We met my best friend Jenny in Indianapolis for a day of slouching about the city and catching up and…
Lunch!
Specifically, lunch at Maxine’s Chicken & Waffles, which Rich and I had been told of by one of his brothers. The lesson I learned? When a place is NAMED for a food, you’re kinda crazy NOT to order it – terrific chicken & waffles! I also learned that Maxine makes one, fine peach butter.
I came home and did some research.
It turns out that there are options when one decides to make peach butter; you can literally stir some peaches into butter with a bit of brown sugar and sea salt and call it a day.
Or, you can go with this option:
INGREDIENTS
•2 qt. fresh or frozen diced peeled peaches
•4 cups sugar
•2 tbsp brandy
Run the peaches through the food processor fitted with the metal blade to give them a really good chop.
Turn the peaches out into a large pot and add the sugar.
Cook, stirring, over low heat until the sugar has melted and the peaches have more or less dissolved – a good whizzz with an immersion blender can help here.
Taste the butter. What do you think?
I thought it a touch too sweet, so added those two tablespoons of brandy and kept stirring…
After a while, the butter was nicely thickened and a deep golden color.
Nice.
You can let it cool and store in the fridge for pretty quick use; or you can pack it into jars and process in a boiling water bath for ten minutes to have a shelf-stable stash o’ peachy goodness in your pantry.
The original recipe claimed to yield eight half-pints, but I only got five; not that I’m complaining – five half-pints of really nice home made peach butter is a very good thing!
Maxine serves her peach butter with little corn cakes; I served mine with a batch of corn bread Madeleines, but I don’t think folk would complain too, too much if your offered them one of these little pots o’ summer along with their morning English muffin.
Nice.
If I do say so myself…