Fresh Peach Jam
(from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook)
You'll need:
About 2 pounds slightly underripe peaches (7 to 8 large)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
One 1.75 or 2 ounce box powdered pectin (optional)
3 to 4 cups sugar, to taste
1. Peel the peaches by dipping them into a pan of boiling water to loosen the skin, then immediately cool them by holding under cold water. The skins will slip off. Remove the pits. In a large bowl, coarsely crush by hand with a potato masher or pulse a few times in a food processor; you'll have about 5 cups of pulp. combine the peaches and lemon juice in the slow cooker; sprinkle with the pectin, if using (I didn't bother). Let stand for 20 to 30 minutes.
2. Stir in the sugar. Cover and cook on LOW for 2 1/2 hours, stirring twice.
3. Remove the lid, turn the cooker to HIGH, and cook 2 to 3 hours longer, until the jam achieves the desired consistency. Ladle the warm jam in to clean glass jars & let stand until cool.
To sterilize your jars, either run the jars and lids through the dishwasher or wash in hot, soapy water and heat in a coolish oven (about 300F) for 10 min.
Mine is in the crock pot as I write. However, I've got loads more peaches to deal with, thanks to a half bushel purchase yesterday. So, here are a few other peach-y (ba dum bum) ideas:
