The simplest method for How to Peel Peaches quickly and easily, saving you time and headache. No knife or peeler required!

Once you’ve got this peeling trick down, you can bottle/preserve peaches or make something delicious like peach cobbler, peach crisp, or peach scones.

A bowl of peeled, fresh peaches.

When a recipe calls for several peeled peaches, you know it’s going to be delicious but getting peach skin to come off smoothly, using a knife or a peeler, can be time consuming! (Not to mention you often lose chunks of peach flesh doing it that way.)

This blanch and shock method for peeling peaches is the easiest way to remove the skin from peaches quickly and without a knife or peeler.

How to Peel Peaches:

1. Boil a large pot of water. Choose a pot big enough to fit several peaches at a time.

2. Blanch peaches: Reduce heat to a simmer and lower peaches into the water. Let them blanch in the water for about 30 seconds.

Two process photos for boiling water, then lowering peaches into simmering water.3. Place them in an ice bath.  After you scald the peaches in hot water you want to stop them from cooking (“shock” them) by immediately putting them in an ice water bath until they have cooled.

4. Peel the skins off.  The peach skin should be very easy to pull away gently with your hands, or use a knife to make a small slit to get it started.

An ice water bath with peaches in it, next to hands peeling the skin from a peach.

Once the peaches are peeled, they’re ready to slice. Cut the peach in half by running a knife all the way around the center and pit of the peach.  Gently twist to pull the sides apart from one another and remove the pit.

A peeled peach, cut in half, with the pit removed.

Peach Buying Guide:

The most important part of a delicious peach recipe is the quality and ripeness of the peaches used. Here are a few guidelines for how to choose a ripe peach:

  • Look at the skin color.  Look for peaches that have  nicely colored red and yellow skin. Green skin is a sign of an unripe peach.
  • Smell.  Peaches with a fragrant “peachy” smell will be more ripe then those with little or no smell.
  • Give it a squeeze.  Check the firmness of the peach by squeezing it gently. Pay attention to how soft it is. Unripe peaches are very firm, ripe peaches will give just slightly, and over-ripe peaches will feel almost squishy.
  • Check for bruises and wrinkles.  Look for mushy spots on the peach or brown spots that would indicate bruising.  Also check that the skin hasn’t started to wrinkle.

Ripe peaches scattered out of a bag.

After peeling, use your fresh peaches in:

Peach Cobbler

Peach Crisp

Peach Pie

Peach Chutney

Peach Crumb Cake

Peach Scones

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Recipe

A bowl of peeled, fresh peaches.
Prep 10 minutes
Total 20 minutes
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Equipment

Ingredients
  

  • Peaches , ripened
  • Water
  • Ice

Instructions
 

  • Boil a pot of water, large enough to submerge several peaches. 
    boil water for scalding peaches
  • Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer. Lower peaches into the water and let them blanch/soak for about 30 seconds.
    scald peaches in hot water
  • Use a slotted spoon to transfer the peaches from the pot, into a bowl full of ice water to cool.
    scalded peaches in an ice bath
  • Once cooled, the peach skin should be very easy to pull away gently with your hands.  You may use a knife to make a slit in the skin, if needed.
    peaches being peeled with hand after scalding
  • Starting at the stem, run a knife vertically around the outside of the peach. Carefully twist and pull the sides apart from one another and remove the pit.
    A peach cut in half with pit removed

Nutrition

Calories: 59kcalCarbohydrates: 14gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gPotassium: 285mgFiber: 2gSugar: 13gVitamin A: 489IUVitamin C: 10mgCalcium: 9mgIron: 1mg

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RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.

Photography by Nikole from The Travel Palate.

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About The Author

Lauren Allen

Welcome! I’m Lauren, a mom of four and lover of good food. Here you’ll find easy recipes and weeknight meal ideas made with real ingredients, with step-by-step photos and videos.

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Comments

  1. I tried blanching peaches and did ice bath but it only worked with 5 out of 30 peaches. Why? Were peaches not ripe enough? Help!!

  2. 5 stars
    I can’t believe at 62 years old I now know the trick to peeling peaches.
    Wowza…..such a game changer!

  3. Everything looked good, but it took much longer to blanch my peaches.still had trouble getting the tough stuff around the pit out. Will keep trying.

  4. 5 stars
    This works a treat, I got it to work well with child rather than iced water too for a single nectarine. Thank you!

    1. According to Parker Schopbach’s suggestion below to do the cutting, twisting, & removing the pitt BEFORE boiling, blanching, & putting them in ice water… that will make the removal of the pitts much cleaner without leaving excess pulp behind in the concave areas where the pitts were.

  5. so I have the peaches and how should I clean them before putting in the boiling water or do I skip that step?

    1. 1 star
      rinse them and remove any stems. This method will cook the outside of the peach about 1/8 in into the fruit.

  6. 1 star
    Great method, wrong order of operations. I recommend cutting, twisting and de-putting first. Otherwise the flesh is still too connected to the pit it will turn into a puppy mess trying to cut and twist after the boiling water and ice bath. Regardless of which way you like, the skin does peel off easily!

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