How to Remove Peach Peel

The end of summer is here, it is finally peach season! Maybe you have your own peach tree and you have been patiently waiting for those beautiful peaches to ripen. Or maybe you stopped at a fruit stand or farmer’s marked and bought some. However you found your peaches it is now time to eat them. I love peaches, but I hate eating the skin. I know some people aren’t bothered by it, but I just can’t enjoy a peach with the skins on. They are just too fuzzy! So how do you remove the peel of a peach? Here are my two main methods (if there are others I am not aware of them.):

• Peeling/Cutting
• Blanching

Peeling/Cutting

This method is pretty self explanatory, you grab a knife or a potato peeler and you cut the skin off. If your peach is very hard still, a potato peeler is a great option. You can often get the majority of skin off in one continuous ribbon. This method is best suited for peaches that are still very firm

If your peach is very ripe and soft (the best way to eat them in my opinion) then a potato peeler won’t work well. The skin will fold instead of cut. In this situation a small paring knife will be much more effective. You can just cut the skin away. In fact if the peach is ripe enough, you can just cut into the skin a bit and peel it off with the edge of your knife. It will sometimes peel off in large sections which is really helpful.

Blanching

Blanching is far and away the quickest method for removing skin off peaches. It’s pretty simple, the hardest thing about it is boiling water. I mostly only bother with this method when I have a lot of peaches to peel. Like, if I have a box that is starting to get too ripe.

All you need is a pot of boiling water and a bowl with ice water. Drop the peach into the boiling water and turn it a few times while counting to 30. If your peaches are still very firm you might need to wait longer. After it has been in for about 30 seconds pull it out with a slotted spoon, or some other big spoon. Side Note: I advise against using tongs because your peaches will be very soft and slippery at this point. Drop your peach into the ice water and roll it around for a bit. If you are doing more than one you can let it sit there for a minute while you get the other peaches out of the pot. Then pull the peach out of the ice water. If you have ripe peaches you will feel the skin come away. If it already has a tear in it you can pull it right off. Otherwise, you might need to pinch or cut it just a bit to get it to come off the peach. That’s it! So easy!

Sometimes we will just use the microwave to boil our water, when we don’t want to wait for a whole pot of water to boil, but also don’t want to peel each peach separately. So this is a great trick if you are peeling 3-5 peaches for the family to share, or to make a dessert.

If you do have a lot of peaches to prepare it is nice if you have a partner to help you out, this works well as an assembly line. One person puts it in the hot water and then to the cold. The other person takes it from the cold water and removes the skin and cuts it up. If you have peaches give me a call I will come help you out. You can pay me in peaches. 😉

What to do with a lot of peaches

After the skin is off and they are cut into chunks, I like to drop it into a bowl with either lemon juice or orange juice so they keep their color. Then I lay them out on a cookie sheet to freeze. Once they are frozen I scrape them off the cookie sheet and into a freezer bag. You can use them in smoothies, pies, muffins and whatever else you can think of. We also like them freeze dried.