Peach and Honey Jelly

It all started with a big jar of honey from Shane's Opa Siegfried.  It's not actually his Opa, but his Opa's brother, but that point is irrelevant.  While we were in Germany visiting family we were given a huge pot of it to bring home.  We lugged that jar of homemade Austrian honey for 4 weeks in our backpacks before we finally cracked it open at home.  It's a very dark honey, that tastes a lot like the woods to me.  Being that it's such a big jar and that I already opened it, I had to find a way to use it where I could still really appreciate it's flavour.  Peach jelly seemed like a logical and appropriate place.

I scoured the internet for recipes to no avail, but since I'm so stubborn I decided to make up my own.  The results were perfect. It tastes like peach, it tastes like honey and the two compliment each other beautifully.

Peach and Honey Jelly


Makes 4 - 1 cup jars


Ingredients:
3 lbs peaches
3/4 cup water
juice of one lemon
1 cup of honey
600 g white sugar
tiny pat of butter
1 pkg liquid certo pectin

Process:
Chop the peaches up into medium sized chunks. Place the peaches with skins and pits in a pot with water and boil for about 15 minutes, until the peaches are very soft.  Crush some of the fruit in the pot with a wooden spoon.  Line a strainer with two layers of cheesecloth and pour fruit and juice on top.  Leave the peaches to drain for at least a few hours, until the liquid has extracted.  Measure out the liquid, you need two cups. (Add water up to 1/4 cup to supplement.)

Stir the juice of one lemon, honey, sugar, little bit of butter and the fruit juice into a sauce pot large enough to accommodate the boiling liquid.  The butter is supposed to keep the foam at bay.  Bring to a full boil and continue to boil stirring frequently until the mixture reaches 220F.  Here I used the freezer test, placing a small plate in the freezer and once chilled dabbing some jelly and returning it to the freezer.  If the mixture jells it is done.  Mine wasn't jelling enough for me, so I added a package of liquid pectin and now it is perfect.

Pour the jelly quickly into sterilized jars, preserves with honey set up quite quickly, so you don't want to wait.   Process in a water-bath for 5 minutes.  Voila!