Old-Fashioned Peach Butter Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is peach butter made of? ›

Place cooked peaches in a blender; puree until smooth. Measure out 8 cups peach pulp and transfer back to the pot. Reserve any extra pulp for another use. Add sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to peach pulp.

You'll want to crack the lid open to allow the steam to escape. Otherwise, your peach butter won't reduce and thicken. Perform a quick taste test to see if you need to add sweetener– my peaches were pretty sweet already, so I only added about 1/2 cup of sweetener to my batch.

Unlike jam, peach butter is lower in sugar (some recipes omit the sugar entirely) and darker in color. It's not as famous as apple butter, but peach butter is a good use for lots of peaches, since they cook down into a concentrated spread.

Fruit butters are sweet spreads made by cooking fruit pulp with sugar to a thick consistency. Their smooth, spreadable texture makes them an ideal substitute for butter on bread, toast, or muffins.

Heavy cream is the core ingredient in butter, making it a dairy product that contains milk solids, and those solids help distinguish the product's many uses.

Properly canned peach butter will keep for up to 1 year in your pantry or cabinet and then about 1 month in the fridge after you open it.

Mix in garlic for a flavorful boost to bread and butter

One of the simplest ways to add flavor to butter is to gather three simple ingredients: salted butter, minced garlic cloves, and fresh parsley. Whisk them together and the result is a highly versatile flavor that can be used in a variety of dishes.

Your butter needs to be “room temperature”, or around 65ºF. If it is too cold, it won't blend with the sugar evenly and will be almost impossible to beat it into a smooth consistency; if it is too hot, the butter won't be able to hold the air pockets that you are trying to beat into it.

Avoid peaches with bruised or wrinkled skin. It should also have its stem still attached, since the stem works like a seal to keep its juices inside, according to Adventure Kitchen. Smell: Sniff its stem end. If it doesn't have a smell, it won't have as much flavor, either, says Adventure Kitchen.

This is a process of color loss and does not mean the jam or jelly is going bad. The browning starts at the top of the jar and slowly works its way down. If your jars were properly sealed and the seal is still intact, the jam or jelly, although not as pretty as it once was, is safe to eat.

Can I use canned peaches instead of fresh? ›

If peaches aren't in season and you don't have any frozen peaches on hand, you can use canned peaches for most baked recipes. Keep in mind that canned peaches are cooked (even if they're raw packed), so they'll be softer and more tender compared to the texture of a fresh or frozen peach.

Chop 1 pound unpeeled yellow peaches into 1/2-inch pieces

And while leaving the skins on the fruit for your jams and preserves is a personal choice, they recommend it for the color it lends the finished jam—and for the fact that the skin imparts more peach flavor.

In other words, not softening your butter may result in your cookies going splat instead of puffing up. You can tell if the butter is at room temperature if it bends a bit. If it snaps, it's too cold; if it starts to lose its shape when you touch it, it's entered the melting phase.

Spread it on toast, heat it up and serve on ice cream, even use it on grilled meat. Use apple butter on top of brie or melt havarti cheese on bread and top with peach butter. Fruit butters will last for one to two weeks in the refrigerator but they can also be frozen, using freezer-safe packaging.

The ideal temperature for churning butter is around 60-65 F. If the cream is too cold, it is harder for the fat globules to stick together, and if it is too warm the butter will be a little too soft and gloopy.

Fruit butter is made by cooking down the fruit mixture until thick and sticky instead of adding pectin to set the mixture as you do with jam. Spread on whole-grain toast or stir into plain yogurt. We prefer to peel stone fruit, such as apricots, nectarines, peaches, and apples and pear for this recipe.

Plus fruit butters have less sugar than most jams or jellies! The reason they are called butter, is because they spread like butter, very smooth. They do not include any amount of butter or dairy products in them.

Fruit Butters

Apple butter is not the only one - try pumpkin butter, pear butter, plum butter, strawberry butter and more with trusted recipes and cooking tips.