If you have a family like mine, they request to have the peach skins removed from their peaches. I personally like them, but they are a little papery and fuzzy at times. So I learned this trick long ago and it’s great for peeling peach skins, especially if you need to do a lot of them for jam or pies!
Supplies for Peach Skin Peeling:
- peaches – any size, shape, or quantity
- pan of boiling water
- tongs or slotted spoon
- bowl of ice cold water
1. Add your washed peaches to boiling water. Let them boil for at least one minute. Try not to let them cook longer or they will start to cook on the inside, we just want it to cook the skin.
2. Immediately after you take your peaches out of the boiling water using tongs or a spoon, dunk them into an ice water bath. Let them cool off here for another minute.
3. Once it’s cooled, take your peaches and start to pierce the skin with your thumb and peel the skin away. It should start to peel very easily and sometimes in one piece (I love when that happens!) It’s even easy enough for little hands to help with this process.
In just a few minutes, you just peeled your peaches whole. Now they’re ready for slicing and a big bowl of vanilla ice cream!
Written by Marie LeBaron
Marie LeBaron is the founder and managing editor of Make and Takes. Always having a love of crafts, she enjoys getting messy with glue and glitter. There’s always some sort of project going on, her kitchen counter is often cluttered with crafts. When she’s not crafting and creating with her kids, she loves to run, read, and blog! Read other posts by Marie
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you so much for this! I’ve been making peach cobblers for friends (and us!) this summer and I feel like I’m losing so much of the actual peach when I’m peeling. Great tip! I can’t wait to try it!
That is a great idea! I always thought it would make the peach taste cooked. No more wasteful cutting with the knife.
I have done this with potatoes before (score and boil for 15 minutes before the ice bath). Now I can do it with peaches too! Thanks for the great tip!
you can also do this for tomatoes!
This is exactly what I do when I’m canning tomatoes. It’s a great shortcut!
Too funny Marie, I just posted about making peach cobbler today. And I was too impatient to blanch my peaches before peeling them….so now I just linked to your post in my tutorial!
http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/recipe-peach-cobbler.html
Thanks for sharing the info!
- Dana
Kelly – Let’s be friends, I need some peach cobbler!
Potatoes and Tomatoes? Good to know! I’ll be trying those soon.
Dana – Thanks for linking! I wanted to link to a fun peach recipe, so you found one for me!
Oh, I love peaches. Skins on or off, they are the quintessential summer treat. Thanks for the post!
What an awesome trick! Thank you for sharing. Who know that same trick works for tomatoes… Great, great, great tip :)
thank you so much!!!
I blanch my tomatoes like this when I’m making pico de gallo. Thanks for reminding me I can use this method on other fruits! :)
Thanks so much for this tip. I’ve used this trick with tomatoes for Gazpacho. It never occurred to me to dunk peaches too. I usually wind up using a vegetable peeler! I love learning new cooking tips!
I knew this method, and somehow forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder. Been peeling peaches for the past 4 years and hating it. My peach tree make small peaches and I hate peeling them.
Again, thanks for the reminder.
My peaches isn’t peeling as easily after I boil them. They are good to eat but they may be too hard. Should I wait a couple more days to try this? They are stonefree. I don’t know why they are not peeling for me.
Gloria – I’m not sure about your peaches. I wish I knew more about the science of it all. My only thought on this is that maybe they aren’t quite ripe. The peaches I’ve used are almost a little over ripe. I’m not sure if stonefree has anything to do with it either, but I doubt it.
Hopefully it worked when you waited a little while. Let me know how it goes if you try it again!