These golden belle peaches are preserved in a light syrup. Fruit preserved in a light syrup won’t have as long a shelf life as higher sugar preserves.
Ingredients
| 2 cups | Granulated white sugar |
| 8 cups | Water |
| 1 | Vanilla bean, cut in half |
| ½ | Cinnamon sticks |
| 1 | Lemon, pared rind and juice |
| 5 cm | Fresh ginger, peeled |
| 2 ½ kgs | Peaches, golden belle or golden queen (Main) |
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Directions
- Place the sugar and water in a large pan and place over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat, add the vanilla, cinnamon, the pared rind of the lemon and the ginger and bring to the boil. Boil until you have a clear syrup.
- Peel and slice the peaches (cutting around the stone) straight into a large bowl with the juice of the pared lemon. Toss together well to coat peach slices in lemon juice. (This prevents discolouration. If you are preserving large quantities of peaches keep slices in acidulated water.)
- Add sliced peaches to the syrup and simmer until barely tender. Try not to overcook.
- Bottle peaches using the overflow method. See below.
Kathy recommends
- To make the flavourings easy to remove you could wrap them in sterilised muslin.
- Place a piece of vanilla bean in the jar with peaches or wash and leave to dry on kitchen paper and re-use.
