Peach Butter

This year's peach harvest yielded many, many peaches. So many peaches that we were running out of ideas to make use of them. It's difficult to store peaches too, as they get mushy very easily whether stored in the refrigerator or left unpicked on the tree. And those peaches ripe so fast and at the same time! Usually 75% of them are ripe by the beginning of July, and we have to harvest them all during continuous 90+ degree hot days. My sister searched some ideas, and one particularly interesting idea was making peach butter. I've tasted apple butter before, but peach butter! This was sure something interesting to try, as I've gotten so bored of making peach jam. I used up 27 whole ripe peaches for two batches of peach butter. It was sure a fun-filled cooking adventure with my sister (who made peach BBQ sauce) on the Fourth of July.

Ingredients: (makes 4 cups of peach butter)
18 peaches
2 cinnamon sticks (1 tbsp ground cinnamon)
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups sugar

How to make:
1. Wash and cut an 'X' (this will make it easier to remove the skin) on the peaches, and soak them in hot water. Place in ice water bath and remove the skin. Dice peaches and place into a blender.

2. Puree the peaches in a blender. For ultra smooth peach butter, you can process the peaches longer.

3. Pour the peach puree into a nonstick pan on medium heat.

4. Add the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and sugar.

5. Cover pan slightly with the lid so that steam can get out. Boil the mixture on medium heat for 30-40 minutes, until the mixture reduces in volume by one-half.

6. Pour the mixture into sterilized glass jars for canning.
7. Seal the jars and place back into a water bath canner for 5-10 minutes for processing.
8. Remove from heat and let cool.