Peach Syrup

Peach syrup might not be the first thing that springs to mind when peach season hits, but this peach syrup recipe could change your mind about that. It’s not a peach simple syrup, a clear liquid infused with peach flavor. This is thicker, more like a fruit nectar, with a beautiful golden color and a bold peach flavor. It may not replace peach cobbler or peach pie as your favorite recipe to make with fresh peaches, but it’s a versatile way to bring that peak peach flavor to beverages and desserts. It’s also a great way to get the best from any damaged or substandard fruit.

Peach Syrup Ingredients

• Peaches: Ripe fresh peaches provide this syrup with its flavor and beautiful golden color.
• Sugar: Sugar sweetens and thickens the syrup.
• Lemon juice: Lemon juice adds a tartness to balance the peaches’ sweetness and keeps them from browning after they’re sliced.

Directions

Step 1: Cook the peaches

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In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the peeled and chopped peaches, sugar and lemon juice. Mix them well. Cook the peach mixture over medium-low heat for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the peaches are soft.

Step 2: Puree the peach mixture

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Using an immersion blender, carefully puree the peach mixture until it’s smooth. Continue to simmer the peach syrup until it reaches your desired degree of thickness, another three to five minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the syrup cool. Transfer the syrup to an airtight container, and refrigerate it until it’s needed.

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Peach Syrup Variations

• Change the fruit: This peach syrup is delicious, but the basic recipe can easily be adapted to other stone fruits as well. Swap the peaches 1 to 1 for nectarines, apricots, plums, pluots or cherries for an equally tasty and colorful alternative. The same technique also works for berries, though you may want to strain out the seeds of raspberries and blackberries or the skins of blueberries and huckleberries.
• Add complementary flavors: The syrup is at its most versatile when it’s kept simple, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stretch your wings a little. If you save and dry the scraped pods when you use a vanilla bean, you can add that to the pot and remove it before pureeing the peaches. Using a spoonful of vanilla sugar along with the regular sugar has a similar effect. You can also experiment with warm spices like cinnamon, cloves or allspice, or others like cardamom or fresh ginger that are equally at home in sweet or savory dishes. You can, of course, also treat other fruits or berries as a flavorful add-in.

How to Store Peach Syrup

Your peach syrup should be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator (it will ferment and spoil at room temperature). Any food-safe storage container with a tight-fitting lid is fine, or you can use Mason jars if you prefer.

How long will my peach syrup keep?

Sugar is widely used as a preservative for fruit, but this recipe doesn’t use nearly enough to prolong the syrup’s storage life. Keep it in the refrigerator, and plan to use up the syrup within three to five days of making it.

Can I freeze my peach syrup?

Absolutely! Pack the syrup into small freezer-safe containers, with parchment paper or some other barrier pressed right to its surface to keep air away. Containers can be any size that makes sense for you. That could mean 1 cup at a time, or a portion that’s specifically measured for a recipe you like. In the short term, you can even freeze it in ice cube trays so you can thaw small (cocktail-size) amounts of syrup as needed. The syrup will be good in your freezer for three to six months, depending on how well it’s packaged, though its quality will be best within the first three months.

Peach Syrup Tips

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What can I use this syrup for?

You have lots of options. You can add the syrup to smoothies as a sweetening and flavoring ingredient, or use it as a base for punches, cocktails and mixed drinks. Spoon it over your favorite quick cake as a sauce, or use it as an ice cream topping. Spoon it over pancakes and waffles, in place of regular table syrup. Use it along with peach-flavored gelatin and a few chopped peaches to make a peach chiffon pie (copy the method from another chiffon pie recipe, if necessary). It’s also a fine addition to your overnight oats, plain yogurt or a parfait with layers of yogurt, peach syrup and either muesli or granola.

Can I use a different sweetener?

That’s a “yes, but.” You can easily substitute alternative sweeteners like corn syrup or honey, which are still sugars and will thicken the syrup. Honey is sweeter than sugar, so use only three-quarters as much. Some natural sweeteners, like date sugar, don’t dissolve and aren’t suitable for this recipe. Others, like coconut sugar, will darken the syrup and spoil its appealing color. Powdered sweeteners like sucralose, allulose and stevia will sweeten the peaches but not thicken the syrup. You can still use them, but you’d need to thicken the syrup with a small quantity of something else, like cornstarch.

Can I can this syrup?

Yes you can, but don’t follow the instructions for canning syrups. They use enough sugar to act as a preservative, while this recipe doesn’t. For canning purposes, this counts instead as a fruit puree.