Peaches Part 2, Using Your Peach Products

Peach ready to be picked

Once you have made the delightful peach products, you might think that you are finished. But you are wrong. There are many things that you can make using the jams, jellies, preserves and syrups you made. I am not going to be able to list all the different ways to use your products. I will give you a few and hopefully your imagination will take hold and you will think of more ways. But if you only use the ones I give you, that is OK.

Lets get started with things to make:

PEACH ICE CREAM
This is a short recipe because there are many ways to make home-made ice cream. Some use 2% milk, others use skim, some use half/half. So I will let you decide whatever base recipe you want to use for your ice cream. After you have your ingredients mixed and just about ready for your freezer or ice cream maker; add 1 jar of peach jam or peach preserves to your ice cream mix. Some people make a custard, like my grandmother did, but if you do add the peaches to the custard while it is cooking. This will make the peach flavor all thru the mix. Mix completely and then add to your container for freezing.

Old Fashioned Hand Crank Ice Cream Maker

I love the old-fashioned way of making ice cream. You have the large container that holds the ice around the container of liquid that will become ice cream. Inside this container is a large paddle that goes around in a circle keeping every thing mixed. You turn the crank on the top to move the paddle. Now they have electric motors that do the job. All you have to do is keep the ice full and add ice cream salt to the ice. I never could figure out how adding salt would make the milk freeze. During the churning process someone had to sit on top of the whole thing to keep everything inside the bucket of ice. We sat on a burlap bag with some newspapers inside. We took turns turning the handle and sitting on the bag. I am not sure we needed to set on the freezer while someone cranked it, or if it was just a way to keep us from saying "Is it done yet?" The ones that turned first had the easiest job; the milk mixture had not started to freeze, so it turned easy. As the milk mixture became colder and froze, turning got harder. When you could hardly turn the handle one of our fathers checked to see if it was done. I will never forget that the last two that sat and turned the handle got to lick off the paddle. It was covered in ice cream. I do remember that it was always hot outside and the paddle dripped a lot. We always wound up with ice cream down the front of our shirts and sometimes down our legs to to our feet. My grandmother would not let us inside till we had been cleaned up. Once inside we had big bowls of awesome peach ice cream. Memories like that are hard to beat. Makes growing up worth while. I feel sad for people who didn't get a chance to experience some of the old family things like I did. My family got together this past weekend and my cousin made peach ice cream and vanilla cheeses cake ice cream using a pudding mix for the cheese cake flavor. It was great, but I still miss turning the crank (his was all electric).

PEACH PRESERVES CAKE
1 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
4 eggs
3 cups non self-rising flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup sour milk (made by adding 1 tsp vinegar to regular milk)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup peach preserves (a jar is 8 ounces if you use the small jars)

Looks too good to cut.

Cream butter and sugar; beat in eggs. Sift flour with cinnamon and cloves. Dissolve soda in milk; add spice flour mixture to the cream mixture. Stir in pecans and peach preserves. Pour final mixture into greased sheet cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour (time may vary for your oven). Remove from oven and set on a cooling rack. Sift powdered sugar over cake after it cools. Photo shows a PPCake with wiped cream icing and sliced peaches with wiped cream topping. Wipped cream is real made from real cream not canned of plastic tube. If you take this much trouble to bake a cake at least top it with real topping.

PEACH FRITTERS
These are the things that your doctor will tell you that they are bad for you. They are deep-fried dough sort of like a doughnut. Bad or not, they are great with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk.
1 1/3 cup sifted non self-rising flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 jar peach jam or preserves (8 ounces)
2 tablespoons sugar

Don't count cholesterol or anything else but taste!

Sift flour, salt and baking powder and sugar together. Beat egg and milk then add to flour mixture. Add peaches. Stir till completely mixed.Using a small scoop drop batter into hot peanut oil. Keep turning to make sure it is done on all sides. Remove from oil and put on paper towels to drain. When drained and still warm dust on confectioners sugar. They are ready to eat.

 

PBJ COOKIES

Jelly in the middle makes a difference

Everybody likes cookies and these will be a big hit on the desert menu. I don't even have a big recipe for you to follow. I guess I am too lazy to make peanut butter cookies from scratch, so I use the cookies in the frozen foods department for my cookies. After I have cut the tube and placed my cookie dough on the sheet for cooking, I take a spoon and spray it with No-Stick spray. Then I use the spoon and make an small indentation in the middle of the cookies. Place the sheet in the oven, set your timer. I want you to set the time for 4 or 5 minutes less than what it says to cook. When the timer goes off, take your spoon and spray it again. Make the indentation in the cookies again, this time you are going to take another spoon and put jelly in the pocket. Don't over fill, you want just a small pocket of jelly. Return to the oven for the time left on the recipe. The jelly will melt into the cookie. When your timer rings remove the cookies from the sheet and let cool on a rack. You now have Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies.

PEACH BAR-B-QUE SAUCE

This is another easy one. All you have to do is add 2 or 3 tablespoons peach jam or chopped preserves to your favorite sauce. Simmer on the stove, then use the sauce as you would before the peaches. This is great on pork. I am not sure about beef, I never tried it. Fresh pork roast cooked with this BBQ sauce is fantastic. You can cook this in the oven or on the grill. If you are cooking on the grill, be sure the sauce does not burn. It has sugar from the peaches and will burn easier. BBQ Pork served with fresh corn on the cob and any other side you choose makes a great meal. Because you are using Georgia peaches, you should serve Georgia Table Wine. In case you don't know what I am talking about, Georgia Table Wine is nothing but sweet ice tea. Ice tea is the non-alcoholic beverage of choice in my home state. I have noticed on TV that even people in other parts of the country are drinking iced tea. I see bottles of tea on the shelves when I stop at QT for something to drink and/or gas. Even McDonald's is catching up with us Sotherners. They now have Sweet Tea, wonder where they got the idea

PEACH TEAS

Add 1 - 2 tablespoons peach syrup to your unsweetened iced tea, then add your ice. You now have peach iced tea. Use as much as you need to make your tea sweet and great tasting.




HOT TEAS ARE GREAT WITH PEACH SYRUP

It is also good for hot tea. In the winter Mary Lynn and I like to have a cup or two of hot tea while relaxing in the evening. We have several types of tea infusers and many different types of teas to brew. Mary Lynn is partial to the Russian Tea, dark flavor and color. I prefer Earl Grey. Another favorite is Black Currant Tea, because of its fruity flavor without the sweeter. You can use a large tea ball infuser to make you iced tea in place of tea bags. You should try tea that does not come in a tea.Live it up, buy a tea ball or infuser and try something different for a change. Once you make tea without a bag, you will be hooked. I like to use our tea and infuser when we travel. We just ask for a pot of hot water and make our tea. It is nice not have something the restaurant has had sitting in the back for a couple of years.

A little secret I saw in a book; they said keep your tea and tea bags in a sealed air tight container. That way the tea does not absorb any strange taste or aromas from your counter or cabinet.

Well I told you that I was only going to give you a few recipes. I am sure that you will come up with plenty more ways to eat and use your s serving sweet tea. It has only taken 50 or 60 years for the rest of the country to catch up with us Southerners with our love for iced tea.

preach products.

My next blog will have more recipes for mixing peaches and other fruit to make jams and jellies.

Maybe in the future I will do more ideas for peaches. Please let me know some of your ideas for using peaches. If I use the recipe or idea I will give you credit for your suggestion. Sorry to say this is a free blog, you just get credit.

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