Old Fashioned Peach Cobbler (Peaches & Cream Cobbler)

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 grilled chicken filet “burger” gets topped with peaches instead of tomatoes. Love it!
• Quinoa and Nectarine Slaw can easily be made with peaches for a refreshing and satisfying summer salad.
• Don’t forget beverages! Sparkling peach sangria will definitely hit the spot this summer (or use frozen peaches to make it any time of year.)

Is This Cobbler Hard to Make?

Not at all. Here are the components and the steps you’ll use to make it:

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.
• sugar: Provides sweetness, moisture, brownability 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.
• 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.

1. Make a cut into the peach right under the skin and parallel to the fruit.
2. 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.
3. The peeling should come off in long strips.
4. 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

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
2. Make an ice bath, filling a large bowl with ice and then topping off with water.
3. 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.
4. Place the scored peaches in the boiling water and let them boil for 1 minute.
5. Scoop them out with a large spoon or a spider and put them in the ice bath to cool for about 5 minutes.
6. 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 altogther.

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!

Storing Instructions

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

Do reheat to serve. 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

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.