir until combined and smooth. Once the biscuits have come out of the oven and are still warm, top off with butter.
Notes
- NOTE: If you want to add more Bourbon flavor, once you’ve poured the preserves into your jars, top off with an extra teaspoon of Bourbon, stir in the jar, and then close. I did this for one of my jars and loved it.
- NOTE: If you plan to make my Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits and would like to make the butter that I mentioned in my blog post, here is how you make it.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 20 mins
- Category: condiments
- Method: Boil
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: peach preserves, how to make peach preserves, bourbon peach preserves, homemade peach jam, homemade peach jelly
This sounds absolutely delicious, Nicole! How many jars of preserves will this recipe make? I can’t tell from the “serves 2” note. Do you need to allow some head space if you’re going to freeze them?
I got 2 8-12 oz Mason Jars out of the recipe I made, but you could probably get 4 6-8 oz mason jars. I think I left about 1/2 inch of free space at the top.
Can this recipe be used with hot bath method to preserve for longer periods if time
Hi Melanie! I am not sure. I didn’t do this method and it kept for a while, at least a month.
After putting in jars, am I able to can this recipe? Will I need to add pectin, or is it fine to make as is?
Hi Shelley. No this recipe is fine without the pectin.