Peach, Apricot, Mango, Vanilla Bean Preserve

So I have been in the bad habit of buying lovely stone fruit and allowing them to overripen before I have had a chance to enjoy them. I know when this has occured when I reach in the crisper and instead of a nice firm peach, I have a mushy mess to clean up. For this reason, I avoid buying too many of these great supple fruits when they are in season and then I miss out.

So, I found a great method to save the fruit and enjoy it for a much longer amount of time. I made up my first batch of stone fruit preserves using about 2lbs of peaches and 2lbs of apricots and I found I had about 1 cup of frozen mango that i had failed to use. I included one vanilla bean casing that I had already harvested the beans from. I also used the juice of one orange and a bit of lemon zest to keep the bright orange color and impart a bright flavor as well.

The fruits were blanched and the skins and pits removed. I cleaned some of the peaches of parts of the center that were extra tough. I cut the fruit into bite size pieces.

The fruits were added to my stainless steel pot. I added the juice of the lemon and 3 1/2 cups of sugar. I added the zest and the vanilla bean. the whole pot simmered for about 40 minutes. The sugar was dissolved and the fruit began to break down. I brought the mixture to roughly 220 degrees. I tasted the mixture and tested for the gel point.

The mixture was then jarred into about 3+ pints. I used the boiling method to seal the jars.