Friends, I am so excited to share this taste of summer with you with this peaches and cream cobbler recipe.
What makes this cobbler especially delicious is the addition of a cream cheese layer that is similar to cheesecake batter, turning this otherwise straightforward old-fashioned peach cobbler int a cream cheese peach cobbler.
Based on a standard, old-time “cuppa cuppa cuppa” cobbler recipe, this cobbler is so creamy and lovely you might not need any whipped cream or ice cream on top. But use some anyway.
For another couple of easy fruity desserts, you may like my cherry cobbler or lazy peach sonker, which is a cobbler by another name!
For ease of browsing, here are all of my cobblers, crisps and more. Thanks so much for visiting!
Simply delicious!!! Very easy to make.
Reader Mimi
Hooray for Peaches
I live in North Carolina, and peach season is a joy here. South Carolina peaches are also wonderful (maybe even better than NC peaches, but don’t tell anyone I said that!)
During the summer, I am a fan of using peaches in both sweet and savory recipes. If you’re as big a peach fan as I am, check out some of these recipes.
- Another sonker, this strawberry peach sonker has a lattice crust and gets served with “milk dip,” which sounds super weird until you realize it tastes like melted ice cream.
- Blueberry peach pandowdy is one of the easiest fruit desserts: just dump in your seasoned fruits and then top with pieces of pie crust. Nice!
- Peaches and cream take the form of ice cream in this browned butter peach buttermilk ice cream. So refreshing for summertime.
- Highlight the “meatiness” of peaches by serving them in a tomato peach panzanella or bread salad. Dress it with an easy vinaigrette made from the peach and tomato juices, a touch of vinegar, and olive oil.
This Peach Cobbler is for You If
Not every recipe is for everyone, so take a look at this list of Cobbler Attributes and decide if this sounds like a fruity dessert you can get behind.
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You’ll love this cobbler if you:
✅Enjoy fruity cheesecake
✅Like to put fresh peaches on cereal and then douse it with milk
✅Don’t like a lot of fussy measurements and want an easy dessert
✅You have some self-rising flour that needs a job
✅Think ginger and cinnamon are the perfect spices to use with peaches
✅Like a cakey cobbler rather than a biscuit or pastry type
Decided yet? Cool.
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How to Make Peaches and Cream Cobbler
Here are the ingredients and the steps you’ll use to make this dessert. I will offer substitutions where it makes sense to do so. If you don’t need tips or step-by-step guidance, feel free to jump straight to the recipe.
What You Need
You probably own all or most of these Items already since most are pantry staples. Here are the ingredients:
- fresh peaches (or frozen): If you don’t have really ripe fresh peaches, use frozen. They are picked at their peak, so even when fresh are out of season or not yet ripe, frozen peaches will be perfect. You can also substitute any stone fruit here, so cherries, nectarines, apricots, plums, etc (or a mixture) will all work. No need to peel the fruits with non-fuzzy skin, but I always like to peel peaches since their skins are thicker.
- self-rising flour: Provides the bulk of the cakey/cobblery topping. Self-rising flour is all purpose flour to which leavener and salt has been added. If you don’t have self-rising flour, substitute all purpose plus 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt for each cup of flour.
- ground ginger: You can also add some minced crystallized ginger or a little grated fresh ginger for more zing.
- ground cinnamon: ginger and cinnamon provide the spicing, along with the floral notes of zest and mellow, rounding vanilla. To keep the focus on the ginger, consider using nutmeg rather than cinnamon
- sugar: Provides sweetness, keeps the cake-like batter moist, assists with browning, and brings out the flavors in all the spices. You can substitute raw sugar or brown sugar if you’d like. Feel free to use coconut sugar, but know that the color of the batter and the peaches themselves will be much darker if using coconut sugar.
- milk: Provides liquid for the batter plus a little bit of milk protein for browning. I like to use whole milk, but feel free to substitute 2% if you’d rather. You may also use a plant-based milk.
- salt: brings all the flavors into focus
- cream cheese: Adds a subtle tang, a ton of creaminess, and plays beautifully with the peaches. You can leave it out, but wow is it delicious. The cream cheese layer is comprised of a cheesecake-like batter consisting of the cream cheese, some sugar, the zest, vanilla, and heavy cream.
- lemon zest: Flavors the cream cheese batter
- vanilla: Adds a mellow and familiar flavor note to the cream cheese batter
- heavy cream: Loosens up the cream cheese layer without sacrificing creaminess. You may sub half and half or whole milk here if you’d like.
- butter: Melting the butter in the pan before adding the batters and fruit ensures crisp edges and plenty of browning. Fat also carries flavor, so there you go!
Procedure
The components are the cake batter, the peaches themselves, and the “cheesecake” batter. Here’s how you bring everything together:
- Combine milk, self-rising flour, spices, salt, and sugar to make the cake batter.
- Melt the butter in the pan you’ll be baking in.
- Peel and slice the peaches. Or use frozen. They’ll work just as well.
- Combine cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, salt, and heavy cream to make the cream cheese goodness.
- Dump the cake batter into the pan with the melted butter.
- Spread the peaches over the batter.
- Drizzle the cream cheese layer over the peaches.
- Bake until golden brown and delicious.
How Do I Peel the Peaches?
If you are using super-ripe peaches, they will be easy to peel with a sharp paring knife.
- Make a cut into the peach right under the skin and parallel to the fruit.
- Grasp the “flap” of peach peel you’ve cut under with your thumb and then slowly pull the knife down and away from the fruit.
- The peeling should come off in long strips.
- Continue this way until the peach is completely peeled.
If your peaches are less than perfectly ripe, the skin might not easily peel away from the fruit.
In that case, you’ll need to blanch the peaches. Here’s how to do that:
Blanching the Fruit
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Make an ice bath, filling a large bowl with ice and then topping off with water.
- Cut a large “X” on the “bottom” or blossom end of the peach (not the end with the stem), scoring the skin about 3″ in either direction.
- Place the scored peaches in the boiling water and let them boil for 1 minute.
- Scoop them out with a large spoon or a spider and put them in the ice bath to cool for about 5 minutes.
- You should now be able to grab the peeling at the “X” with your fingers, or use a paring knife as described above, and peel off the skin.
Slicing the Peaches: Freestone vs Cling
There are two basic types of peaches, ones whose fruit is not tightly attached to the pits (freestone peaches) and ones whose fruit is very much attached to the pits (cling peaches).
Both are delicious and both will work in cobblers, but you’ll need to approach them differently.
For freestone peaches, you can simply cut into the peach in sections and the slices will come away from the pits cleanly (see photo below).
For cling peaches, you will have an easier time slicing the peaches if you take the pit out of the equation altogether.
After peeling your peaches, simply slice down each side of the peach from top to bottom to one side of the pit and then the other. This will give you two rather large semicircles of peach called “cheeks.”
Then slice off the remaining flesh from the other two sides of the pit.
This is the way you’d normally slice a mango, but just on a smaller scale. If you need a visual, here’s a great video showing how to peel a mango.
Cut each “cheek” into sections and leave the last two slices as is. Done!
I made this recipe for the fourth of July. I kept saying I would make “peaches and cream cobbler” but what I really meant was crumble, however by the time I said “crumble” my boyfriend was already excited about cobbler, so I found this recipe. And I’m glad I did!
Reader Jill
Storing/Reheating/Freezing
- Storing: Because of the cream cheese, I recommend storing this cobbler in the fridge. It will be fine for 4-5 days, although you may get some “weeping” and a bit of watery peach juice in the pan after the first day.
- Reheating: One minute in the microwave should be enough to bring it to a nice temperature.
You can also reheat, covered with foil, in a toaster oven or your conventional oven at 350F until heated through. This will take about 15 minutes or so. To minimize reheating time, remove the cobbler from the fridge a good 45 minutes to an hour before placing in the oven. - Freezing: You can freeze this cobbler, but I think you’ll enjoy it more if you eat it within 4-5 days of making.
You can freeze the whole cobbler after it is baked and cooled, or you can freeze individual portions.
Make sure you wrap it well in plastic wrap and foil. Either way, thaw in the fridge for 24 hours and then reheat in a 350F oven or in the microwave before serving.
Peaches & Cream Cobbler Q & A
Absolutely. When in season, fresh is best, but frozen peaches are always picked and frozen when they’re nice and ripe. No need to thaw them before adding to the recipe.
Sure. You can cut down the butter to 1/2 stick and substitute Neufchatel cheese for the cream cheese. Leave out the heavy cream from the cheese mixture, or substitute some whole milk.
Substitute your favorite gluten-free flour blend and add leavening and salt. (1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt).
You can, but the texture is better warm. Since the butter is “free” and poured into the pan first, it hardens into wee little butter pebbles throughout the cobbler. Heat your leftovers at least until the butter melts, about 95F or so.
Serving Suggestions
This cobbler is lovely all by itself, but if you’re feeling fancy, top it with some hand-whipped cream. And for super-fancy occasions, spice the cream with some ginger and lemon zest.
A scoop of ice cream would also be lovely. Go simple with a scoop of French Vanilla ice cream or brown butter ice cream, or go all-in with peaches and top with peach ice cream.
And if you want a bit of crunch on top of your creamy peach cobbler, consider topping it with streusel before baking. Never a bad choice!
More Peach Recipes
If summer peaches are in season for you, you may also want to try my peach breakfast cake. Based loosely on my blueberry buckle recipe (which is also really tasty), it is scented with vanilla, almond extract, and lemon zest and features a ton of diced peaches in a part-cornmeal batter.
And for another twist on cobbler, spiced lazy peach sonker is a gooey, sweet, beautifully-spiced cobbler served with a creamy vanilla sauce. If you’ve not met a sonker, it’s a cobbler-type native to only 2 counties in North Carolina. It’s worth getting to know!
Questions?
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Old Fashioned Peach Cobbler
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Cream Cheese Layer
- 8 oz block cream cheese very soft (1 block)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest (zest of 1 medium lemon)
- 2 Tablespoons heavy cream
For the Batter
- 1 cup self rising flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Pan
- 4 oz butter (1 stick)
To Finish and Bake
- 4-5 large ripe peaches peeled and sliced
Instructions
- Set a rack in the center of your oven and preheat to 350F.
For the Cream Cheese Layer
- Mix together the cream cheese, sugar, salt, and lemon zest until smooth. You can do this by hand in a small bowl as long as your cream cheese is very soft.
- Mix in the heavy cream, and set aside.
For the Batter
- Whisk all dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk together the milk and the vanilla.
- Pour the milk into the dry mixture and mix just until combined.
To Prepare the Pan
- Choose a 9"x13" baking dish or a square or round baker with a similar capacity. If you use a 9"x9" pan, your cobbler will be deeper and will take a bit longer to bake.
- For whatever pan you choose, place a cold stick of butter into the pan and put it into the oven.
- It will take about 5-7 minutes for all the butter to melt.
- While it is melting, prepare the peaches.
To Finish and Bake
- Peel 4-5 large ripe peaches. If they are very ripe, they're easy to peel. Use a sharp paring knife to slice right under the skin. Use your thumb to "pinch" the peach skin between it and the knife blade and then pull away. The skin should come off in large strips. Repeat until done.
- Slice the peaches into about 1/2-3/4" slices.
- Once the butter has melted, carefully remove the pan from the oven.
- Pour in the batter, then pile on the peaches making sure to place them so the edges gets peaches too!
- Drizzle the cream cheese mixture evenly over the peaches and then return the pan to the oven.
- Bake until deeply golden brown and bubbling all over. If the batter seems to be browning too much, loosely tent the pan with foil. To use an instant-read thermometer to test for doneness in the center, check for a temperature of at least 195F.
- Remove from oven and cool to warm before serving plain, with ice cream, whipped cream, or even unsweetened Greek yogurt of sour cream.
- Store leftovers covered in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat portions in the microwave until warm.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Video
Notes
No Self-Rising Flour?
If you don’t have self-rising flour, substitute 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.What’s Up with All That Butter in the Baking Dish in the Oven?
Weirdly, one of the ways to tell your cobbler is done is when all the butter has been absorbed. In the photo of the cobbler in the oven, it still needed about 15 minutes. I thought it was dark enough, so I tented it with foil at this point. By the time the cobbler finished baking, there was no longer "free" butter floating on top of the cream cheese layer.Ways To Make It a Little Healthier (but It’ll Never be Health Food!)
- You can sub 1% or 2% milk for the whole milk in the batter
- Cut down some on fat by using 1/2 stick of butter instead of a whole stick
- Use Neufchatel cheese in place of the cream cheese
- Use a sugar substitute for the granulated sugar. My preference is the Lakanto Monkfruit/Erithritol blend
- In the cream cheese layer, substitute milk for the heavy cream
Nutrition
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And there you have it friends! Enjoy the old-fashioned “cuppa cuppa cuppa” peach cobbler.
Thanks for spending some time with me today. Take care, and have a lovely day.
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I made this recipe for the fourth of July. I kept saying I would make “peaches and cream cobbler” but what I really meant was crumble, however by the time I said “crumble” my boyfriend was already excited about cobbler, so I found this recipe. And I’m glad I did!
I had 4 ripe peaches and 2 unripe, so I blanched the 2 unripened peaches, but by the time I had peeled one ripe peach the water had boiled for the unripened ones and they were finished blanching, so I blanched the ripe peaches too! Much easier and faster! One peach was bad in its core, so I used 5 peaches total.
I halved the sugar in the cake batter, and I started with softened butter (not cold) but it came out well.
One tip I have is to tip the bowl AWAY from you when pouring the batter into the melted butter, if you don’t want the butter to splash you!