As the supply for peaches is the highest during this time of year, this Bourbon and Peach Preserves recipe gives 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 have 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 does 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 have never heard of this place.
When I told my husband about my peach box order, he immediately thought that I was a crazy person and asked me what I am 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 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.
The process of making Homemade Peach Preserves
Making these peach preserves is super easy. In fact, making these preserves gave me a glimpse of the type of grandmother I’m going to be.
After you’ve macerated the peaches, you boil them for about an hour and then smash them up using a potato masher and continue to let simmer. Turn off the heat and they will begin to thicken even more. Now that is the basic easy to make peach preserves.
Because I’m thinking of ways to make these peach preserves more special when I give them out as gifts, I made my biscuits (recipe for Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits can be found in this recipe) along with a delicious butter to top them that is also made of butter, cinnamon, maple syrup, and Bourbon (of course). My husband, 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 preserves and biscuit baskets!
Here are more recipes made using peaches you’ll love:
- 10 large peaches, ripe
- ½ c. fresh lemon juice
- 1 ½ c. sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. cornstarch
- ⅓ c. Bourbon
- BUTTER RECIPE
- 1 stick + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- ½ tsp. Cinnamon
- 2 maple syrup
- ½ tbsp. Bourbon
- Bring a large pot of water to steam, not boiling. 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 the hot water at a time for about 2 minutes to loosen the screen of the peaches Once the peach skin is loose to the touch, you use a slotted spoon and place 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 of the peaches cut, pour over the lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Use a large spoon and stir. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and leave out at room temperature for, at least, 1 hour.
- Pour the peaches and liquid in 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 tsp 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 completely cool.
- Once cooled, pour into mason jars until almost full. Close tightly with the lid and place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- NOTE: If you want to add more Bourbon flavor, once you’ve poured the preserves in your jars, top off with an extra teaspoon of Bourbon and 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.
- 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.
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.