canning shelves 2014_opt_opt
Posts Archives
All posts with peaches tag.
In , on February 6, 2016 with No Comments

Peach Crumb Pie

I’m a fan of easy-peasy recipes, and when you can your own fruits and vegetables during season, it’s a snap when you want to throw together dinner or desserts if you have a pantry full of goodies.

The other day I made a Caramel Apple Crumb Pie with a quart of the caramel apple pie filling I put up this summer. The kids wanted pie again today, so I decided to use a quart of the peach pie filling I made this summer and use the same crumb recipe. Easy peasy.

We have 4 peach trees in the backyard, and they produce the small, golf ball-sized peaches that are super sweet and full of peach flavor, not like the peaches you can find in the grocery store. Making the filling is labor intensive in the fact that you have to peel all these little peaches (as opposed to the nice big Colorado peaches I use to can peaches by themselves). I threaten the boys each summer when I do pie filling, as they’ve been known to just grab a quart of pie filling off the pantry shelves and sit down to eat it – and then I have nothing left for pies or cobblers. True story – they ran me out of apple pie filling one year as they loved it just for a snack. I hid these peach pie filling quarts this year so that I would have a few of the precious jars for when I wanted to use them, not when their stomaches wanted something sweet 🙂 This pie can be a bit messy, so feel free to add 2 tablespoons of instant tapioca to your pie filling if you prefer so the filling doesn’t fall apart when you dish out the slices.

 

peach crumb pie half

 

Peach Crumb Pie

1 unbaked pie crust

1 quart peach pie filling

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup oatmeal

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup butter

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pour pie filling into unbaked pie shell. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the oatmeal, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and vanilla. Cut in the butter using a pastry knife or fork until you get small crumbs. Sprinkle this mixture over top of the peaches.

Bake the pie for about 50 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or until you see the filling bubbling. Cool before cutting, and serve with either whipped cream or ice cream.

peach crumb pie whole

Simplified Dinners for New Cooks

Visit Canning and Cooking Iowa Style’s profile on Pinterest.

Continue Reading
In , on September 28, 2015 with No Comments

Peach Dump Cake

It was a beautiful evening yesterday to watch the supermoon lunar eclipse in eastern Iowa. It had been cloudy most of the day, but it cleared off, and the boys and I watched the amazing show. I’d never seen a full lunar eclipse before, and we had the perfect front yard to watch it – 7 miles outside city limits with no outdoor lighting. The sky was spectacular.

The boys wanted something sweet for dessert – okay, I wanted something sweet for dessert last night, but I wanted it to be quick to make so we could get outside for the eclipse. I’d made peach pie filling last week, so I thought about making a pie, but my pie crust skills leave a lot to be desired. I decided to make a peach dump cake instead. It’s easy, fast, and there usually aren’t any leftovers.

 

Peach Dump Cake

2 cans peach pie filling (I used 2 quarts of homemade filling)
1 box cake mix (any flavor you wish but white or yellow cake mix works best)
1 stick butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Place the peach pie filling in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over the pie filling. Pour the melted butter evenly over the cake mix.

Bake the cake for approximately 50 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or until the top is browned and the filling is bubbly. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Continue Reading
In , on September 18, 2015 with No Comments

Canning 101: Vanilla Bourbon Peach Jam

After making some peach pie filling, I still had quite a few peaches left, so I decided to make some jam. Last year I made a peach honey jam, which was delicious, but I like a variety of different jams in my canning cupboard. I found this recipe on Sarah’s Joys blog, so I thought I’d give it a try. Delicious!

The recipe calls for 8 cups of peaches. I had 12 cups of peaches left after making pie filling, so I made 1 1/2 the recipe below – with the exception of the bourbon. I left the bourbon at 1 tablespoon, as it’s added simply to enhance the flavor of the vanilla, not to have a strong bourbon presence.

 

 

Vanilla Bourbon Peach Jam

8 cups peeled and chopped peaches
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 vanilla bean (or 1 to 2 teaspoons good vanilla extract)
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon good bourbon (optional)

Put the peaches, lemon juice and 2 cups sugar in a heavy-bottomed pot. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds, and place in the pot along with the empty pod halves. (If using vanilla extract, add this to the peaches instead.)

 

 

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. If using, add the bourbon. Simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, or until thickened to desired consistency.

 

Ladle hot jam into prepared jelly jars, discarding the vanilla bean pods. Process jam in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Continue Reading
In , on September 18, 2015 with No Comments

Canning 101: Peach Pie Filling

Our four peach trees are overloaded this year with beautiful white peaches. They didn’t produce any peaches last year, and the year before that a wind storm destroyed our other peach trees, just before the peaches were ready, of course. Usually these peaches are fairly small (the size of a large chicken egg), but we must have gotten rain at just the right times this year, because these are the largest peaches we’ve gotten. I picked a 5-gallon bucket of these beauties today.

I’d already canned peaches earlier in the year when I bought a couple lugs of Colorado peaches from the grocery store. The boys love to eat peaches straight from the jar, and that’s what these are for. With our own peaches, however, I like to make jams and pie filling, so that’s what I set out to do with these I picked today.

The recipe I used says it makes 7 quarts of pie filling, but I only got 6 quarts, probably because our peaches are smaller compared to what you normally find in the grocery store. They still make great pies, though.

 

 

Peach Pie Filling

6 quarts sliced peaches
7 cups sugar
2 cups plus 3 tablespoons ClearJel
5 1/4 cups cold water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 3/4 cup lemon juice
Additional 1/4 cup lemon juice or Fruit Fresh pectin

Place peaches in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds. Remove and place in ice cold water. Remove skins and pits, and slice peaches. To keep peaches from turning brown, mix in 1/4 cup lemon juice or Fruit Fresh pectin.

Combine water, sugar, ClearJel and cinnamon in a large stockpot. Stir and cook over medium-high heat until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble.

Add the 1 3/4 cup lemon juice, and boil the sauce for an additional minute, stirring constantly.

Add the sliced, drained peaches, and cook for 3 additional minutes.

 

Fill quart jars within 1 inch of the top. Place filled jars in a boiling water canner, and keep them covered with at least 1 inch of water. Process for 30 minutes.

Continue Reading
In , , on September 13, 2015 with No Comments

Italian Pasta Salad and Watermelon Peach Salsa

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful fall day here in Iowa. The sky was a gorgeous blue, the humdity was low (finally!), and the bugs were nowhere in sight. Kevin wanted to grill some burgers, so I thought I’d whip up a couple side dishes to go along with.

The boys love my Italian Pasta Salad and tell me I need to make it more often. It’s an easy peasy recipe that’s great to take to potlucks and family reunions. I eyeballed the amount of each ingredient, so you can add more or less to your family’s taste.

I also decided to make a Watermelon Peach Salsa. We have four peach trees, the kind that has the little white peaches, and they are huge this year. I’ve already canned two lugs of peaches, so this was a great way to use up a few more. The recipe called for cilantro, but my family’s not a huge fan, so I omitted it.

 

Italian Pasta Salad

1 package rotini pasta noodles, cooked per package directions and cooled
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 a medium red onion, diced
1/2 a red bell pepper, diced
1/2 a green bell pepper, diced
1 3.8 ounce can sliced black olives
Half a package of turkey pepperoni (or regular if you prefer), sliced into strips
1 bottle zesty Italian dressing

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Set aside until cool.

In a large bowl, combine the diced onion, diced peppers, black olives and sliced pepperoni. Add the cooled pasta. Pour the Italian dressing over the pasta, and mix until well combined. Refrigerate for several hours to let the flavors meld together.

 

 

Watermelon Peach Salsa

2 cups diced watermelon
2 cups diced fresh peaches
1/2 small red onion, diced
1/2 a green bell pepper, diced
1/2 a red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced
Juice of 1 lime
Fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)
Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, and mix well. Refrigerate for several hours to let the flavors marinade together.

Continue Reading
In , on August 12, 2014 with 1 Comment

Canning 101: 2 Peach Jams and Blueberry Honey Jam

I bought 2 lugs of Colorado peaches at the grocery store yesterday….boy were they nice! I also picked up 2 pints of nice-looking blueberries and thought as long as I was in the mood to make peach jam, I could easily make a small batch of blueberry jam to go with.

All in all, I canned 17 quarts of peaches, 6 half-pints of peach jam, 5 half-pints of spiced peach jam, and 3 half-pints of blueberry honey jam (one of which never made it to the shelves!)

 

I found a nice recipe for Blueberry Honey Jam on http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2014/06/26/blueberry-jam-honey-sweetened/. I like this recipe because it’s a small-batch recipe, and I didn’t have to spend a lot of time working on it. The recipe also works for most berries and fruit, with the exception of apples, and I also followed this recipe for one of the peach jams I made today. They both turned out delicious!

Blueberry Honey Jam

INGREDIENTS
  • 1 quart blueberries (approximately 1½ pounds)
  • â…” cup honey (8 ounces)
  • ½ lemon, juiced
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Pour the berries into a low, wide, non-reactive pan and mash.
  2. Add the honey and lemon juice and stir to combine. Let the mixture sit until the honey begins to dissolve.
  3. Place the pan on the stove and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring regularly, for 10 to 12 minutes, until the jam thickens.
  4. To make the jam shelf stable, pour it into clean, hot jars. Apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath canner for ten minutes.
  5. When time is up, remove jars from the canner and place them on a folded kitchen towel and let them cool.
  6. When the jars are room temperature, check the seals. If the lids have gone concave and don’t wiggle at all, they are sealed.
  7. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used within a few weeks.
  8. If you don’t want to process the jam, just pour it into a jar, let it cool, and put it in the refrigerator.

For my peach jam recipe, I basically used the Blueberry Honey Jam recipe, although I did use sugar instead of honey.

For the spiced peach jam, I had a few peaches leftover from the first box, so I added a few spices that I normally add to a peach pie. I think it turned out delicious!

Spiced Peach Jam

Approximately 2 quarts diced peaches
1-1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon good vanilla
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Place diced peaches in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and mash with a potato masher. Add remaining ingredients. Heat to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook at a rolling boil for approximately 10 minutes, or until the jam thickens.

Ladle into hot half-pint jars. Seal. Process in a boiling-water canner for 15 minutes.

Yield:  5 half-pints

 

Continue Reading