When I needed a cheap gift for family and friends one Christmas season due to a lack of cash, I came up with this recipe. As a result of numerous requests, I now produce several batches year. It has also become very popular in bake sales. Be not alarmed by the presence of habanero peppers in the recipe. The very mild heat only enhances the flavor of the jam. It also works well spread over a block of cream cheese and served with crackers as a quick party snack. You won’t be sorry if you try it in place of sugar in your baked bean dish.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 7 days |
| Total Time: | 7 days 50 mins |
| Servings: | 80 |
| Yield: | 80 servings |
Ingredients
- 3 ½ pounds fresh peaches – peeled, pitted, and chopped
- 6 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise and seeds scraped out
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 habanero peppers, stemmed and seeded
- 2 (3 ounce) pouches liquid pectin
- 5 cups white sugar
- 2 cups packed brown sugar
Instructions
- Put peaches in a Dutch oven or soup pot; stir in lemon juice, vanilla bean, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cardamom.
- Place habanero peppers in a blender; top peppers with peach mixture. Blend until mostly smooth; transfer mixture back to the Dutch oven. Stir pectin into peach-habanero pepper mixture; bring to a full rolling boil. Quickly stir white sugar and brown sugar into mixture; return to a boil, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes.
- Sterilize the jars and lids in boiling water for at least 5 minutes. Pack jam into the hot, sterilized jars, filling the jars to within 1/4 inch of the top. Run a knife or a thin spatula around the insides of the jars after they have been filled to remove any air bubbles. Wipe the rims of the jars with a moist paper towel to remove any food residue. Top with lids, and screw on rings.
- Place a rack in the bottom of a large stockpot and fill halfway with water. Bring to a boil and lower jars into the boiling water using a holder. Leave a 2-inch space between the jars. Pour in more boiling water if necessary to bring the water level to at least 1 inch above the tops of the jars. Bring the water to a rolling boil, cover the pot, and process for 15 minutes.
- Remove the jars from the stockpot and place onto a cloth-covered or wood surface, several inches apart, until cool. Once cool, press the top of each lid with a finger, ensuring that the seal is tight (lid does not move up or down at all). Store in a cool, dark area, and wait 1 to 2 weeks before opening for best results.
Reviews
Does not set…ingredient ratio is way off…ended up with a syrup..very disappointed…and added the liquid pectin AFTER the fruit mixture came to a boil…which by the way is what the liquid pectin instructions tell you for processed jams
After reading reviews, I have some advice for those that the jam wouldn’t set. Bring mixture to full boil before adding liquid pectin. Also, don’t use sugar substitute or it won’t set. I also tripled the habanero peppers (6) to add more heat. Good recipe!
Came out delish!!! It’s not as solidified as I may like but the end result is fantastic none the less. Worth making for friends and family.
Made it. Now let’s hope for the best.
fantastic flavor… came out more like a butter. I wonder if I used 3 lbs of peaches, then diced; instead of 3 lbs diced if that would have made the difference
I made this recipe this afternoon. Followed the ingredients exactly. I have 7 jars of a thin sauce, I guess you’d call it. Since others have had this problem, it seems like the recipe may need some tweaking. If anyone has a suggestion for what I can use this for now, I would love to hear. The taste may be ok, but what to do with all of these jars.
The first batch I made was good but I couldn’t taste the heat at all and it did not thicken up. The next batch I doubled the habaneros to 4 and included the seeds and all using 4 cups of chopped peaches (per the recipe in the pectin for peach jam). It was perfect and a big hit at work. The perfect marriage of heat and sweet.
Delicious! As another reviewer mentioned, mine also did not set up and is more of a ‘syrup’. I’ll still use it because the flavor is wonderful, but I’m suspecting that it is the cooking method (adding the pectin before the sugar), that is the reason why this did not set up properly. I was tempted to do it the way that it says on the pectin package, but I wanted to stay true to the recipe. I’m still giving this 4 stars, b/c, like I said, it is delicious and had a really nice, flavor with a nice, spicy kick, which we enjoyed. If I try this again, I will follow the cooking method on the pectin package. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Well, I should have paid attention to the “spiced” part. I made this in August when the peaches were ripe and while my husband liked it, it was just too Christmassy tasting to me. Couldn’t really taste the peaches at all (and they were fantastic as I peeled and nibbled). Also, the directions say to boil the pectin, add sugar, then boil again. This is the opposite of what the pectin packets say (boil sugar first then add pectin, then boil again), and processing for 15 minutes was too long even at 5,000 feet, so the result is 11 jars of peach habanero sauce. We will use it, but it isn’t jellified. Oh, and one final note … I had never handled habanero peppers before. I didn’t wear gloves to de-seed them and about an hour later I scratched my eye with my fingernail. It took an hour of flushing my eyes with saline and milk before the pain went away. Totally my fault, just be careful. Holy cow that was a painful lesson to learn. I will try the recipe again but next time without as much allspice and I will follow the directions on the pectin packs so that these set and will update. Probably next year. Good luck!
Delicious! I used 4 Cherry Bomb hot peppers from my garden, and 1 less cup of white sugar. I pureed half the peaches with the peppers in the food processor, mashed the rest, then blended it all together. My peaches ran about 3 to the pound, for those who don’t have a food scale handy. I love cardamom, so always have it around. That flavor crept through, just like I had hoped it would. This is a great recipe, and I was happy to supply a photo. Thanks, Kiki!
Made this as written except: didn’t use the vanilla bean or the cardamom (I was too cheap to buy them for one recipe.) It turned out great anyway (probably a little less depth of flavor tho). Just the right amount of kick after the sweet! It will, indeed, be fabulous in baked beans at the next tailgate party!
Really good but i wish, instead of saying “3 1/2 lbs peaches”, it had said how many cups of fruit. I had to guess how much sugar and pectin to use. And i didn’t have a vanilla bean or the cardamon do I just left that out. But i do like the mix of white and brown sugar.
I served this over cream cheese for my family and at work and everyone raved
I made two batches of this today. It obviously has not had time to sit for a week like the recipe says, but I had a little leftover from one batch. I put it in the fridge and tried it a couple hours later. The consistency and flavor are awesome!!