How to Make Almond Extract from Peach Pits

Why do we have a pile of this or that sitting on the kitchen counter? You want me to do what? These are both questions you hear me ask around our house regularly. The answers to these questions this particular day were not what I was expecting. Ashleigh wanted me to crack peach pits to get the seeds out so she could try a no-waste experiment. She heard you could make almond extract from peach pits (or apricot pits). I go along with her ideas because they often turn out pretty good (listen to your wife), and we are big fans of the amaretto flavor. What did we have to lose?

We ate A LOT of peaches in August, so I had a big pile of pits waiting for me. If you haven’t checked out our Peach Butter Recipe or our Peach Vanilla Bourbon Jam, you should take a look.

Why Use Peach Pits for Almond Extract?

Mostly for experiment’s sake – to say we can do it and to use something we would normally throw away. Don’t ask about the time Ashleigh had me roasting, cracking, and peeling acorns for flour (maybe that’s a post for another time).

Almonds and peaches are related and come from the same family of plants. Now, don’t eat peach seeds by the handful like almonds because they could make you sick if you ingested a ton of them, but an extract is different, as you only use a tiny amount in a whole recipe. Use your best judgment if you try this out.

Make sure your peach pits are cleaned of any leftover fruit flesh before you dry and store them!

Cracking Open Peach Pits Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

Breaking open some pits might seem like a simple task. However, a peach pit is harder to crack than you would think. Ashleigh tried a few different methods unsuccessfully, so she asked me to give it a go. Maybe I could apply more force (you know, muscles and all). A little internet searching presented several options for cracking peach pits, but I opted for the one that lets you work smarter and not harder.

What options didn’t work out well?

• Pliers
• Nutcracker
• Crab cracker
• Hammer

The reason none of these worked was either you need a lot of muscle to make these methods work, or you end up chasing a pit around the garage floor.

What worked? Vice grips. They give you lots of control because they can be locked into place, unlike regular pliers.

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How to Actually Crack Open the Peach Pits

You’ll need to set the width of vice grips just slightly smaller than the peach pit. This lets you put on pressure without completely crushing the peach seed while breaking through the protective pit.

However, there are a few notes:

• Exploding peach pits might not seem too dangerous, but you only have two eyes- protect them by wearing a pair of safety glasses
• The peach pits will fly in all directions, so you’ll need something to contain them – I grabbed a small, empty box and cracked the pits inside the box
• The box trapped most of the pits and the seed in the box
• Just pick the seeds out and discard the pit pieces (they can be pretty sharp)
• Store seeds in a paper or plastic bag until you’re ready to use them

Did We Successfully Make Almond Extract from Peach Pits?

This was the same idea as making vanilla extract. You leave the concoction to marinade for a few weeks to months in alcohol. You can use vodka or rum, either will work.

We went ahead and dried the seeds for a few days, then added them to the coffee grinder to chop them up a bit. Once chopped, we added them to an old kombucha bottle and poured the alcohol (vodka in this case) to fill the bottle. We let it sit for 6-7 weeks, shaking occasionally, before we checked it.

Once the extract was done, we strained it into a clean glass jar. And you guys, it smelled JUST LIKE ALMONDS! It is straight up amaretto flavor. I was expecting a little bit of a different smell compared to the normal almond extract, but this was spot on. We have used it in a couple of recipes, and it held up great.

How Much “Almond” Extract Do I Use?

The recommendation is to use only a little bit (like 1/4-1/2 teaspoon) the first couple of times in a recipe to make sure it tastes okay and isn’t too strong or funky tasting.

Let us know in the comments if you have tried any questionable no-waste experiments.