My sister inspired me to use peaches in my tarts. Mainly because I heard that she was on a mission to track down a birthday peach pie instead of a cake this year. Peach pie instead of cake? Wow, peaches must really be good in pies, I thought. Maybe I should try it.

I started out by buying way too many peaches. With my 3 lb sack of fruit, I was a little disappointed to see I only need 1 lb. Oh, well. Peaches are heavier than you may think. Next I realized I had to find a way to get the skin off the peach. After a little research, I found the answer: score and blanch.

Peeling a Peach

  1. Prepare a bowl of ice water next to your stove.
  2. Put a large pot of water on high heat and get it up to a rolling boil.
  3. Start by scoring an x into the base of the peach.
  4. Add the peaches and boil for about a minute.
  5. Remove peaches and place in an ice cold water bath for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
  6. As you can see, the skin is begging to be peeled off the peach now. Peel off the skin and set aside.

Quarter a peach

There is a reason there are no pictures here. This was not pretty. I ended up slicing them in half and then cutting it off, piece by piece.

I suspect this was not the most efficient method out there. Anyone have any tips for quartering a peach?

To see what I did with my peaches, click here.