golden hour peach hot sauce recipe
Peaches and chili peppers, oh My…
LET’S MAKE hot sauce
Welcome to hot sauce class!
I’m excited to make some spicy sauce with you. In preparation for class, below is the recipe and shopping list. You can get these ingredients at most grocery stores or produce markets. But you can also find chili peppers via your preferred online grocery vendor, like Amazon Fresh. Scroll down for a list of fun online chili pepper vendors, if you want some super hot fresh peppers to cook with. The one rule you can’t break? Make sure you get fresh chili peppers, not dried ones. Dry chilies won’t work for this recipe.
This recipe is awesome because you can use a variety of peppers to adjust the heat to your liking. Try to use yellow peppers so the color is still bright and hot sauce-alicious. But you can use a mix of jalapenos (less hot), serranos, habaneros (very hot!), or whatever cool peppers you can find at your neighborhood grocery (or take a look at the list of online shopping options lower down in this post).
The hotter the pepper, the hotter the sauce. Chili peppers are rated for heat using a Scoville index, and the higher the number of Scoville units, the hotter it will be.
Meet the best late summer peachy hot sauce
Why is this hot sauce so awesome? It is sweet without sugar (hey, peach), way tastier than Frank’s because it uses real, live vinegar vs. white vinegar (barf), and has the extra tastiness of fresh garlic (a not-so-secret ingredient in some of your favorite sauces, like Sriracha).
We like to use yellow Fatali, habanero or pumpkin jalapeños ( a real thing), but you can get creative with your pepper choice, Just try to keep it yellow, orange or red.
WARNING: always use latex gloves when handling hot peppers and hot sauce. These babies can BURN your skin!!
NOTE: this recipe makes about 2 x 5-oz bottles of hot sauce
INGREDIENTS
10 yellow colored fresh chili peppers (like Thai, habanero, jalapeno, or Fatali)
2 fresh peaches (or if in a pinch, use two cups frozen peaches), halved
6 cloves garlic
1 cup apple cider or white wine vinegar
1 fresh orange or tangerine, squeezed
1 cup water
1 tablespoon salt
DIRECTIONS
Turn the oven to broil.
On a sheet tray, lay out the halved peaches (cut-side down) and the hot chili peppers (leave them whole), and broil for about 10 to 15 minutes or until they’re all slightly blistered and soft, turning halfway through. They are done when the juices are bubbling and skin is nice and toasty.
Using gloves, gently pull the stems off the peppers (when soft, they will pull right off!) and discard the woody stem. Transfer the peppers, peaches and all their juices to a blender and add the rest of the ingredients: the garlic, vinegar, tangerine/orange juice, water, and salt.
Process for 10 to 60 seconds, or until the sauce is a texture you like! You can blend for 10 seconds and leave it nice and chunky or let it pulverize until it’s super smooth.
How does it taste? Time to dip a chip in and adjust to taste. Does it need more salt? Is it too spicy or not enough? You can add another peach if you want to tone down the spice, or broil another two habaneros and throw those in to take it up a notch.
NOTE: This sauce will thicken as it cools, and taste best after the flavors meld for a few days as the astringency of the vinegar dissipates.
Now it is time to bottle it up! Fill hot sauce bottles or jars with a funnel and then cap them nice and tight.
Let cool to room temperature and refrigerate. Hot sauce should last at least 1 year in the fridge.
SHOPPING LIST
This recipe uses fresh chili peppers, please DO NOT USE dried peppers, as they will not work in this recipe.
10 yellow colored fresh chili peppers (like Thai, habanero, jalapeno, or Fatali)
2 fresh peaches (or if in a pinch, use two cups frozen peaches)
6 cloves garlic
apple cider or white wine vinegar (1 cup)
1 fresh orange or tangerine
Sea salt, non-iodized (1 tablespoon)
WHERE TO BUY CHILI PEPPERS:
The best place to find a wide and amazing assortment of chili peppers is at your local farmer’s market or farm stand (smaller and more local, the better!). But maybe it’s not the season where you live, or your access to a local market is limited? You can always find chili peppers on Amazon, like Thai or Fresno. And while you can certainly find common peppers through your preferred online delivery services like Amazon Fresh or Fresh Direct, here is my list of online retailers for more exotic varieties (ghost pepper sauce!), or plants to grow your own:
Janie and Fernando run a small nursery in New Jersey, Cross Country Nurseries, and have been growing chilies since the early 90s. You can find fresh chili peppers, pepper plants, seeds, and much more.
Pepper Joe’s sells over 100 varieties of exotic chili peppers as well as plants via PepperJoes.com.
GhostPepperFarms sells, you guessed it, ghost peppers from their Florida pepper farm.
Another Florida vendor, Baker’s Peppers offers fresh peppers delivered to your door when in season.
Bohica Pepper Hut in South Carolina, also sells fresh peppers delivered to your door when in season (late June or early July). Over 200 varieties and free shipping.
A&M Farms offers mixed variety boxes, plus sauces, seeds, spices and powders.
Non-dried, chopped and frozen New Mexico and certified Hatch Green Chilies are best found via The Chili Guy, in packages of 5, 10 and 25 pounds; or even a whole truckload!
Ghost Pepper Store is a bit of a misnomer, as they sell a variety of fresh chili peppers, dried peppers, smoked peppers, powders and seeds.
Homesweet Homegrown was started by Robyn Jasko, founder of Grow Indie and lauds itself as the “world’s first chili pepper CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).” You can get a share of their chili pepper harvest, and each month a box of 18 hot peppers will arrive at your door.
VERSION #2: A BOTTLED & SHELF-STABLE version for a bigger batch
Almost the same, but this version is preserved and filled using a proper preservation canning technique so that your hot sauce can be shelf stable, meaning it can be gifted and sit on the shelf for awhile before you open it (then you need to refrigerate it once opened).
INGREDIENTS
20 yellow colored fresh chili peppers (like Thai, habanero, jalapeno, or Fatali)
4 fresh peaches (or if in a pinch, use two cups frozen peaches), halved
12 cloves garlic
2 cup apple cider or white wine vinegar
2 fresh orange or tangerine, squeezed
2 cup water
2 tablespoon salt
DIRECTIONS
Turn the oven to broil.
On a sheet tray, lay out the halved peaches (cut-side down) and the hot chili peppers (leave them whole), and broil for about 10 to 15 minutes or until they’re all slightly blistered and soft, turning halfway through. They are done when the juices are bubbling and skin is nice and toasty.
Using gloves, gently pull the stems off the peppers (when soft, they will pull right off!) and discard the woody stem. Transfer the peppers, peaches and all their juices to a blender and add the rest of the ingredients: the garlic, vinegar, tangerine/orange juice, water, and salt.
Process for 10 to 60 seconds, or until the sauce is a texture you like! You can blend for 10 seconds and leave it nice and chunky or let it pulverize until it’s super smooth.
How does it taste? Time to dip a chip in and adjust to taste. Does it need more salt? Is it too spicy or not enough? You can add another peach if you want to tone down the spice, or broil another two habaneros and throw those in to take it up a notch.
Place your blended hot sauce mixture in a small pot and heat until it reaches 190F on a heat-safe thermometer.
Turn heat to low (so that it stays hot while you bottle) and pour the hot sauce into bottles using a funnel, while it’s still super hot.
Cap and flip upside down for 5 minutes—you can prop them in a dish rack or the box they came in. Then, flip them right-side up and let cool for 12 hours on the counter, then store in a cool place and hand them out to all your friends!
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR PRESERVING YOUR HOT SAUCE:
Use Quality Hot Sauce Bottles And Caps
Use food safe, high quality hot sauce bottles and caps.
Follow Sterilization Protocol
Make sure all supplies are properly sterilized (hot water is fine).
Avoid Using Oil
Oil can introduce a botulinum toxin and a poisonous protein.
Ph For Shelf Stable Hot Sauce
A pH measurement of 3.4 or lower creates a sufficiently acidic environment to prevent bacteria from growing. Adding citrus fruits like lemons or limes, fruit such as apples or pineapples, and a high-quality vinegar that is at least 5% acidity are all great ways to increase acidity and lower your pH. Don’t add more water than vinegar. Don’t add extra vegetables without adding more vinegar. Try to maintain a balanced ratio like this recipe, even if you are swapping ingredients.