Peach cordial is simple to make and lasts for a long time. It's definitely worth making when there is a glut of peaches. I love the colour! It just makes me think of summer. :-)
You can use any ripe peaches that you happen to find - but it is undoubtedly easier to use free stone peaches so that you is easier to slice them up.
This is a very simple recipe, but I have heard that you can also put the peach kernels in to give the syrup more depth. Apparently, you crack the stones and remove the inner kernels and simply add these to the recipe. You should strain them out at the end.
I will try that next time, since although this peach cordial smells fantastic, it doesn't have the real depth of flavour that we found in the raspberry cordial.
However, it really is delicious in drinks, such as peach iced tea or just with fizzy water - but it's also a great ingredient in baking. We use it to soak over vanilla cake to make a peach sponge. It's sweet and summery. It's also lovely stirred through whipped cream and served with peach scones. And it's very nice served over icecream, especially with some canned peaches in the winter.
When we use this cordial as a drink (either in iced tea, or just as a fizzy drink), it is much improved by serving it with slices of frozen peaches. When we have lots of peaches to process, we always slice quite a few of them and simply freeze them.
Freeze the slices individually on a sheet of baking parchment and then transfer them to a bag or box once they are fully frozen to keep them from sticking together.
Peach cordial will last for a year in the jar in the pantry, but once it is opened you should keep it in the fridge.