Peachy Keen (Part 2) Honey

So in my previous post, I described my adventures in canning peach slices here and in the process I had you keep your slimy peach skins in the refrigerator until now.

I made the super sweet, deliciously different topping: Peach Honey. It's so easy you wonder why you never made it before.

The Juice

Now, normally a recipe for Peach Honey would have you boil your skins in water (just enough to cover them) until they are soft and tender. Then, take your skins and place them in a cheesecloth and squeeze as much juice as possible from them.

The goal is you want the juice, not the pulp. I am fortunate enough to own this wonderful contraption: The Jack Lelanne Juicer. I just put in my peach skins and the pulp popped out the back while giving me the juice! Talk about easy!

After juicing my saved skins, I hardly had any juice and I need 8 cups of the stuff! So I just de-pitted more peaches and popped them in, skin and all! I really love my juicer! 10-12 (I lost count) peaches later I had plenty of sweet juice.

All you need for Peach Honey is:

• A large pot
• 8 cups of peach juice
• 4 cups of white sugar
• a VERY big pot or canning pot to sanitize/vacuum your jars
• Ball Jars (this recipe made 2 pints!), lids and rings
• Jar grabber
• Jar funnel
• a wooden spoon and large ladle
  

Hot Peaches...Check it and See...I got a fever of...

Place your peach juice in the smaller of the two pots and turn up the heat to med-high. Bring to a steady boil and boil! After a few mins, add 2 cups of sugar. Mix thoroughly with the wooden spoon and boil until it looks well dissolved. Add the remaining sugar and repeat. Now it's just waiting. You boil and stir every few minutes until your peach juice has the consistency of honey.

This would be a good time to sanitize your jars. Read my blog about canning peaches if you don't know how.

Before:

After (I think) 2 hours:

Once you reached the desired consistency*, take out your ball jars from the warm canning water. Return that water to a boil! You may have to add more water at this time, there needs to be enough to have 2 inches above the jar lids to bathe them properly.

Place your funnel on top of the clean jars and fill within 1 inch from the top.

Wipe the edges with a clean cloth, place on the lids and rings (screw tight), and return to the boiling canner water for 5 mins.

Remove from the water with your jar grabber and place in a cool, draft and dry area where the jars wont be disturbed for awhile. The Honey will thicken further as it cools.

Isn't it beautiful? Look at those delicious sugar crystals we made in the honey, mmm....You're going on my waffles tomorrow morning!

Easy right?

* if your honey doesn't thicken up, just add 1/3 of a packet of pectin and 1/3 of added sugar.