As I’ve mentioned earlier, my sweet tooth has been taking over this summer. This cobbler took a couple of tries to get right, but the final version here showcases some of the best of summer’s fruit, and David and I have been noshing on it after dinner for several nights now.
I usually try to incorporate some whole grains in the recipe, but I’ve discovered a few things to keep in mind with this recipe.
First, using a 50-50 combination of whole wheat and all-purpose flour just didn’t work here. With the first cobbler I made, the fruit turned out splendidly, but both David and I felt that we were eating an overly savory biscuit mismatched with a not-quite-sweet-enough dessert. To fix this, I adjusted a few of the ingredients: I took out the whole wheat flour all together and went with all-purpose flour with just a smidgen of cornmeal (which helps with the sweetness).
Also, I initially tried to omit most of the sugar from the biscuits, relying on just the fruit for sweetness, but I found it really helps to add a little bit sugar to the actual biscuit dough. One weekend I made a version of this cobbler on Saturday afternoon and then used the leftover buttermilk for a batch of pancakes the next morning. As I poured the pancake batter onto the skillet, I was struck by how similar it was to my biscuit dough from the night before. It just didn’t work well; I wanted my dessert biscuits to be a bit more than buttermilk batter.
Having tweaked the sweetness of the biscuits, I moved my focus to the fruit, which actually didn’t need to be inundated with loads of sugar. Instead, I found what I needed to do to boost the impact of summer’s fresh peaches was simply add more. I found having a skimpy layer of fruit under the biscuits contributed to the sense that the cobbler was heavy and overly savory. Increasing the amount of peaches by 50% gave me the fruit base I was looking for without making the filling runny. I left the blueberries as a smaller portion because their flavor and color can overwhelm the peaches once they’re baked. Also, now that we’re out of the peak of summer, blueberries are pretty expensive again, while there seem to be acres of peaches on sale at the moment. Win-win.
Peach and Blueberry Cobbler
Serves 9
Ingredients
6 cups of peaches (about 8 medium), sliced into 1/2- to 1-inch pieces
1/2 pint blueberries
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 Tablespoons flour
2 Tablespoons orange juice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the biscuits:
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons cornmeal
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons chilled butter
1 cup buttermilk
Steps
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the fruit mixture: wash the peaches and blueberries thoroughly. Cut the peaches into pieces roughly 1 inch in size. Mix the sugars, flour, orange juice, cinnamon, ginger, and salt together in a large bowl (it’ll form a granular paste). Add the fruit and stir gently to combine. Arrange the fruit in one layer in a cast-iron skillet or other deep-sided baking dish.
2. Make the biscuit dough: Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Cut the chilled butter into small pieces. Incorporate the butter into the flour mixture with a fork (I find smooshing some of the bigger pieces of butter against the side of the bowl helps separate it into flaky pieces). Finally, add the buttermilk and briefly stir until just incorporated (don’t overmix; the dough will be sticky).
3. Use a spoon to portion the biscuit dough over the prepared fruit. Organizing this is easier if you start with a ring of biscuits around the outside of the skillet, finishing with the biscuits on the interior portion of the cobbler. Bake in the oven until the biscuits are browned on top and the fruit is bubbly, about 35 minutes, rotating the skillet halfway through. Allow to cool slightly before serving (the fruit filling will be quite hot).
