One Recipe at a time...: Peach Syrup

Dad made the drive to Brigham City and bought fresh peaches! YUM! But what to do with those peaches going bad in the fridge? The girls suggested we make monster pancakes for breakfast with peaches. I though, why not do peach syrup? So a quick internet search and I found a recipe that looked good and made some changes and here it is:

5 large peach -peeled and pureed in a blender - mine made about 4 1/2 cups
ADD:
1 to 1 and 1/2 cup sugar
1 to 1 and 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

I originally just added 1 cup sugar, but the I did more lemon juice- it makes it a little lemony. Next time I will use less lemon juice.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add:

1 Tbsp vanilla - if you don't like vanilla so much, skip it or use less. We like it. It makes your syrup much darker if you used a lot and its regular vanilla - use the clear kind if you don't want it so dark. I didn't worry about the color, so mine is a little dark.

It makes about 5 cups of syrup. More than I needed for breakfast I realized half way through cooking it. So I did a made scramble for canning supplies to bottle half of it- here's how it you want to try it. SUPER EASY!

While the syrup cooks, put clean 1/2 pint bottles top down in a pan with an inch of water. If your pan is big enough, throw the lids in there too. Or use a separate pan. Bring the water to a boil and then turn it down. You are just heating up the bottles so they don't crack (maybe it cleans them some) and softening the rubber seals on the lids so they stick.

Fill the jars with hot syrup-do this right after you turn it off. If you wait for it to cool they won't seal. Use some oven mitts to pick up the hot jars or a kitchen towel. Leave some space at the top of the jar - about the same width as the threads at the top of the jar.

Use a damp towel (I used a paper towel) to clean off the top of the jar. You know you spilled on it, and you need it clean so the lid sticks, But the lid on it. (Use a fork or something to fish it out of the hot water. - I have a canning tool for this, but didn't take time to find it). Put the ring on and tighten it. Use a kitchen towel. Set the jars on the counter and as they cool, they will seal - you can hear the click. FYI - Same recipe for Strawberry jam, Only boil longer to thicken it. - After they have all cooled, check that the lids have all sealed down and store them. Mine were all sealed within 30 minutes, but still warm to the touch.