Peach Jam

Yesterday felt like a really long day when judged by how tired I was when I came home from work, but it went by quickly. Yesterday I also confirmed that I have made a great impression with my supervisor! She asked me to come into her office this morning after I had emailed her with a question. My temp position is supposed to last two to three weeks, and since two weeks have passed as of today, I needed to know if I should come in on Monday. My boss hired two temps, me and this other girl, and she said she only needed one of us for next week and would like that to be me :) She said I've been doing a spectacular job, that she was very impressed with all my outbounds, that everyone I've been working with has said I've been great, and that on Monday she will get a hold of the hiring officers for the permanent jobs I applied to there so she can help set up an interview! I think I have a good shot at getting one of those jobs if a supervisor at the company I'm applying to recommends me. I don't want to count my chickens, though...

Anyway, I also made some peach jam the other day, and it turned out both beautiful and tasty!

1 1/3 c. finely chopped peaches

3 tsp. lemon juice

1 1/2 Tbsp. Ball Classic Pectin

1 c. sugar for reduced sugar jam

or

1 2/3 c. sugar for traditional jam

As it turns out, you can make peach jam both the traditional way, in a large saucepan, and in a skillet like I have done in the past with other jams, but you get slightly different results. The skillet has a wider mouth, and more moisture dries up in less time. The jam I made in the skillet turned out fine, but it set sooner and stiffer than the jam I made in the saucepan. 

The reason I made two small batches was because I decided to be brave and follow the recipe for making peach jam on the Ball pectin I purchased at the store. I've never made jam with any more pectin beyond what naturally occurs in the fruit, but all the recipes I've seen for peach jam seem to require pectin, so I went with it. I wasn't sure how many peaches I would need, so I ended up buying too many and needing to make two small batches. I had just made raspberry jam, and I'm usually not into making a bunch of jam and storing it, but I figure winter is like 3 weeks away or something (apparently Fall in Boston, although beautiful, is also brief) and it might be nice to have on hand. 

[It's funny, because I usually think of "winter" as the beginning of November to the end of January, because that is how the weather works in AZ. It doesn't really cool down until November (the last two weeks in October is all we get for fall, for sure), and by February it is still chilly but in a more Springtime sort of way. In contrast, in Boston I think of "winter" as being the end of October (last year they had a huge snowstorm on Halloween--how weird!) to the end of March. Put it this way, when Josh and I moved here in June, the weather was still in the 60s--that's winter weather in Phoenix!]

Anyway, back to my jam. So I purchased a bunch of peaches not knowing how many I would need. And let me tell you, peaches can be a b***h to peel if you don't do it the right way. You can end up squishing and bruising your fruit, and it gets messy. Here is the right way, then I'll explain how I did it. First, score your peaches in an x on the bottom. You don't need to cut very deeply.

Then, toss them into a large pot of boiling water for about 40 seconds or slightly longer if the peaches aren't totally ripe yet, and fish them out with a slotted spoon or what have you.

At that point, immediately set them into a large bowl filled with ice water and allow them to sit for a bit. When you pull them out, the skin should peel right off!

 You might notice, however, that my large bowl of ice water seems rather devoid of ice. That would be because it was. I searched my freezer for some ice and only came across one tray with measly cubes in it. Josh and I usually just put our cold drinks in the fridge and don't use ice, so that was all I had. I figured I better make it count! I left them in the freezer as long as possible and filled my bowl with the coldest water I could find, but five piping hot peaches warm water very quickly, and it just wasn't enough. So imagine my frustration after all of this when I still had to sit there and peel all my peaches by hand! Fortunately what I did with the boiling and the ice water made it a little easier, and my fruit didn't bruise. It took forever, but at least now I know I just need to start buying ice.

Anyway, to make peach jam you need and do all the same things as to make other jams, so I won't post all that again, just the basics this time. So first, prepare your water bath, jars, and lids as before. Combine your fruit and your lemon juice in an 8 quart saucepan (maybe I did something wrong, but I only used a 2 qt. saucepan and it was fine), and gradually stir in your pectin. Bring your mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, stirring constantly. Add your sugar, and bring your jam back to a rolling boil, and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Then simply preserve your jam as you normally would :) Peach jam is delicious! You can jump to this post to learn more about how to seal your jars and preserve their contents. The only thing that you won't need to do is the "frozen bowl" test, since you are using pectin and that helps the jam set pretty much no matter what if you cook your jam correctly. Sometimes it can take a while to set, though; according to the pectin box, up to two weeks! My jam is just now finally starting to set and its been days. But even if it doesn't set, it still tastes just as good and can be used as syrup on pancakes if you really just can't stand runny jam.

Today I hope to take a quick visit to Michael's and Target with Josh. I want to see if they have any lip balm tubes so I can give my peppermint balm another go. I like that the containers I had hold more, and as much as I love using my lip balm, its more of a gloss because of how much carrier oil I put in it, and I want it to be a bit more balmy. Hopefully I can find something there to use :)