Vanilla Honey Peach Butter
There is something soothing about knowing you can take something as delicate and delicious as a peach and turn it into something even more delicious. These jars of peach butter will sit patiently on the shelf just waiting to get used. In the middle of winter, when I’m cursing myself for living in New York, I can go into the pantry, open a jar of this vanilla honey peach butter and taste the flavors of summer. It’s what I love most about canning. You can easily bottle up the flavors of the season and have them anytime you want.
I picked all these peaches myself at a local farm – Fishkill Farms. They are a sweet mix of yellow and white. The day I went and picked there were so many peaches on the trees that the branches were sagging just trying to hold them all. It took me less than five minutes to pick over twelve pounds of peaches. It was a very successful day.
Since I now had a kitchen full of peaches I needed to do something with them. Of course, eating them was an option but there are only so many peaches one girl can eat. I knew I had to can them in some way. I was a bit jellied out so I opted to instead make a fruit butter. I found a recipe I liked and decided to alter it just a bit to bring some vanilla flavor to the mix. Vanilla and peaches are one of my favorite flavor combinations. The butter was extremely easy to make and only took 5 minutes to process for canning. You can of course keep your fruit butter in the fridge (I would say use it in a month) if you do not want to fully process but you might want to cut the recipe in half. It makes six full 8 ounce jelly jars.
Enjoy!!!
Vanilla Honey Peach Butter
Yield: 6 pint jars
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 25 - 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes - 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients:
18 ripe peaches – peeled, pitted and cut
1/4 cup water
2 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup honey
2 vanilla beans - scrape the seed out
Source: Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Canning Magazine.
Directions:
In and 8 - 10 quart heavy pot (I used my Le Creuset) combine peaches and the water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer cover, for 10 - 15 minutes or until peaches are tender. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Use a blender or food processor to puree peach mixture, in batches, until smooth. Return peach puree to same pot. Add sugar, honey and vanilla bean seeds and empty vanilla pod. Bring to boiling, stirring until sugar dissolve - reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes or until mixture is thick and mounds on a spoon, stirring often.
Take out vanilla pods and ladle hot peach butter into hot, sterilized half pint canning jars, leaving a 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe jar rims, adjust lids.
Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes (start timing when water returns to boiling). Remove jars from canner, cool on wire racks. (Makes 4 - 6 8oz. jelly jars of peach butter)
**When I made this recipe I got 6 half pints of fruit butter. However, there have been some people who have told me they have gotten a lot more out of this recipe - approximately 12-14 half pints. I'm assuming this has to do with the size of the peaches. Just assume if you have large peaches you will get a lot more fruit butter...not that that's a bad thing :)
Amazing! I wish I had the courage to can! Maybe someday:)
Oh I would be licking every oz off of my fingers! Yum!
How delicious-i totally want to try this! I bet the honey is the perfect peach compliment
Wow, these look gorgeous and I bet they tasted even better!!!
I am a little nervous to can but this looks so good I may have to get over my fear!
I love your handwriting! It’s so nice I suspected it might be a printed label so I compared the writing and found that the labels weren’t exactly the same, so I knew they were hand-written. So pretty! Not to mention what’s inside the jar, lol! This sounds so wondermous, no wonder you wanted to submit it to the fair. Do you know with canned goods at our fair, they are only judged by appearance? If people are submitted stuff like this, that is such a travesty that it doesn’t get tasted!
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm peach butter, I hadn’t thought of that! WOW! ok, now this must be added to me “to can” list! how exciting! LOVE THIS!!! (and it makes me want to go pick some peaches!)
All I kept thinking while I read this was “Wow, she has really nice handwriting!” Well, I was thinking something else too, but I think you know what that is!
Peach jam is one of my favorites but I’ve never made a peach butter. This recipe sounds amazing!
I just made peach jam for the first time last week! I haven’t eaten it yet, but I ended up with eleven 1/2 pint jars.
I’m going to try peach butter this weekend because although I love jam, it has a stiffer texture and I think I’ll like the smooth, softer texture of a peach butter.
That’s a gorgeous peach butter! I haven’t done any jams/jellies/butters yet this year. Think I better get started!
Oh my, this sounds amazing!!! I am planning to go peach picking this weekend, and I think I need to make this with some of them. Yum!
oh I love butters, peach and pear are my favorite. I still have a big bottle of pear butter in my pantry. The addition of honey and vanilla is brilliant
I need to do this with my nectarines. Enjoy your peach butter.
This sounds amazing! What a great different way to use the peaches
looks amazing! it sounds great and I bet it tastes even better!
Obviously I need to go peach picking now. Not sure I’m going to be able to survive the winter without at least thirty jars of this stuff!
In response to your comment, I’m not sure if I’m going to the wine and food festival yet! I’m applying for press passes so we’ll see…otherwise I’ll have to hope that someone wants to sponsor me to go!
How gorgeous, this looks delicious!! Love your photos!
Bookmarked it (thumbs up) on Stumble upon so I can make it sometime. Love this idea!! I agree…your handwriting is beautiful.
Getting ready to make your crust….from way back when (I blogged about it on my mango rhubarb tart). It’s a nut based crust I got from you…SO good!!
That looks heavenly! I am definitely going to try this recipe!
yes! This is exactly what I was looking for! Some way to save that peach flavor for the winter. I’m totally making some this week!
What an awesome combination…it sounds like heaven on toast!
that sounds like such an amazing treat in the winter! i am from connecticut and this would bring such warmth on a snowy day!! i might make this tomorrow!
Im so lame. I’ve never canned anything. It scares me. Like sourdough scares me. It’s irrational. This looks SOOO good, I really need to just buck up and do it!
You are so lucky to get to pick your own! This canning recipe actually sounds doable for my electric stove-top, since the actual processing time is only 5 minutes. I would like to try it because of the name alone.
I love peach butter! Great pictures. They made me wish like crazy for a chance to can some more jam and butter this year.
This looks so lovely! I will make this, maybe using the peach honey I’m about to make. Thanks for sharing this
Yum! This sounds wonderful! I have just learned about canning and would love to try this:)
This looks incredible. If I could can anything this summer, this would be it!!
marvelous use for fresh peaches, brandy! i can’t think of a finer way to preserve summer’s bounty.
just gimme a spoon and i will finish that whole jar in a minutes! yummy:)
What a wonderful hostess gift idea!
BUTTAH!
All I can say is yum, yum, yum!!! This recipe is so easy and sounds so amazing. Can’t wait to try it.
Such a great spread, I would love it in my oatmeal.
That peach butter looks divine. Now I’m really wishing I had picked up some more peaches at the farmer’s market this afternoon.
This sounds like it would be awesome on some hot fresh corn bread…
“vanilla honey peach butter” would make a great body splash too
I can almost smell it. Eat it, wear it!
Just made this. Amazing. Simply amazing.
Used 20 peaches, substituted the 2 and a quarter cup of white sugar with one cup white sugar, half a cup of brown sugar and half a cup of agave nectar.
Ended up with 14 half pint jars and 2 quarter pint jars (total of 15 cups of butter). They were big peaches I guess. The sweetness level is perfect.
Thanks a lot for an amazing recipe!
admin replied: — September 1st, 2011 @ 5:55 pm
I’m glad you tried the recipe! I love that you added brown sugar and agave…I will have to try that next time!
I had a friend who made it and she got about 12 jars. I just made a note at the bottom explaining that some people have gotten much larger quantities than what I did. I don’t want people to be too shocked if they get more than 6 jars
Marie replied: — September 1st, 2011 @ 7:03 pm
Love your website, by the way! You are inspiring!
Omg I would be eating so many spoonfuls during the process… I want to go back to the farmer’s market and get the end of summer peaches. This sounds so delicious I can’t wait to try it!
that looks beautiful! I can totally imagine it in a high-end grocery store selling for an insane price, so I’m glad you shared the recipe for it (:
Beautiful and delicious sounding recipe!! I made a batch yesterday. The only problem I had was that when I followed the recipe exactly, my peach mixture was the consistency of soup still, not thick enough for peach butter. To remedy this, I just transferred the whole mixture to my crockpot and cooked it on low for 5-6 hours and then left it on warm overnight. It should end up being thick so that when you lift it with a spoon and dribble it back in, the ribbon of butter stays on top of your mixture before blending back in.
If you do it this way, you can also add a bunch more peaches since the crockpot will cook it down so much. I added more peaches and still ended up with just 4 half-pints, the perfect amount for our little family!