Peach Cobbler

Some friends of mine just welcomed a new baby into the world at the end of June. I was thrilled.

Now, here is some information for you. I have no experience with newborns. None. I'm the youngest of 3. I have no nieces or nephews, none of my other friends have had any babies. Sure, some of my cousins have had babies, but I've never had the opportunity to see the babies until they're a few months old.

I spent a good bit of my teenage years babysitting, and even had my cousin and her 1 year old live with us for awhile when I was about 8 years old, but there is a HUGE difference between a newborn and a one year old (or even a 3 month old!). I couldn't wait meet this tiny new little person.

I got my chance a couple weekends ago. My friends invited me over for a lunch cookout. They were grilling hamburgers and hanging out on a Saturday and I joined up with them to hang out, play with their incredibly adorable 2 year old daughter and meet the newest addition to the family.

Holy crap! I couldn't believe how so very tiny she was. She is a beautiful baby and since she was born a few weeks early, she mostly just slept the entire time I was there. When my friend picked her up and put her in her lap for a feeding, I couldn't help but think about how much she looked like a little doll baby. So precious and fragile that I was too terrified to ask to hold her. (It's probably a good thing. My ovaries already ache with want everytime I see and play with their 2 year old daughter, I'm not sure they'd be able to handle holding a newborn, too).

It was a great way to spend an afternoon.

I wanted to take a dessert for the cookout and I had some delicious fresh, Tennessee peaches that I'd picked up at the farmers market earlier in the week. This recipe was perfect. I was able to whip it together fast the morning of, and by the time we cut into it, it had time to set up, but still tasted fresh and it was ALMOST still warm. Served with vanilla ice cream, of course. The perfect summer dessert.

Peach Cobbler

This is a sweet peach cobbler. Very sweet. It's how we southerners like our cobblers. You could easily cut back on the sugar in the recipe, if you like your desserts a little more sophisticated. But, I don't work like that. I like my desserts trashy and filled with loads of sugar. Yum.

Batter Ingredients:
12 tbsp of butter
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 room temperature egg

Filling:
6 peaches sliced (I left the peel on)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp of vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place butter in a 9x13 inch pan and place in the oven to melt.

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Stir in the cream and the egg.

When the butter is melted, pull the pan out of the oven and pour the batter directly into the melted butter.

In a bowl, combine the peaches, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Then pour the peach mixture directly onto the batter. DO NOT STIR the peaches into the batter. Just pour it on top.

Bake for 35-45 minutes until batter rises up over the peaches and is golden brown.

Allow to cool and set until just warm.

TWD: Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler

Fruit, fruit, fruit… I loves me some fruit. So, I’ve been excited about a lot of the Tuesdays with Dorie selections incorporating seasonal fruit. Yum.

This week, I was especially excited, because the recipe that I originally had picked out was chosen: Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler. You see… I had this recipe picked out for months, there hadn’t been any cobblers chosen yet and I love cherries and was so curious to find out how rhubarb tasted with cherries… But, then, a couple of weeks before my turn came up… someone picked a cobbler and I decided to try out a pie recipe instead of having cobbler recipes back to back. So, I was totally psyched when this recipe was chosen.

I happily paid $7.25 for my 1.24 lbs of sweet Rainer cherries at the grocery store last week and it was all I could do to keep from eating them all. Dude, I totally forgot how dadgum delicious fresh cherries are! And especially sweet ones!

I whipped up the cobbler on Saturday morning and took it over to my parents house. It came together easily. I used fresh cherries and frozen rhubarb, which I thawed and squeezed additional water out of.

And, I’m not sure if I didn’t do the topping correctly or what, but I just didn’t like it. The topping had a weird flavor to it, I can’t help but think that it was the whole wheat flour. I mean, I love being able to use whole wheat flour (heck, I even used the white whole wheat flour that King Arthur makes), but it just had a weird "wang" that I wasn’t happy about. And the fruit filling… well, it was good, but it didn’t get as thick as I would have liked. Maybe it could have used more cornstarch? I found myself wishing that I hadn’t used all the cherries in the recipe. I’d rather had them raw.

Well, anyway… I’ll stick to my clafouti-type cobblers from now on, I think. I'm starting to feel like an ingrateful TWDer... it seems like I haven't really loved many of the recipes in awhile (including the one I chose!). I'm in a dorie slump methinks. But, at least I'm getting to try a bunch of different things that I normally would never make! And the experience of trying lots of different things can only make me a better and more informed baker. (Even if I am one picky beotch sometimes).

I’m sure everyone else’s was good and if you like a hearty biscuit topped cobbler, give this one a try… the cherries and rhubarb complement each other pretty well. And be sure to check out the recipe at Amanda's blog: Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake and all the other TWDers (who are hopefully less picky and easier to please than moi) at: Tuesdays With Dorie.

TWD: Mixed Berry Cobbler

This weekend, I went to Memphis to visit my best friends April & Greg and of course, their dog, Banner. I know that April loves fruit as much as I do, and since cobblers usually seem to be fairly easy recipes to make, I decided that I could just make this cobbler while I was there!

My fellow Tuesdays with Dorie participants had been talking all week about how their cobbler toppings just weren't that impressive. That it was kind of flavorless. So, what did I decide to do? I decided to use a different cobbler topping from Dorie's Recipe for Cherry & Rhubarb Cobbler and instead of ginger (which I didn't have) I opted for Cinnamon. Ummm.. lots of cinnamon. Too much cinnamon, in fact.

The berries (raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries) weren't super flavorful and the topping just turned out too dang cinnamon-y. Uggh. My bad on this one. Better luck next time.

Thanks to Beth of Our Sweet Life for this summery selection! Be sure to check out everyone else's cobblers at Tuesdays with Dorie!

Peach Buckle

Cobbler is a southern staple. My grandma used to make it a lot and my mom. Peach, Cherry, and Blackberry Cobbler were the most popular in my family. Honestly, I was never a huge fan. I ate it, but it was never a particular favorite of mine. Their cobblers consisted of the biscuit top and my grandma always included dumplings inside hers (which I always picked around). So, since I never really loved cobblers, I never considered making one.

And then, I saw a "cobbler" on Pioneer Woman site and I examined the pictures very closely... it didnt look like the cobblers I had seen. No, it looked like it had crispy, buttery edges (which, incidentally, I'm a HUGE fan of). I decided that this is a cobbler I could fall in love with. Hers was a blackberry cobbler, but not liking the seeds (and I couldnt find fresh ones at the store) I opted to try a peach one and boy, is this recipe simple and delicious. But, folks... it's not technically a cobbler... it's a buckle. You should definitely try this. Hot out of the oven, it's divine. It gets pretty soggy on day two, but the flavor is still excellent.

Incidentally, I only made a half batch of pioneer woman's recipe and I used all splenda, so I calculated the whole buckle as having about 700 calories. Not bad when you can get 4 good sized servings out of it (or if you just sit down with an oven mitt in your lap and consume the whole thing straight of the oven, hey, it's only 700 calories...).

Peach Buckle
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup self rising flour
1/2 milk
1 cup splenda (if using real sugar, only use 1/2 cup)
2 fresh peaches peeled and sliced
extra splenda for the top

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut your butter up and pit in the pan you are going to be using to bake the buckle. Melt the butter in the oven while it's preheating (dont burn it!)

Meanwhile, mix your sugar, flour, and milk together with a whisk. Pour mixture into the melted butter and place your peaches on top.

Bake till golden brown. Now, I put extra splenda on the top right before I took it out of the oven and thats why mine has that white-ish tint to it. If you used real sugar it would melt better and look prettier.

DELICIOUS.