It’s officially that time of year where there’s a ton of fruit on sale and I buy 6 pounds with hopes to make a thousand cans of jam but in the end my body goes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and then I’m just the asshole with 6 pounds of fruit on his counter, all ripe and nowhere to go.
Last week I had a said yearly moment at Sprouts where peaches were 4 pounds for a dollar and I turned into some sort of thieving vulture where I swooped in and bagged as many as I could. It was like that cash wind box thing you got to go into in grade school if you sold enough magazines. I was never that kid because I knew at that age that instead of asking a bunch of my parents friends to subscribe to reader’s digest it would probably be easier to ask my parents to just throw 20 singles at me. I’m now sad I never tried for that.
It basically seemed just like those money hurricane box events except none of the peaches were going anywhere and I had a bag and none of the peaches went in my pants. I think maybe I was just high on the good deal, because you know, THE DRAMA.
I got my six pounds for a buck fifty with zero ideas for what I was going to do and told Steve that I couldn’t believe how good the deal was at least 10 times on the way home.
Once we made it home I had decided that I was going to make jam, this is the year, THIS IS MY YEAR. I tried two batches, and both failed semi-miserably. I anger threw them in the trash then tried a small batch with the last few peaches I had and here were are today putting alcohol in the jam.
One great thing I love about this recipe is that it comes together in about 15 minutes and only makes about a cup or so because we all know that a million jars of jam is kind of a pain in the ass. The other great thing is the addition of the rosé because rosé makes everything better. It’s not necessarily a smack of rosé, but more of a subtle flavor that sort of just balances everything. You put this stuff down with some ricotta and toast at a brunch and at least two of your friends are turning into dwayne the rock johnsons ready to fight. If rosé isn’t your thing because you’re a witch, don’t worry, I have you covered.
Now let’s pump up the jam.
Sunglasses guy emoji.
Peach Rosé Quick Jam
Makes about 1 cup
Adapted from this recipe
I really love to use a good acidic, not very sweet Rosé for this. If you’re a complete wine virgin extreme (LIKE ME) then I highly suggest you check out Whitney’s youtube channel (that’s the rosé video but all of them are great). Educate yourself, educate me. If anything just read the back of the bottle and see what it says ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If wine isn’t your thing, then skip the wine reduction and use the juice of half a lemon.
1/2 cup rosé (or juice of half a lemon*)
2 large (baseball size is good) ripe peaches
1/4 cup white granulated sugar (if your peaches are like crazy sweet juices everywhere omg then go ahed and use 3 tablespoons)
tiny pinch of salt
In a medium, like 2 qt size, saucepan bring the rosé to a low simmer and cook for 4-5 minutes, until the wine’s reduced by half. Just pour it into a small measuring cup and see if it’s a 1/4 cup. If not, cook for another 30 seconds and measure again.
*If you’re using the lemon juice then go ahead and ignore all wine talk. Add it to the pan with everything else and continue.
While it’s reducing, prepare the peaches. Take a sharp vegetable peeler and remove the skin, no need to cut x’s and boil and shock. This is quick jam, no time for that. After you peel, slice the peach in half, then remove the pit and cut in half again so both peaches are now in quarters. Add to a blender and blend just until smooth, It might take some sweet talking.
Now, all of this took me just about 5 minutes so I could sort of seamlessly move to cooking the jam. If the whole peeling is taking longer than the 5 minutes then just take the pan off the heat until you’re ready.
Once the peaches are pureed, measure out a cup and add it to the pan with the sugar and salt. Yes there’s probably about 1/2 cup of the puree left. Go ahead and put it in a glass with some lime juice and tequila. Just be cool.
Once everything’s in the pan, bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 8 minutes until it’s slightly thickened. Transfer the jam to a jar, cool to room temperature, and store it in the fridge for up to a week.
Now, this jam is pretty loose compared to a lot of the recipes for classic jam, but I almost prefer that. If that’s not your thing then I am sorry but this is not the jam you’re looking for. Also if you wanted to multiply this to maybe make a triple batch I don’t see why that wouldn’t work you would just want to make sure the pot you’re using is much larger so the surface area sort of matches up so it thickens in the same amount of time.
