Peach Cobbler Recipe

Oh, cobbler. It’s one of those delightful dishes that does justice to summer fruits, but doesn’t do justice to the fact that it is hot out and you really don’t want to turn on your oven. But when you’ve discovered that red haven peaches are back in season, well, raising the temperature of your apartment seems like a must.

There are two types of cobblers you’ll find: ones that have the crispy, biscuit top and ones that have a more pudding texture. I prefer the more pudding-like variety. It’s also much more fool-proof to make for those who manage to overwork pastries.

I’ve made cobblers for years, but needed a reminder so I took my guidelines from two recipes: Paula Deen’s and one from Gourmet. Here’s what the combined gave me:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups half-heartedly peeled, sliced peaches. I say half-hearted because I am too lazy to do a proper job and left most of the peaches half-peeled.
• 1/2 cup sugar for the peaches and another 3/4 for the batter (Note: most recipes called for a cup of sugar for the peaches and another full cup for the batter. I always cut sugar down because I hate things to be too sweet and peaches are so sweet to begin with. Add more or less sugar to your taste.)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional, but you might need it to cut the sweetness of the peaches. I tasted them once before deciding to add the juice.)
• 8 tablespoons butter (unsalted, technically, but I only had salted, so whatever!)
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Find a baking dish. I used a long brownie pan. Different depths and sizes will have different (all delicious) results. I saw one recipe that used a cast iron skillet, which I would love to try.

2. Place the peaches along with a half-cup of sugar and the water into a saucepan. Simmer for 10 minutes.

3. While that is going on, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt).

4. Add to the dry ingredients the milk. Do this very slowly and whisk while you pour in the milk so as to avoid lumps. For the milk, I used a mixture of skim and half and half only because if I’m making a dessert, I’d just as soon use the fatty stuff and was too lazy to make a run to the store for whole milk.

5. Put chopped butter in the baking dish and pop that in the pre-heating oven until the butter is melted.

6. Once the butter is melted, take the dish out of the oven (I hope that’s a no-brainer!) and pour the batter (it will be really runny) into the pan over the butter. On top of that, gently spoon the peaches over the batter. Drizzle some of that peach juice from the cooking over it.

7. Bake everything for 45 minutes. Check it at 30 minutes just in case your oven runs hot. Add another 5 minutes if you want a bit more caramelization to the top.

The result? A pudding-like cobbler that goes great with ice-cream.