I know I'm a little late for Christmas in July, but I didn't want to hang onto this giftable Louisiana Peach Brandy recipe from River Road Recipes II: A Second Helping (The Junior League of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; January 1977 fourth printing) for almost another year.
I love that this "brandy" is just gin flavored with peaches and sugar-- an easy way to use/ preserve a bumper crop of peaches. Plus, the peaches are to be used as an ice cream topping after they've offered up their flavor into the gin. It all seems so straightforward and practical!
The July start allows for the straining in November or December so the drink can be given as a Christmas gift. In fact, posting this in August might make more sense for someone in the midwest, as the peaches at my childhood home weren't ready to eat until mid-to-late August. Since the recipe allows for bottling as early as November, that means there might still be time for non-southerners to make midwestern peach brandy if they start now and bottle it right before Christmas.... Not that I would, though. I don't have access to home-grown peaches anymore, and the ones at the supermarket are expensive even though they're usually mealy and flavorless. Even with those limitations, though, I have to say the brandy sounds better than the more popular start-ahead Christmas food gift: the fruitcake.
I was thinking that this was perfect timing, too. I gave up on grocery store peaches well over a decade ago. They're either mealy, rock hard, flavorless, or rotten. It seems like there aren't many peach trees in this area, except for the village where I used to live.
ReplyDeleteAlcohol seems to be the best solution for people who actually see their family during the holidays. If you wanted to stop hosting family, make sure to "accidentally" serve some of those peaches over the ice cream you give to the kids. Hopefully you get to enjoy them taking a nap, and their parents get to deal with the hangover.
We have a farmers' market that usually has good peaches in the summer, even if the grocery store ones are terrible. Haven't made it there this summer, though, as their hours are pretty limited and there's not really time to get there by the time C is off work.
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