Peach Juice Recipe

I posted a picture of a cocktail I made early last week, along with a picture of the fresh peach juice I used. I'll post information for the cocktail later ("A Peach of a Whiskey") but here is how to make you're own fresh peach juice. I used some of the juice for the peach rosé sangria we served at a wedding shower we hosted earlier this week. Another post is coming with the recipes from that party, including the sangria recipe.

Fresh Peach Juice

I started with a little over four pounds of fresh local peaches. These were smaller peaches because it's early in the season and they are of a smaller variety. Fifteen peaches weighed a little more than four pounds.

Next,  rinse the peaches and cut into pieces no more than a half an inch by a half an inch. These do not have to be uniform pieces. You're going to cook them down an mash them. Leave the skins on! It lends a beautiful color and more flavor to the juice.

Put the peach pieces in a large pot and add 3/4 cup apple juice. Cover the pot and cook on high until the liquid boils, then turn down to low heat. You don't want the peaches to burn or for the liquid to boil over. The peaches will grow softer and release their juice as they cook. Allow to simmer and bubble until the peaches have broken down and are very soft, about 25-30 minutes.

Turn off the heat. Now the work begins! Start by mashing the peaches with a potato masher. Break up the soft peaches until all of the pieces lose their shape. This wont take long. Usually I'll slide the masher towards the back of the pot as I'm pressing down. This helps to further mash the peaches, as opposed to only mashing up and down.

Place a colander inside of a metal bowl. Start with a colander rather than a fine mesh strainer. Slowly push down with the ladle and move in a circular motion. This moves the pulp around the colander while allowing the juice to drain into the bowl. The goal is to mill the pulp around to separate it from the juice. It will take several minutes for each batch. If you have a food mill, great! Use it. I don't have one and find this technique works just as well. You don't want to push down hard on the pulp, otherwise you'll push it through the colander holes and either clog them or push too much pulp into the bowl with the juice. I had to do this in three batches for the amount of peach pulp I had.

Repeat this process again with a fine mesh strainer over another metal bowl. You'll be surprised how much pulp you'll remove in this second round. Once again, gently move the bottom of the ladle over the pulp to encourage the juice to fall into the bowl.

If you are more industrious than I, you can use the pulp for other recipes. I believe, at the least, you could add some sugar to it and dehydrate in a food dehydrator to make fruit leather. I would imagine you could use it in cakes and cookies as a fat substitute, the same as you might use apple sauce, though I would add more sugar to the recipe.

Here's the finished product! Add some sugar to cut the tartness, according to your taste. I added 1/3 cup of sugar. This batch yielded just under a quart.

The color and tartness will depend on the type of peach and how ripe they might be. I used a redder peach this time and they produced this beautiful rose colored juice.

A word about these bottles. They hold a liter and we keep them in the house. We use them at Christmas to age our homemade eggnog (we make it around Thanksgiving and keep it in the fridge for a month) and for liquid from broken bottles or for fresh juice. They are great to keep around! You can order them online or you can buy them at certain stores. If you love TJ Maxx/HomeGoods like I do, you can usually find them in the kitchen and/or gourmet foods section.

These peaches came from South Carolina. I bought them at a favorite farm stand less than 1/2 mile from our house, Osage Farms. Some other favorite spots in Georgia for fresh peaches are Jaemor Farms in Hall County and Lane Peach Co. in Fort Valley.

Enjoy your fresh juice!