Nectarine and Peach with Peach Leaf Jam Recipe

We've been making jam with succulent peaches and nectarines for years, but this year is the first time that we've married said fruit with its own leaves! The following is our brand spanking new recipe for peach and nectarine jam made with an infusion of peach leaves.

To start off this recipe you’ll need to know that jam making is a world of percentages in relation to the weight of the fruit you’re working with. The amount of sugar and acid (lemon juice) you need entirely depends on the weight of the processed fruit you’re working with. The good news? That means you can scale this recipe at will. So, here’s a quick rundown:

FRUIT 1 FINAL WEIGHT (peach) +
FRUIT 2 FINAL WEIGHT (nectarine) =
TOTAL FRUIT WEIGHT (peach & nectarine)

TOTAL FRUIT WEIGHT x .52% =
SUGAR WEIGHT

TOTAL FRUIT WEIGHT x .05% =
LEMON JUICE WEIGHT

So, what is fruit weight?
Fruit 1 Final weight = Peaches after cooking off and mashing by hand
Fruit 2 Final weight = Nectarines after being sliced

Step by step:

Prepare your plate test by putting a few saucers in the freezer. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl w/ ice and water, set aside.

Toast a handful of peach leaves until they start browning and feel crispy.  This will take around 2 minutes.  Your house will smell like almonds. Score an X at the base of the peaches.  Be careful not to cut too deeply into the flesh. Boil the peaches for at least 1 min and use a skimmer to transfer the peaches into the ice bath, letting cool for 1 min.  If you use overly firm peaches they will not be easy to peal and ultimately will not work well in the final product. Remove the skins, using your fingers to peal the skin back.  Discard.  Cut or break the peaches in half.  Remove the pits and make sure no part of it has found its way into the fruit. 

Place peach pieces into a bowl and with clean hands, mash the fruit.  Weigh the final fruit and set aside.  Our fruit weight here is 756g (4 peaches). Slice nectarines thinly.  Weigh and set aside.  Our fruit weight here is 193g (2 nectarines).  Add the sliced netarines to the bowl of peaches. Weigh out sugar and lemon juice based on the total weight of the fruit.  Add to the bowl of peaches and nectarines and mix well.

Now, wrap up the toasted peach leaves in cheese cloth. Transfer the fruit, sugar and lemon juice mixture into a dutch oven and drop in the cheese cloth of leaves. On Medium-high heat bring the mixture to a boil stirring every so often with the spatula hitting the bottom of the pot.  This cooking will take around 16-20 minutes.

Around this time you can turn off the stove and do a couple of things.  Use the back of your spatula to smash any bigger pieces that you may wish to break down.  Use a fine-mesh skimmer to skim any scum that rises to the top, dipping the skimmer into a bowl of water and shaking off the excess between skims to clean.  Let the jam cool in the pot off heat for at least 1.5 hours. 

Once the jam is cool, you will take saran wrap and place inside the pot right on top of the jam.  Set in the fridge to cool over night.

The next day, remove the wrap and the cheese cloth, wringing out the cheese cloth so all the pectin and jam liquid returns to the mix.  Place back on the stove at medium-high heat and cook for another 10-15 minutes until the temperature reaches 211 degrees F.  When the jam is a few degrees from this temperature, remove from the heat and perform a plate test.

How to perform a Plate Test:

Spoon a little of the jam onto a frozen saucer.  Put the saucer & jam into the freezer for 1 minute.  The jam is done when the spoon full of jam first A) sits up like a bump on the plate and B) when you slide a finger through the jam and it parts leaving a strip of clean plate that does not come back together. If it isn’t set, heat the jam for a minute or two, stirring constantly, and repeat the test. Voila! The only foolproof solution to the ephemerality of Suncrests :)