Peach Cobbler (FHC)

For my second FHC I am baking Peach Cobbler. I have never made peach cobbler, nor have I ever eaten peach cobbler either. I love peaches, but normally eat them as is. Honestly, warm peaches have never been appealing, until now. My Food Holiday Challenge is to not only to bake items I like, but also to take a chance and make something I either do not like, or have never made before.

Unfortunately, peaches aren’t available here – Florida – because they aren’t “in season”. I had to make do and use canned peaches – I opted not to buy frozen peaches because they were a little outside my budget. For all the cobbler purists out there, the recipe I chose was the easiest for me to make at this point – or so I thought. Next year, I will probably make one with a dough to compare and see which I personally like better.

A little cobbler history:
– A cobbler is a type of deep-dish fruit dessert with a thick biscuit or pie dough crust that is prepared and then served warm to guests. It is very similar to a pie, except that the crust is thicker and it is traditionally placed only on top. However, over the years, ingredients and preparation methods have been created that bake the cobbler crust on the top for some recipes and on the bottom for others – like mine today.
– In the US, a cobbler is typically made with fruit or berries, but in the UK, it is typically a meat dish.
– Peach, apple, blueberry and cherry cobblers are among the most popular US varieties.
– The American Cobbler, which is different from a Crisp or Crumble – future blog posts – has nicknames like the Betty, Buckle, Sonker, Grunt, and Slump. New Englanders make Slumps and Grunts in a stove-top iron skillet, topping the fruit with dumplings. Buckles are made with yellow batter that is mixed with the filling. The Brown Betty is made with layers of fruit and bread or graham cracker crumbs, almost like a fruity bread pudding. Sonkers are deep-dish cobblers from North Carolina – my personal favorite nickname, not only because it sounds hilarious, but because my parents now call NC home, and it holds a special place in my heart.

Grandma’s Peach Cobbler
adapted from texascooking.com

Ingredients:
– 1 stick Unsalted Butter
– 1 cup Flour
– 1+1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
– 1/2 teaspoon Salt
– 1 cup Sugar
– 1 cup Milk
– 1-15 ounce can Sliced Peaches, with juice

Directions:
– Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit
– Slice butter into pats and place in 9×13 baking dish and put the dish in the preheating oven. The recipe above is a single batch. I doubled the recipe and used both an 11×13 dish and 8×8 dish. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the same size, just make recipe accordingly.
– While the butter is melting, mix up the batter by combining the Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, Sugar and Milk.
– When the butter is completely melted, remove the pan and pour the batter into the melted butter.
– Carefully spoon the peaches and juice evenly over the batter. Since I used canned peaches, I did not use all the juice, because the batter would be too watery. The extra juice will be saved for another day.
– return the dish to the oven and bake for X minutes. The original recipe says to bake for 30, but that was not even close to what it needed in my oven, which usually runs hot, so I left it in longer – an extra 40 minutes.
– As the cobbler cooks, the batter will rise up around the peaches.

The extra bake time totalled an hour and ten minutes! Now you know why this recipe might not have been the best choice today – thank goodness I didn’t have any other pressing matters or time constraints.

I still might tweak it a bit. Ease of preparation – wonderful, bake time – doable, end product – DELICIOUS! It is especially good with homemade vanilla ice cream – but that will be another Blog day. I am now a fan of peach cobbler.

Until next time,
Love & Confections!