29 August 2013

summer's ending; or how to let Peach Cobbler make you a star

though this weekend is a long one here in the States, and Labor Day traditionally means the end of summer and that school has begun, it is only the start of peach season. We've had about two or three weeks since the best of the Chambersburg peaches have made their way westward across Pennsylvania.

Even though Georgia is renown for its delicious peaches, my family has always been partial to those grown in south central Pennsylvania. Known as Chambersburg peaches, they are nearly always of a high quality, firm of flesh, sweet, and powerfully peachy. All that, and they are easy to find in local farmers' markets here in Western Pennsylvania. I bought a half bushel this past Saturday for $25.




As with most foods that are naturally delicious, these peaches need little fussing to turn from fantastic to outrageous. I like them whole, sliced over ice cream, lightly grilled, and in cobbler. Their natural juiciness is lovely and requires no added juices to make a wet and wonderful cobbler.

If peaches are difficult to come by, any stone fruit is great. A cobbler is also an easy recipe to scale up or down by adding or subtracting numbers of fruit and baking in a smaller dish. Simply remember to divide the batter by the same fraction that you divide the fruit. Cobbler is great for guesswork, as a wetter batter will work as well as a thicker one. Experiment!

I also used ground ginger as a slight flavor enhancer in the batter, but peaches also respond well to almond extract, or vanilla, or even bourbon {alcoholic or extract}. Use what you like, not what someone tells you. This is exactly the sort of thing you can thrown in the oven and haul along to an end of the summer potluck or cookout. Magically, you'll be the star of the show, even though it's really the peaches who did all of the work.


Peach Cobbler
6 peaches
1/4 cup sugar
12 blackberries

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/3 to 1/2 cup milk

3/4 c flour
1/3 c white sugar
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons butter, softened

wash the peaches, then cut each one in half. Remove the pits, then place in a lightly greased baking dish (I like glass, but ceramic or cast iron will work fine). Place a single blackberry in the hollow of each peach, then sprinkle with the 1/4 cup white sugar.
Pour the vinegar and milk together to allow them to curdle. Doing so in a measuring cup makes things both easier and saves on dirty dishes.
In a separate bowl, mix the dry batter ingredients, then mix in the butter with a fork or pastry cutter. Finally, pour in the curdled milk mixture. You want your batter to look like pancake or cake batter, or possibly just a bit thicker.
Gently pour the batter between the peaches and around the edges of the fruit in the backing dish. You want the batter to join with the fruits' juices and rise up to envelope the fruit as everything bakes. Bake for 40-55 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven, or until the top of the batter is golden and a knife inserted therein comes out clean.
Serve alone or with whipped cream or ice cream.

 
{excuse the photos, as they all came straight from my iPhone, mostly without even the virtue of Instagram}

"Be well. Do good work. Keep in touch." - Garrison Keillor

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