Peach Cobbler, A Cure-All
Got some peaches that aren’t totally perfect? Maybe a little bumped and bruised? Make peach cobbler. Got peaches that are totally perfect, but that all ripened at the same time? No worries—just make peach cobbler! Go peach picking, lose your mind in the fun of it and come home with 20 pounds of peaches? Not a problem! You can—yep, you guessed it—just make a peach cobbler. Feeling bummed out that summer is waning? Well, it’s not over yet, so shake off those blues and lean hard into summer by making a...peach cobbler! We’re only sort of kidding, friends. There are few maladies of the heart—or of peach-ripeness—that can’t be solved by this easy peach cobbler recipe. Loaded with late summer fruit, it’s pure, classic summertime love-in-a-baking-dish.
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What Is the Difference Between a Cobbler and a Crisp?
Nope, the words "crisp" and "cobbler" are not interchangeable. Each has a very distinct meaning and this recipe is most certainly a peach cobbler, not a peach crisp. Nothing against crisps—we love a great crisp! But, a fruit crisp (sometimes known, just to confuse you, as a fruit crumble) is not a cobbler. Cobblers and crisps are both very simple, old-fashioned fruit desserts that are baked, and that involve topping a whole bunch of slightly-sweetened fresh fruit with some kind of butter-laden topping. In that sense, they’re pretty similar. But, there are some clear differences. Crisps are a bit easier—they're more of a throw-together kind of dessert. Cobblers are just a bit more work, but they're a little tidier, too. Here's a helpful, quick little guide to the difference between a peach cobbler and peach crisp:
- Fruit Cobbler: here’s an easy way to remember what a cobbler is—they’re called “cobbler” because the topping looks like cobblestones! Cobblers are topped with biscuit topping that is usually dropped on top of the sweetened fruit in little mounds that bake up looking a bit like a cobbled road. Cute AND delicious.
- Fruit Crisp: fruit crumble is arguably the simplest of the three. In a fruit crumble, fresh or frozen fruit is baked under a streusel topping in its simplest form—usually just flour, sugar, some oats and butter. Sometimes people go really crazy and add a sprinkle of classic baking spices like cinnamon or nutmeg.
How To Shop For Peaches
Obviously, the peaches are the star of the show in this easy peach cobbler. If you’re a regular farmers market shopper, great! If you’re not—this is your chance! Buying peaches at a farmers market—or doing u-pick at a farm—is a great way to buy them and there are a few reasons why.
- Cost. Peaches are very delicate. At a farm or farmers market booth that is selling peaches, they often have so-called “seconds” to sell for much cheaper than the pretty peaches on display. Sometimes they’re even half the cost of the pretty ones, and since they’re going into a cobbler, no one will know that they weren’t pretty.
- In addition to the cost-saving value of shopping at a farm or farmers market, there’s the question of whether you’re buying clingstone peaches or freestone peaches! At a grocery store, you just get what you get. But at a farm or farmers market you can ask for freestone peaches, which are what you’d ideally have for making a peach dessert like this. “Freestone” means that the peach pit is “free” from the flesh, and when you slice the peach in half, the pit will fall out easily. “Clingstone” peaches are a little more work to prep, but will work for this cobbler if that’s all you can find. OK! This concludes your Peach Purchasing 101 class. Now you’re a pro!
Peach Cobbler: Simple Ingredients, A Show-Stopping Dessert
So, other than peaches, what ingredients go into this peach cobbler recipe? Nothing too complicated! All you’ll need is:
- Sugar
- Cornstarch
- Vanilla extract
- Almond extract
- Flour
- Baking powder
- Butter
- Heavy cream
- Egg
How To Make Peach Cobbler From Scratch
Making any cobbler—this one included—is as simple as sweeten fruit + make biscuits. But we’ll walk you through the process! Peach cobbler is as easy as:
- Sweeten the peaches. Toss the sliced stone fruit with sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract and cornstarch. P.S. fun fact! Ever noticed how that little nugget inside of a peach stone looks like an almond? Well, peaches and almonds are in the same plant family, and so peach and almond are a natural, classic pairing.
- Make the biscuits. You’ll use your food processor—trusty old thing—to pulse the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Then you’ll pulse in the cold butter (cold cold cold—always cold butter when making biscuits, OK?) and then cream (this should be cold, too). When you start adding fat—the cream and butter—have a light touch with the pulse button. When we say pulse “just” until incorporated, we do mean JUST. You can always mix more, but you can’t un-mix a dough, so err on the side of undermixing.
- Bake! You’ll bake the peaches on their own for a bit first, then you’ll top the warm, fragrant peaches with the biscuits and bake it a bit more, until the biscuits are cooked through.
More Summer Fruit Desserts To Celebrate The Season
Tools You’ll Need:
This Insanely Delicious Dessert? Oh, It’s Just Something I Cobbled Together
You know you want to! So just try this peach cobbler recipe, and let us know how you like it, OK? Share a photo and tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see your stuff! Happy eating!
