Earlier this summer, I spent a morning with food photographer Jason Varney, working on a little project. It wasn’t a magazine assignment and no one had asked us to spend a few hours playing with peaches. We simply wanted to see what we could create in collaboration. We started with a big bag of peaches from Three Springs Fruit Farm (thanks again for those, Ben!), a few jars of my preserved peaches and a big lump of homemade pie crust.
Jason carefully pushed and prodded, until each finished frame was gloriously messy and perfectly imperfect. Watching him work was good insight into the art of food photography and reminder that I’m not nearly enough of a perfectionist to be anything but an able amateur (a status I’m entirely contented with).
When the shoot was over, we had six beautiful images and a warm peach tart. Not bad for a few hours.
To see the rest of the images Jason made that morning, click over to his newly relaunched site, Fussing With Forks. The finished tart recipe is also over there. The recipes for the canned peaches and pie crust can be found below.
Tart Crust
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 stick cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 1/4 cup ice water
Instructions
- Combine the flours, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the cold butter cubes to the bowl and pulse until the butter is incorporated into the flours and largest bits look to be the size of peas.
- Then, with the motor running, slowly stream the water into the bowl using the tube. Stop once you’ve added half the water and test the dough by squeezing it. If it sticks together, it’s done. You want it to just barely hold together.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Store in the refrigerator for at least an hour before using. Overnight is fine too. The dough can also be frozen for up to a month.
- If you don’t have a food processor, pie dough is still within your grasp. Combine the flours, sugar and salt in a large bowl and whisk together. Grate very cold butter using a box grater. When it’s all grated, combine with the flours in the bowl and work together using a pastry blender or your hands. Add water drop by drop until the dough comes together. Store as recommended above.
Tart Crust
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 stick cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 1/4 cup ice water
Instructions
- Combine the flours, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the cold butter cubes to the bowl and pulse until the butter is incorporated into the flours and largest bits look to be the size of peas.
- Then, with the motor running, slowly stream the water into the bowl using the tube. Stop once you’ve added half the water and test the dough by squeezing it. If it sticks together, it’s done. You want it to just barely hold together.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Store in the refrigerator for at least an hour before using. Overnight is fine too. The dough can also be frozen for up to a month.
- If you don’t have a food processor, pie dough is still within your grasp. Combine the flours, sugar and salt in a large bowl and whisk together. Grate very cold butter using a box grater. When it’s all grated, combine with the flours in the bowl and work together using a pastry blender or your hands. Add water drop by drop until the dough comes together. Store as recommended above.
I think I know how to use the last of my brandied peaches from last year now. Yum.
To ensure your peach skin slips off after a hot bath – cold bath your peaches must be ripe. Store bought peaches (ewww) can be placed in a paper bag overnight to help the ripening process.
I never would have thought of using already canned peaches, but that’s just the revelatory number to pull out in the dark days of january to cheer up a house! Amazing idea, and gorgeous photos.
Plenty of Peaches here this year (see my today’s blog). I’m really here to say that I shall be doing your Pickled Carrots today; I’ve plenty of those too!
Check out our post on Food in Jars at Cookbook Of The Day
http://cookbookoftheday.blogspot.com/2012/09/food-in-jars.html
Peaches are in full force this time of year, and my sister and I are getting ready to can about 100 pounds. We have been looking for ways to use honey instead of regular sugar in the process, as my nephew is on a special diet. Can you safely substitute honey at a 1:1 ratio for sugar when you can peaches? Thanks!
Honey is sweeter than sugar, so you don’t want to do a one to one substitution. My favorite honey syrup for canning fruit can be found here: https://foodinjars.com/2009/09/blackberry-winner-plums-in-honey/
Thank you! I saw the recipes for honeyed plums and the apricots in honey syrup in your book and suspected it would be safe, but I wanted to double check. We are going to try it out with the peaches. Thank you again!
Is it safe to can small peaches whole, not removing pits, just skins? I have recipes for whole peaches canned with cloves & cinnamon in the syrup but what about just a light syrup? Would appreciate some advice on this.
The Canned Peaches recipe is just what I was looking for but I am a bit confused with the directions. In Step 2 it says “Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While it heats, cut the peaches into quarters…” but in Step 3 it says “Working in batches, add the peach halves to the boiling water…” Are the peaches cut into quarters or halves? Also, are the peaches cut before removing the peel? I am rather new to the canning process and want to make sure I follow the directions correctly. Thanks so much for your help and I am so looking forward to trying out this recipe.
M.J., I’ve tweaked that recipe a little, in the hopes of making it a little more clear. The spot where it said peach halves and was confusing you was simply a mistake on my part. It should have said peach pieces. Essentially, you cut the peaches into quarters, blanch the quarters, and remove the skin from the quarters. If you try to peel the peaches whole, they are then very hard to remove from the pit, because a peeled peach is very slippery.
Marisa, your tips on blanching peaches was a huge timesaver for us this year! We just bought a bushel of peaches to process, and the instructions we found in another source were tedious and produced slippery peaches that were hard to handle. Cutting them and removing the pits before, instead of blanching them whole, was the way to go. Many thanks!
We’ve also tried several of your jam recipes this year, from your book. The rhubarb-vanilla jam with tea is amazing! Kudos to your good work, and helpful instructions and tips.
James
As embarrassing as this is to admit, I just realized (after my canning was done of course) that the saucepan I used to simmer my lids didn’t get cleaned all the way and had some gunk in it when I was simmering them. I’m new to canning so am not sure how/if it will affect my canned fruit. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
As long as the gunk from the pans didn’t transfer to the lids, it should be okay.
Hi Marisa! Love your website, I credit you (and your amazing books) for my canning obsession 🙂
I’d love to do these peaches in quarts instead of pints – can you advise on processing time for quarts? I’ve always heard to add an additional 5 minutes for quarts vs. pints, but want to be sure that these work out. Thanks!
Kate, here’s the timing for pints and quarts according to the NCHFP! http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_02/peach_sliced.html
Is it safe and OK to can white peaches in syrup? Thanks!
You would need to do it in an acidified syrup. You’d want to make sure to get at least 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice into each jar.
Hi, I’m sure that it is probably obvious lol, but in step 9 when you say slide the peaches into the hot liquid, you are just meaning the peaches, not the lemon water too….right? Just want to clarify that before I try to do this tomorrow lol! This will be my first year canning peaches….so don’t want to make a mess of it!
Just the peaches, not the lemon water. That water is just there to keep the peaches from turning brown while you finish peeling them.
Hi Marisa,
I want to do this but add tequila for a boozy twist. What are your thoughts and if/when to add this in? Thanks!
You want to make the canned peaches? You’d add some tequila at the end of cooking.
Hi Marisa,
I love your recipes (and cookbooks!), and I’ve made these peaches several times, but it always eats up a lot of time. I’m wondering if it would be a problem to use a peeler to remove the skin to save a step, especially since they get cooked in the syrup before canning. Most of the peaches we get here in Central PA are really big, so losing a little bit of fruit to the peeler isn’t really a problem. Thoughts?
You can certainly use a peeler if you prefer. However you want to remove the skins is totally fine.
Hello, do I have to cook the peaches in the syrup or can I put them in the jars and then ladle the syrup overtop and then water bath 20 minutes? Thank you 🙂
Same question for pears, also can I add liquid vanilla extract to the syrup for the pears? Thanks again I appreciate the help 🙂
You get a better finished product if you cook the peaches in the syrup. It helps them release the air and you end up with less floating product. However, it is also permissible to do peaches and pears the way you suggest. Both instructions are here: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_02/peach_sliced.html
Just made the canned peaches tonight. Easy recipe to follw. I have to say they look great in my Weck jars that I used for the first time. Have always been a little intimidated by them. Thanks, Terri.