Pretty sure I put in a whole 10,000 hours of peach putting up this weekend. I started vinegar with the bruised fruit, used a bunch that was a tad still hard in rum. There’s smoked peaches, a bit of whole lemon and orange and some sugar in one crockpot, cooking down to a luscious “peach honey,” and in the other, a bourbon-peach jam. All the while, a full set of trays are drying, as they will continue for about two days or so.
I made spiced peaches, though I wished I had spiced them more.
And I made brandied peaches, only with Madeira, because it seemed interesting in an 18th Century recipe meets 18th Century booze kinda way. And then when I had more peaches and no more Madeira, I sub’ed in Chamboard. I guess that means that along with Madeira’ed peachs, I also made Chamboardied peaches.
Then, I got a little more serious peach-blueberry-vanilla jam with some fancy pants and insanely aromatic Tonga Island vanilla that lovely Rod of Rare Tea Cellar gave me from this year’s harvest. I promised him some vanilla ice cream with it, but I can’t seem to collect enough eggs this year, so I thought the jam might be a bait ‘n switch he’ll rock.
If not, well, Grant and I are getting more chickens. I can only hope for enough eggs in one moment to make ice cream. In the meantime, I am shoving the vanilla in some expensive vodka just in case.
And yet — I still had more peaches. A half bushel, to be precise. And I had also eaten about 4,000, to be imprecise.
At which point I started trolling for ideas. When you have fruit, are looking to can it, and need ideas, the first stop is always Christine Ferber’s Mes Confitures. In it, I found a lovely White Peach with Lemon Verbena. Since I have an overgrown herb garden, that seemed like an awesome Christmas gift jam. A paltry four jars.
Then, on what must be the loveliest food blog out there, found a Peach Jam with Caramelize Onion and Bacon, which sounds good because I tend to have a surplus of bacon hanging about. Six jars.
And still, more peaches.
At which point I had one of those serendipity moments because I found a recipe for peach-chocolate fondue in a jar, using chocolate liquor. And, lo, I just so happen to have nearly a half gallon of homemade chocolate liquor.
Which I realize is a bit off. But makes sense if you you know the background.
See, a few months back, I had a craving for brandy Alexanders, which require chocolate liquor, which is, I discovered, just cocoa powder, vodka, and time.
I had cocoa powder, a lot, actually, since it is sold in a pound tin and mostly a recipe only needs a teaspoon or something. I had vodka, since I seem to need to feel I can make lemoncello at the drop of a hat. And I always have time to wait for stuff, since there is always other stuff I have started and been waiting on.
And so I dumped it all together and tucked the brown vodka at the back of the liquor.
Until today. Today, I tasted it. It rocked.
And so I made peach-chocolate fondue with homemade chocolate liquor. It had the benefit of using up a good portion of the liquor while concocting a delicious treat for the sure to be awful winter.
It will be awesome with vanilla ice cream, if I can ever get enough eggs at one moment to make some.
