White Peach Flavored with Vanilla Syrup/Jam!

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    Our local wholesale produce place had a great deal of peaches!  I went to buy some, but when I got there, they were all out of the yellow freestone, and only had white peaches left.  I knew that white peaches are tricky when it comes to preserving them, but I decided to give it a try, following all of the advice that I could find!  I also tested the ph to be extra careful.  This recipe for White Peach Jam/syrup came out so good!  It is thick enough for your toast, yet pours out on your French Toast with ease.  Because white peaches have  a slight floral flavor to them, and are very sweet, a little vanilla is a perfect combination in this recipe.  I hope that you love it as much as we do! 

These peaches were just beautiful and so sweet!

.....and that is the problem with canning white peaches, they are not nearly acidic enough to can in a light syrup by themselves.  They need to be handled with care.  Fruits that you are canning need to have a ph lower than 4.6.  So, although I canned these jars of jam and added extra acid to them, I will be storing them in the freezer until I use them just to be extra certain they are safe to eat.  If I give them as gifts, I will be sure to tell the receiver to freeze them or refrigerate them for just a couple of weeks while using them. 

     When I brought these peaches home, they were still pretty firm.  I gave them a few days before eating them and processing them.  They were so sweet and good! 
      While waiting for them to ripen, I did a lot of research to find out how to safely preserve them.  Wow! There are a lot of opinions out there that cause me a lot of confusion.  Basically I've learned that peaches generally test higher than the safe number of 4.6 ph, so they require more acid and sugar than yellow peaches.  But, the food preservation powers that be say there is no safely tested way to bring up the acid to can them.  That confused me because they also say that figs are low in acidity and that adding a lot of lemon juice takes care of that!  Why wouldn't that work for peaches as well?  Is it just that they haven't done the testing in their laboratories?  Many canners out there say that they have safely canned white peaches before these guidelines came out.  And I have all of these peaches that I do not want to have go to waste!  Do you see my dilemma?  SO, this is why I've decided to can them with extra acid and then freeze them anyway to be safe.  Another solution for you would be to stick to yellow peaches and this recipe will probably still be delicious with them! 

Here is what I did. I blanched the peaches very briefly in boiling hot water, about 2 minutes, plunged them into ice water and then peeled them. These peaches peeled easier than any peaches I've ever peeled! Next, I plunged them into lemon water. I used bottled lemon juice, about 2 quarts of water and 2-3 T. of lemon juice. This was the beginning of my acidification process.

I cut the peaches into chunks and poured the lime juice all over them and tossed them in it and let them sit and macerate a bit. Then, I added the pectin, stirred it in and began to heat the whole thing to a full boil. When they reached a full boil, I poured in all of the sugar at once. I stirred in the sugar and added the vanilla. I brought the mixture up to a full boil and boiled for another minute. In each jam jar, I put 1/2 tsp of lime juice and ladled in the jam. Wipe the rims and put on the lids and rings.

Place the jars in your water bath or steam canner and process for 10 minutes.

     This recipe makes a lot of jam.  I didn't have room in my canner for all of it at once, so I put the leftovers in a quart jar in the fridge and we used it on our Sour Dough Bread French Toast the next morning.  It was delightful!  
​     Here is the recipe!  

Click on the recipe for a printable version.

     Here is the French Toast! 

Make the French Toast! We used sour dough bread, but use any kind you would like! Brown it on a griddle.

When it is nice and brown, slather it with butter.

Sprinkle it with French Toast like you mean it!

Generously pour on the Peach syrup. Warming it makes it even better!

     Last night my husband and I went to a restaurant that served Peach Strawberry Lemonade!  This syrup would be a great way to make that!  I'm going to give it a try!  Doesn't that sound delicious for a hot summer day?

I almost forgot! I designed some labels on Avery! Click the photo for the pdf!

Printable Labels

Great price on 8 oz jam jars!