Saturday, July 31, 2010

going to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches.

oh hello peach blueberry cobbler!
I spent a quiet evening in the kitchen with Bob Dylan, my stove and the juiciest, most delicious peaches from the Redlands farmers market. Of course I had no choice but to add blueberries and create a cobbler out of these.
Recipe with modifications:
For the fruit portion
- about 4 c. peaches (whatever that means, I sliced 4 large peaches into 16ths but used about 40 slices) pitted and sliced*
- 2 c. blueberries (I used frozen berries from Trader Joe's to save on costs and because they're freaking amazing)
-1/3 c. packed dark brown sugar
-2 tablespoons flour (I used whole wheat)
-2 tablespoons lemon juice (I forgot to add this, it's not necessary but will help ease the sweetness if you prefer a more tart taste)
-1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon salt

For the biscuit crust
-3/4 c. flour (again, whole wheat if you prefer)
-1/4 c. corn meal, yellow or white (I used yellow)**
-3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
-1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces for easy mixing
-1/2 c. buttermilk (I used soymilk because I had it)

Preheat oven to 425F. Arrange a layer of peaches with a cup of blueberries at the bottom of a 2-quart ovenproof dish or pan. Toss in the sugar, flour, lemon, cinnamon and salt. Add another layer of peaches and the other cup of berries.
Form the crust by mixing the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Toss in the butter and use a fork or pastry blend to get it chunky. Add the milk to form a tough that's sticky and thick.
Drop spoonfuls of the dough on top of the fruit filling. Do it haphazardly, it looks so much better when it's organic and not too smoothed out. The dough doesn't need to completely cover the fruit either. Bake for 20-25 mins (mine was about 17 mins though, oven variation). The crust should be golden-brown and the fruit juices should be bubbly. Let it cool and scoop into a bowl. Top with whip cream, vanilla bean ice cream, or sorbet! (You can even have it for breakfast with greek yogurt, cottage cheese or plain yogurt) Viola!
*You can peel the peaches to avoid that weird skin crust. Just cut an X on the bottom, dip the peach in boiling water for 30 seconds and the skins will slide off.
**To transform this into more of a cake, use a cornbread mix or even a yellow cake or angel food cake mix. Wanna be sinful? Brownie mix!

This recipe was an experiment and that's why it's so awesome. It's versatile and can fit any occasion or taste you're going for. This one is a traditional peach cobbler but I've also made a crust with half granola, half biscuit crust for added crunch.

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