Peach Cobbler

Peach cobbler is one of my favorite things.

When I recently starting talking to people about cobbler, I found a funny thing. There seem to be three schools of thought about what makes a good cobbler. 

Some friends from the mid-west described cobbler as a dish full of fruit with a sweet "gravy" and a topping of flour, brown sugar and butter covering the top with tasty crumbs.

A friend from Texas described his cobbler as a little pie crust on the very bottom, fruit and "gravy" in the middle and a lattice of pie crust on top.

Now I'm the only one calling it gravy, that sweet, fruity, thickened sauce surrounding the fruit in the cobbler. But in my family, a cobbler consists of a well mixed assortment of fruit with gravy and a cake-like crust irregularly scattered through the dish.

(I'm not going to mention the Internet recipe I got that consists of fruit and gravy in a dish with biscuits arranged on top.)

This recipe is what my Grandma used to make. It's the third type. And this recipe is really, really good with peaches though you can substitute berries or cherries or apples as long as you substitute the right spices and alcohol.

Batter for the Crust

Make the batter ahead of time. It has to rise. I mix it up in a large pitcher or 4 Qt measuring cup. Set it out on the counter for 3-4 hours until it doubles in volume. Stir it up and it will get smaller. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator overnight. (Now, this isn't rocket science. Option 1: Mix it up and put it directly in the refrigerator overnight. Option 2: Let it rise once. Stir it up and let it double a 2nd time before you use it.

Stir together these dry ingredients.

• 1 1/2  cups flour (any kind except self-rising)
• 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 pkg yeast (about 1 Tbsp) - use more if you are in a hurry
• 1/3 c powdered milk (note that you can leave this off if you substitute half of the water with milk)

Add the liquid ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c warm water
• 2 Tbsp salad oil (canola or any similar liquid oil like corn oil, peanut oil, olive oil, though each may add a bit of different taste)
• 1 egg beaten

Mix together by hand. I stir it up with a wooden spoon. No need to get all the lumps out. In fact, its better not to. The crust will be somewhat lighter if you stir less.

Prepare the Peaches

This takes ...

• 8 cups = 8 15 oz cans of peaches in heavy syrup = a single 1 gallon can.

Follow these steps to get the peaches ready. Note that you can just drain and use them, but its not as tasty. The purpose here is to concentrate that wonderful peachy flavor and remove some of the internal water.

1. Drain the peaches. Get rid of as much liquid as you can.
2. Spread the peaches on a large cookie sheet.
3. Sprinkle a couple of Tbsp of granulated sugar evenly over the peaches.
4. Set the oven on broil with the rack just a couple of inches below the heat.
5. Broil the peaches for 8-10 minutes until the corner start to brown and crisp up.
6. Remove the peaches from the cookie sheet and let them sit in a colander to drain for 4-5 minutes.

1) Drain the peaches

3) Corners start to Brown

2) Cookie Sheet goes under the Broiler

4) Drain One More Time

Keep them safe for a while until we are ready to put them in with the "gravy"

Prepare the Gravy

Ok. Its that sweet sauce the the peaches swim in in the deep cobbler dish. Can we call it gravy?

It just needs Nutmeg, now

In a saucepan, add the following:

• 1 cup peach puree ( you can buy this or just use an additional 15 oz can and run it through a blender)
• 1/2 cup white wine (Any is ok. Pinot Grigio has a nice fruity flavor.)
• 2 oz (4 Tbsp) lemon juice
• 2 apples - peeled, cored and grated (I use Honey Crisp apples. Any pie apple will work. These are the ones with deeper flavor and less juice.)
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1/8 tsp (just a pinch) of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (about 1/2 of a single nutmeg nut fresh grated is nice)

Simmer until thickened and reduced by one-half. Do not let the bottom burn. This means you must watch the heat and keep stirring. 

Now add:

• the peaches prepared above (8 cups)
• 1 1/2 cup sugar

Add the Bourbon

Peach Flavoring

Stir until warm throughout. Then add:

• 1 oz bourbon (I use Jim Beam)
• 15 ml peach flavoring

Stir this up and remove from heat. We will use it when assembling.

Assemble the Cobbler and Cook It

In a bowl mix the following for the final crust mixture. Note that we do this at the last minute because mixing this stuff together will kill off the yeast and stop the growth of that yeasty flavor.

• 2 cups batter as prepared ahead
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 oz bourbon or peach flavor moonshine (peach branch or schnapps would work too)

Stir together. Think about the consistency. It should be the consistency of pancake batter.

Now you need:

• 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

First, melt butter in the Dish

Add Peaches a Spoon at a Time

Follow these steps:

1. Put the butter in a 10x13 inch deep dish Pyrex glass casserole dish
2. Set the oven to 350 degrees F
3. Put the pan in the oven and let the butter melt
4. Remove the pan from the oven. (Warning: it is hot)
5. Pour the corrected batter mix over the melted butter to a depth of 1/2 inch (1 cm). Discard any extra. (You can change the ratio of batter to peaches to suit your tastes. I find that a deep disk pan with 1 cm of batter and mostly filled with peaches works for me.)
6. Stir batter and butter all together
7. Using a large spoon, spoon the peach and gravy mixture into the pan. Drop the spoonfuls evenly around the surface of the pan. DO NOT STIR. This will mix properly while cooking.
8. I like the cinnamon sticks to be visible at the top so people don't accidentally bite into a massive hidden block of cinnamon taste.
9. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar mixture (1 part ground cinnamon, 3 parts granulated sugar)
10. Put it back in the oven and cook for 22-28 minutes. It's done when the batter has browned up to where you can call it crust and you can insert a toothpick into the crust and it comes out clean.
11. Remove from oven
12. Let it cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes.
13. Sprinkle a little more sugar over the top. 



Ready to cook. Don't Stir It.

14. You can brulee it with a torch for that extra caramel-ly crunch.

Eat

Serve with ice cream or even a couple of spoonfuls of heavy cream.