Peach Cobbler
Nothing says summer like peaches. Good summer desserts should be able to be made with little fuss: a pile of fragrant, ripe fresh fruit, local if possible from a roadside stand, and a few staples from the everyday pantry. After eating your fill out of hand, a lightly sweetened stewed fruit filling can be topped with a roughly-shaped layer of plain old-fashioned biscuit dough. Probably peach cobbler is the most popular of the genre. Cobblers probably get their name from the method of spoon-dropping biscuit dough over the fruit, which bakes up into a lumpy, cobbled effect of golden-brown, sugar-crusted shortcake. The dessert is deceptively simple, with a balance of sweet and tart flavors. Cobblers tend to be juicy rather than thickened like a pie.
Use firm textured fruit from yellow freestone and clingstone varieties. It is simple to throw together and the most time-consuming part is peeling all the peaches . Peaches have velvety skins that will slip off when peeled with a paring knife, but for big jobs, place the firm fruits one at a time in a large slotted spoon and plunge into boiling water for a few seconds to loosen the peel. However, the prep work becomes completely worth it once you take the first bite of this dessert. The biscuit topping has very little sweetness, but it doesn’t need any because the peaches provide that component of the flavor. Normally I am all about the fruit in a dessert like this and the biscuit is really secondary, but these biscuits are really, really good. The fruit filling is fresh and perfectly juicy, and a bowl of this along with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is simply divine.
Serves 6
Peach Filling
6 cups fresh peaches (about 3 pounds), peeled, stoned, and thickly sliced
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons pure almond extract
Biscuit Dough
1 cup all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup cold plain whole milk yogurt, plus additional drops, if necessary (you will need some milk if you use thick Greek yogurt)
1 tablespoon sugar, for sprinkling
1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position. Preheat the oven to 400º (375º if using the glass pan). Arrange the fruit in a greased shallow 9-by-13-inch square Pyrex baking dish or 10- inch oval ceramic gratin dish. For the filling, peel the peaches and then cut each into 8 wedges, removing the pits as you go. Gently toss the peaches and sugar together in a large bowl and let stand for 30 minutes, tossing several times. Drain the peaches in a colander set over a bowl. Whisk together 1/4 cup of the drained juice with the cornstarch, lemon juice, and extract in a small bowl. Toss the peaches with the juice mixture and transfer to the baking dish. Place the fruit in the hot oven 10 minutes while preparing the biscuit dough topping.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl or food processor. Cut in the cold butter with a fork or by pulsing the processor until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make a well in the center and add the yogurt, mixing until just evenly moistened; do not overmix. Break the dough into 6 evenly sized but roughly shaped mounds and set aside.
3. Remove the warmed peaches from the oven. Plop the dough mounds on top, spacing them at least 1/2-inch apart (they should not touch). Sprinkle each mound with the some sugar. (Never completely cover the fruit layer with the dough; leave enough space for the steam to evaporate. The top dough will act as a lid during baking, creating the steam needed to cook the fruit in its own juices.) Immediately return to oven and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling, and the topping is golden brown and firm to the touch. Cool on a wire rack until warm, about 20 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature with ice cream or some cold plain heavy cream poured over.
