Homemade Peach jelly and Jam

I have been fascinated in making my own jelly and jams since the store bought ones contain so much sugar and additives. I am at my aunt's house in Los Angeles and the house has a peach, ,fig, lemon, lime and orange tree. Some of the peaches were ready to pick. Since I got a lot of peaches, I first made peach pie then was wondering what else I could do and thought of jelly and jam,. So I decided to try my hand at making peach jelly and jam from scratch. I looked online to find recipes that did not use pectin to gel the mixture (since I feel pectin adds chemicals). Lots of websites to read. I also found how you can make natural pectin from apples, lemon juice, and water. Apples are high in pectin so that is why you use them in place of pectin you buy at stores. So, I decide to do a recipe I read on Livestrong.com with a few tweaks, less sugar and a bit more lemon juice. (recipe below).

After cooking the peach mixture for about 20-30 minutes, I strain some of the peach pulp to make jelly and saved the rest to make the jam. Then I reheated the jam and jelly until I got a thick consistency. Since I only had one apple I made about 4 tablespoons of Natural apple pectin. From the amount of jelly and Jam I made this was definitely not enough but it helped a bit to get the jam and jelly more gel like conistency. After cooking the mixtures for about another 20 minutes, It was not as thick as store bought jelly or jam but enough to spread and not be to watery. I let it cool then place in glass containers. Put into the fridge. Now I have peach jam and jelly for breakfast with my toast. Very yummy!! Next time I will try to make more natural pectin. This is a simple process to do just a bit time consuming but worth all the effort. A great way to make a gift for people during the holidays.

Peach jelly and jam Recipe
3-4 lbs. fresh peaches (ratio of 3 to 1 for ripe to unripe peaches)
5 lbs sugar (more if you like sweeter)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup of water
Nautral apple pectin Recipe below)

Directions:

1. wash and peel peaches and chop into small pieces. Put into a large heavy saucepan. Add lemon juice and water.

This is after it has cooked for at least 20-30 min.

2. Cover and boil over medium heat. Add the sugar. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.

This is for peach jelly (without pieces of peaches)

This is peach jam (pieces of peaches)

3. Strain half of the peach mixture into a glass bowl to make the jelly and save the other half to make peach jam.

4. Return the peach juices to the pans and let boil for another 10-15 minutes until it is slightly thickened.

5. Make the natural apple pectin (recipe below). Add to the jelly and jam saucepans.

6. cook until mixture thickens. Turn off burners and let the jam and jelly cool.

The final peach jam

The final peach jelly

7. After the jam and jelly are cooled, place in glass bowls and put in fridge.

Natural Apple Pectin
Ingredients
2 lbs. of tart apples (more unripe than ripe)
2 tablespoons lemon Juice
3 cups water

Directions

1. Chop apples and leave core. Place all apples and core in a saucepan. Add lemon juice and water. Bring to a boil on high heat.

2. reduce heat to medium and let simmer for 20-25 minutes.

3. Pour the apple pulp and juice into a sieve. Squeeze out all the juice from the apple pulp.

4. Pour juice back into saucepan and boil until reduced by half. To check to make sure it gels, take a cold spoon and put some juice, if it gels when pushed with finger it is done, if not cook longer until it gels.

5. Use within 4 days or store in freezer up to 6 months.