Over the weekend my local farm held their second-annual Peach Festival, complete with pick-your-own peaches! Even though I love to eat peaches, I had no idea how they were grown. A nice farm hand directed me to the rows of trees that hadn’t been picked yet, and I set out on my peach picking adventure (which culminated in a fantastic peach cobbler – recipe at the end of this post!).
I was surprised to see that they grew almost like apples, hanging from long branches at the perfect height for picking. The color of these peaches was amazing, and they were so fresh that as I walked among the rows of peach trees I saw people pick them right of the tree and take a bite, with sweet peach juice dribbling down their chin.
I finally had to leave when my bag was overflowing with peaches! My car smelled SO GOOD and I was itching to make some delicious cobbler!
I had so much fun peach picking, and I already need to go pick some more because, between the cobbler and my family’s love for fresh fruit, they’re almost all gone! 🙂 Check out the peach cobbler recipe I used below, with my own comments in bold.
Southern Peach Cobbler (From GONNA WANT SECONDS)
Prep time: 30 minutes // Cook time: 40 minutes // Serves 12
Ingredients
Peach mixture
- Fresh Peaches, Peeled, Pitted and Sliced into Wedges – 8 — Look online for how to remove the skin from peaches. I used slightly unripe peaches, but soft, ripe peaches are the easiest to peel!
- White Sugar – 1/4 Cup
- Brown Sugar, Firmly Packed – 1/4 Cup
- Cinnamon – 1/4 Teaspoon
- Nutmeg – 1/8 Teaspoon
- Fresh Lemon Juice – 1 Teaspoon
- Cornstarch – 2 Teaspoon
Cake Topping
- All-Purpose Flour – 2 Cups
- White Sugar – 1/2 Cup
- Brown Sugar, Firmly Packed – 1/2 Cup
- Baking Powder – 2 Teaspoon
- Salt – 1 Teaspoon
- Cold Unsalted Butter, Cut Iinto Small Pieces – 12 Tablespoons
- Boiling Water – 1/2 Cup
Sugar topping
- White Sugar – 3 Tablespoons
Instructions
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, fold the peaches, 1/4 cup each white and brown sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice and cornstarch until all ingredients are well combined.
3. Pour fruit mixture into a 9X13 inch baking dish.
4.Place in preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes.
5.While peaches are in the oven, add all the cake topping ingredients, except the boiling water, to a medium bowl. Use a pastry blender (I used a food processor) to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks like coarse meal (This was a lot of flour for my food processor, so a lot of it ended up spilling onto my countertop when I took off the lid. Be careful!). Pour in the boiling water and stir just until the mixture comes together and is just mixed through (I poured the contents of my food processor into a large bowl and then added the boiling water).
6. After the peaches have baked the 10 minutes, pull them from the oven and drop large spoonfuls of the dough topping over peaches. Sprinkle the top of the dough with the 3 tablespoons of sugar evenly. Place the baking dish on a cookie sheet, in case the cobbler bubbles over and drips, and bake for 30 minutes or until the topping is golden and baked through and the peaches are tender. (30 minutes was the perfect time for my peaches!)
I loved my peach cobbler with some classic vanilla bean ice cream. Have any other delicious peach recipes, or are you a fan of another summer fruit? Let me know in the comments or on social media (@theswirlblog)! Gabby and I are always looking for new things to bake! 🙂
