If you are like me you love fresh peaches. Fresh peaches, although delicious do not keep for long. They need to be canned or frozen. Before cooking or canning with peaches you have to know how to peel peaches! I mean, leaving the skins on would be a lot easier but trying to eat peach ice cream with fuzzy peach peels in it probably wouldn’t be very appetizing.
Don’t let removing those peach peels intimidate you. It may sound difficult but in reality it’s not hard at all. Peeling peaches is so simple and easy.. I love finding simple and fast ways to work and get things done in the kitchen. There are several different methods to peel peaches. Im going talk about about what I’ve found to be the easiest and fastest method.
How to Peel Peaches Fast and Easy
My favorite method to peel peaches is the blanching method. Peeling peaches is super fast and easy when you use the blanching method. Some people prefer to use a knife or vegetable peeler. Although this method works, it takes a lot more time and patience. Another problem with using a knife to peel peaches is that the the finished product is not nearly as pretty. It’s hard to peel them smoothly and not cut out chunks of peach flesh with the peels. Removing chunks of flesh with the peels creates some waste, and we definitely don’t want to waste any of our yummy peaches. To blanch peaches for peeling you just need a handful of items that you probably already have laying around your kitchen. In just a few steps your peaches will be skinned and ready for fresh eating, canning, or freezing!
Items needed for blanching peaches-
Peaches (kind of a given)
Large pot for boiling water
Large bowl of ice water
Step by step process for blanching peaches
First- Bring a rather large pot of water to a gentle boil. Be sure to leave space for water displacement. Peaches take up quite a bit of space.
Second- While waiting on the water to boil, prepare your peaches by washing them and making sure they don’t have any stems still attached.
Third- Use the paring knife to cut a small X shaped slice on the bottom of your peach peels like the photo below. (This will be very useful later.)
Fourth- Carefully place 5-6 peaches (or however many safely fit in your pot) into the boiling water using a slotted spoon. Be careful not to splash yourself and get burned! Allow the peaches boil for 30-60 seconds.
Fifth- Remove peaches from the pot using the slotted spoon. Place the peaches directly into a bowl of ice water (also called an ice bath) to shock them. Shocking the peaches stops the cooking process.
Sixth- Remove a peach from the ice water. Start where you cut the X shape in the bottom of the peach skins and simply slip the skin off with your fingers. The peels will slide right off with very little effort! Be careful! Freshly Peeled peaches are very slippery. You definitely don’t want to drop any your delicious peaches. Peeling the peach is very satisfying. It’s so easy and my 6 and 7 year old kids love to help me with this part.
That’s all there is to it! Now you are ready to use your peaches for whatever delicious treat you want to fix. Don’t throw those peels and pits away though. You can save them and use them to make peach jelly.
We like to slice and can peaches in simple syrup. We use the canned peaches to make peach ice cream, peach cobbler, and peach crips. They’re also delicious straight out of the jar. Some of the peaches we use to make peach butter. There’s not much better than a hot homemade biscuit with peach butter on it!
The fresh, peeled peaches can also be used for immediate baking. You can also slice them and freeze them for smoothies or just a nice cold treat.
Peaches are seriously delicious and one of my favorite fruits. I love eating them fresh. Unfortunately, fresh peaches do not keep well. They need to be canned or frozen in order to preserve them. Learning the many different ways to use peaches is always fun and most definitely extremely tasty!
Yes! By far in my experience blanching peaches to peel them is the easiest, fastest, and best way.
Peaches should be blanched for 30-60 seconds before placing in an ice bath before peeling them.
In my opinion, yes. This stops the cooking process and it also cools the peaches so you can handle them quickly without getting burned.
Sure, you can use a knife or a vegetable peeler but both of those option take a lot longer and you end up with a less attractive end product. You also lose some of the flesh of your peach with these methods.
It depends on how ripe the peaches are when you get them. Ripe peaches will last at most two days. If the peaches aren’t super ripe they’ll last up to a week.
The best way to tell if a peach is ripe is to feel it. If the peach is nice and ripe it will feel soft and the flesh with stay sunken when lightly squeezed. If the peach feels hard and firm it isn’t quite as ripe as you may like.
Yes, store bought peaches can be used for canning. Store bought peaches might be not quite as flavorful and sweet as peaches you would pick or purchase from your local farmers market.
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