You’ve got to try this simple method for how to peel a peach! Not only is it super easy for peeling a peach to enjoy right after, but it makes a great way to peel peaches for your favorite desserts! We have recipes for Fresh Peach Ice Cream and Peach Brown Sugar Cake that your family will love, calling for peeling peaches!
How to Peel a Peach
If you have a family like mine, they request to have the peach skins removed from their peaches – every time! I personally like the skin on, but they can be a little papery and fuzzy, a different texture kids might not like. So I learned this trick long ago and it’s so simple for peeling peach skins, especially if you need to do a lot of them for jam or pies!
It’s pretty much 3 steps — boil, ice, peel — that’s it!
Supplies:
- peaches – any size, shape, or quantity
- pan of boiling water
- tongs or slotted spoon
- bowl of ice cold water
Method:
1. Add 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’ve peeled your peaches whole. Now they’re ready for slicing and a big bowl of vanilla ice cream!
- peaches - any size shape, or quantity
- pan of boiling water
- tongs or slotted spoon
- bowl of ice cold water
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
4.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!
More Peach Recipe Ideas:
Updated from original posting: 7/27/10
Top Photo by LuAnn Hunt on Unsplash
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!
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.
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.
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 blanch my tomatoes like this when I’m making pico de gallo. Thanks for reminding me I can use this method on other fruits! :)
thank you so much!!!
What an awesome trick! Thank you for sharing. Who know that same trick works for tomatoes… Great, great, great tip :)
Oh, I love peaches. Skins on or off, they are the quintessential summer treat. Thanks for the post!
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!
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
This is exactly what I do when I’m canning tomatoes. It’s a great shortcut!
you can also do this for tomatoes!
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!
That is a great idea! I always thought it would make the peach taste cooked. No more wasteful cutting with the knife.
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!