When it comes to processing fresh fruit often times recipes call that you peel peaches of their skin. But really who wants to stand for hours on end slowly cutting away the skin? Plus, you end up losing a lot of the fruit in this process. The easiest way to peel peaches is by a process known as blanching peaches.
How to peel peaches for food preservation and baking.
To peel peaches easily, you will want to start with fresh and ripe peaches. You will bring a pot of water to a boil. You want a pot that is big enough that it can fully submerge the peaches. If it isn’t big enough to do all the peaches at one time, that is no problem. You can work in smaller batches as well.
Take each peach and with a small knife lightly cut a small X on the bottom of the peach. It doesn’t need to be deep, just enough to break the skin.
Simply place each peach into the boiling water for approximately 30-45 seconds. It is best to use a slotted spoon to drop the peaches into the water and to remove them.
After you remove the peach from the boiling water you may even have evidence of just how easy this will end up being for yourself. Due to the slits in the peach skin and the blanching of the pouch, the skin begins to peal off on its own. See, I told you it was easy to peel peaches with this method!
After removing the peach from the boiling water, you want to immediately place it in ice water. I literally do mean ice water. The colder the better. I filled up my bowl with ice first and then added just enough water that it would allow the peaches to be submerged. After a few rounds of 5 peaches each, the ice starts to quickly melt so a lot of ice is very important when doing a lot of peaches.
After a minute or two the peaches will have cooled enough that you can handle them. Then you can merely pick them up and the skins literally slide right off. If you happen to have one that is more difficult, just put it back into the boiling water for another 20-30 seconds and then back into the ice water.
Blanching peaches turns a very long and tedious job into a very short and easy job! I was able to get over 30 peaches peeled in approximately 10 minutes. Now if only removing the pits were this easy!
Peeled peaches can now be used for food preservation such as freezing peaches or canning peaches. They can also be used in baked goods such as pies, cobbler and jams. Or they can even be eaten fresh on ice cream, mixed in with yogurts, cereal, or fruit salads.
And let’s not forget to mention that the same process to peel peaches can also be used to easily peal other soft produce like tomatoes!
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I would love to eat fresh peaches in the winter time and it looks like you found the perfect way to do it. It sounds like it would be really easy to peel off the skin by blanching the peaches that way. Thanks for the information!
Those peaches are beautiful!! Thanks so much for sharing this!
What a great tip! I am going to keep this in mind!
That’s a great tip. Thanks for sharing!
You can also blanch tomatoes and peel them this way, too! I watch Julia Child do this on one of her cooking shows once. Thanks for the memory!
What a wonderful way to peel peaches. Thanks for sharing and I may have to give this a try one day.
We do this with tomatoes but I’ve never tried it with peaches. Thanks!
WOW! That looks so easy! I love peaches, so thanks for sharing.
wow! this does seem quick and easy and it makes me want to go try this and make a peach cobbler
Thanks for sharing!
What a great way to preserve a classic summer flavor. I love using peaches in cobblers!
My family is going to love you for this! This is simply amazing. Thank you.
That’s a great tip thanks ! They look absolutely delicious x
Thank you for the tip! I was actually thinking of doing some type of preserves yesterday, and had no idea where to start. Thanks!
What a great tip! I never would have known how to do this and cutting the X-shaped slits is such a smart idea. I bet it makes all the difference in the world. Thanks for sharing this, I’ll have to try this soon!
Genius! And perfect for right now. We have a whole flat of peaches that are almost too ripe that we need to freeze for smoothies in the winter.
THose peaches look so pretty! I’ve never blanched peaches, but I have used this method on pears before canning them. It saves so much time and you get more of the fruit then peeling with a knife.
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