Peach Pumpkin Butter

I know it sounds weird but go with me on this recipe.

When I told Nate what I was making it was originally going to be peach butter.  You guys know how I feel about apple butter and I love the taste of fresh peaches with spice.  Stands to reason that peach butter should be just as good, right?  Guess Nate didn’t agree…but keep in mind that this is past tense now…

Y’all want to know a secret?  I made dinner rolls specifically for this recipe.  It was a cold, dreary, wonderfully fall day on Saturday and while I have an inordinate fear of making bread in our too-small kitchen I opened up my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook and made their dinner rolls.  Wanna know another secret?  After the initial mixing and rising I made sure to let Nate know what a pain making rolls is.

 

You guys know how I am about making individual cookies and that process is significantly easier than bread.  But making individual dinner rolls and keeping them the same size and having to let them rise again when all you really want to do is shove a freshly baked yeasty roll in your mouth…well, it’s as close to suffering as I got on Saturday.  Regardless of the terrible suffering though I would highly recommend either making or buying fresh-baked dinner rolls to eat with this butter…but keep in mind that if you do that you might want to get ready for a bread baby that night.  Fresh bread and fruit butter is not easy to turn down!

So back to the original story – this was going to just be peach butter but I used too much water and I couldn’t bear to throw one drop of the peachy syrup down the drain.  I opened the fridge and saw some pumpkin in there and added it to the syrup and peach puree and hoped for the best.  Toss in some more cinnamon and ginger and cook to butter consistency and friends?  You’ve got an irresistible batch of peach pumpkin butter that will knock your holiday rolls or breakfast toast to a level ten times higher than they already are!

PEACH PUMPKIN BUTTER

• 2 large peaches
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup sugar (it seems like a lot but adding unsweetened pumpkin will need a little sugar), divided
• 3-4 pieces fresh or candied ginger (pieces being 1/2-inch in size; use fresh if you want it extra gingery and candied if you just want a faint hint of ginger in the background)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp dried ginger powder
• 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree

Wash and remove the pits from the peaches and chop into large cubes – about 1″ or so.  Put in a medium saucepan and add the 3 cups of water and 1/2 cup of sugar and the fresh or candied ginger.  Bring to a boil and boil for about 20 minutes until the peaches are very tender.  Set aside for a few minutes to cool.  Using a wire mesh strainer add some of the peaches, remove any ginger pieces in there, and push through the strainer into a clean bowl.  You want as much of the peach pulp as possible but want to discard the skins.  Repeat, being sure to keep the liquid from the pot, until all the peaches are used up.  Scrape the bottom of the strainer and add the peach pulp, pumpkin, extra 1/2 cup of sugar, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and dried ginger to the pot.  Stir to combine then bring to a boil on the stove over medium-high heat.  You’ll want to boil for about 10-15 minutes, stirring very constantly, until the mixture has reduced by about half and is very thick.  You want the mixture to thicken and turn a deep brown, but not burn.  As with other preserves if you put a little dollop of the mixture onto a cooled plate it should be thick enough to not run.  Let cool most of the way before serving it with your rolls (because we KNOW that you’re going to make fresh rolls…right?) – no one wants a soggy dinner roll!

The verdict?  I gave Nate a dinner roll with a little real butter and a big smear of the peach pumpkin butter and he ate it up and exclaimed that it was, indeed, delicious and that he was, indeed, very wrong about judging it so harshly.  I love that man 🙂

 

P.S. I’d LOVE it if you clicked over to the Shape Magazine Best Blogger Awards and voted for Faces of Beauty!  I’m so excited to be nominated and would love the chance to share the message of Faces of Beauty with even more of the world!