blissful eats with Tina Jeffers: Peach Cobbler
I've never been big on fruit desserts since my boys aren’t that into them. My husband has a rule that fruit and dessert are two things that should always be kept as far away from each other as possible. He is willing to eat fruit for breakfast but when it comes to dessert it's chocolate, or forget it. While I don't share such a strong opinion, I have avoided fruit based dishes since I was the only one that would eat them, until now.
The farmers market is overflowing with beautiful peaches of every shape, size and color, so I decided to break the cycle and try baking up a cobbler. It seemed like a good place to start, super simple, minimal ingredients, and if I didn’t like it I wasn’t out too much effort. I have to admit that I had a hard time not eating the whole thing by myself. It came out of the oven warm and bubbling, the fruit was lightly sweetened and with the added warmth of the cinnamon, delicious! And it couldn’t be easier to put together. You cut up some fruit, toss it with a little sugar, and top it with a cornmeal biscuit dough. I went a little overboard and churned up my favorite buttermilk ice cream to serve on top of it but plain old vanilla ice cream would work perfectly. The cold ice cream mixed with the hot cobbler makes in my opinion the perfect treat.
The recipe comes from the Lee Brothers, and the only deviation I made was to add some hazelnut flour to the dough to give it a nice nutty flavor. I also froze the butter and grated it into the flour mixture so that it’s easier to incorporate it evenly through the dough. This dessert just screams to be tinkered with. Feel free to experiment with other fruits or top it with your favorite biscuit dough!
If you'd like to see more recipes visit me at scalingbackblog.com, I'd love to show you more!
Peach Cobbler
Ingredients:
For the peach filling:
- 2 pounds ripe peaches, unpeeled, pitted and cut into slices
- ½ cup packed dark brown sugar (you may want to use more if your peaches aren’t very sweet)
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the biscuit dough:
- ½ cup sifted all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup fine ground cornmeal
- ¼ cup hazelnut flour
- 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 tablespoons frozen unsalted butter, cut into pieces plus more for the
- ½ cup cold buttermilk
Method:
For the filling:
Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.
Butter a 2 quart ovenproof dish. Add the peaches, brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt and toss until the peaches are evenly coated. Let stand while you prepare the biscuit dough.
For the biscuit dough:
In a bowl, sift together the flour, cornmeal, hazelnut flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Grate the butter with a cheese grater into the flour mixture and mix it with your fingers until it forms a coarse meal. Add the buttermilk and stir with a spoon just until a tacky, wet dough comes together, just a few seconds.
Drop spoonfuls of the dough on top of the peach filling in a random pattern. It should be uneven and not cover the entire surface of the filling.
Bake until the juices have thickened and the biscuit top is golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool slightly.
Scoop the cobbler into dishes and serve with your favorite ice cream while still warm.
