Peach Blueberry Cobbler

About this recipe

This is a modern take on an old-fashioned peach cobbler recipe, one of those great recipes that appear in vintage cookbooks that stand the test of time.

• Fresh or frozen fruit: you can use both types, so take advantage of peach season when it hits, but also know that you can make it year-round with frozen peach slices and blueberries.
• Easy dessert: it comes together fast and can be made a day or two ahead.
• Dessert for a crowd: it can easily be doubled or tripled, so this is a great recipe for gatherings, picnics, barbecues, and other informal celebrations that involve several hungry people.

Ingredients

They're not many and they're everyday staples.

• Blueberries: I always use fresh blueberries when available, but I've also made this recipe with frozen ones. They both work very well.
• Peaches. Using fresh peaches is the way to go but use frozen peach slices if not in season. The result is far superior to when you use canned peaches, IMO. Nectarines also work wonderfully.
• Lemon: fresh lemon juice is highly encouraged and not bottled stuff. And lemon zest can be added for more flavor and some acidity to balance out the sugar and butter.
• Sugar: the recipe uses granulated white sugar for the topping and brown sugar for the fruit filling. You can use only one if that's all you have. Don't go to the grocery store just to buy one of them.
• Milk: whole milk is what I normally use, but buttermilk and reduced-fat work fine.
• Unsalted butter.
• Flour: I use all-purpose flour or cake flour with good results in both cases.
• Salt: I like to use kosher salt when baking. But regular table salt works just fine.
• Baking powder: make sure it's not expired as it helps the batter grow so it's a light texture and not a caked one.

The fruit mixture

Whether you use fresh or frozen fruit, you want the peaches to be ripe but not overly ripe. As they bake, they will soften and we want them to somewhat hold their shape.

Blueberries: you only need to wash them if fresh, and simply dump them onto the baking dish if frozen, straight from the freezer.

How to cut the peaches: I like medium chunks that can be eaten directly and don't need to be cut, especially when eating outdoors when you might not want to use so many utensils.

Mixing the ingredients: you can use a large bowl to mix everything (an extra item to wash later, just saying) and then dump them into the prepared baking dish, or do it directly in the baking pan you're using.

Using cornstarch: I sometimes use it but not always. It will thicken the fruit juices and I love it with most fruit cobblers, like the fresh pear cobbler or the strawberry cobbler recipe. But for this recipe with mixed fruit, I'm letting the natural juicy blueberries and peaches do their thing. So it's up to you. Use it if you like a thicker, richer sauce and don't if you like a lighter more summery bite.

How to easily peel peaches

Peeling the peaches for me depends if the peach skin is thin or quite thick, which is not super nice to bite into. Peeling them is very easy:

1. Put the peaches in boiling water and boil for 30 seconds.
2. Immediately place them in a bowl with iced water and leave for 30 seconds.
3. Scrape the skin with your finger and peel down. It will come out easily.
4. Cut the peaches with a knife in half but it will be halfway because the stone is still inside. From the top hold one half with each hand and pull outwards. It should open quite easily. Take out the stone.

The biscuit topping

It's a very simple dough that involves mixing a few ingredients in a bowl.

• Dry ingredients: they include flour, baking powder, salt (known as the flour mixture), and white sugar. Image 1
• Wet ingredients: in this recipe, it's the milk and melted butter. They are added at once to the dry ones. Image 2
• Mixing: use a spoon, rubber spatula, or wire whisk to mix the cobbler batter *just* until combined. Don't beat or overmix.

Assembling the cobbler

It has two steps that we talked about before, the peach blueberry filling and the dough layer.

What type of dish to use: fruit desserts like this one are generally served directly from the pan, so choose a nice baking dish, one you like to showcase on the table. For me, ceramic ones are the best (I'm using my favorite Emile Henry small ceramic rectangular dish) but a glass baking dish or a cast-iron skillet both work for this type of dessert.

Preparing the baking dish: I don't butter it, but you absolutely can. It will add some extra flavor and mix with the juices and will usually thicken them just slightly.

The biscuit topping: put it in mounds over the fruit and you can lightly spread it if you wish. But don't cover the whole layer of fruit. Make sure there's space around them for the fruit juices to bubble up during baking. It's a great way to divide the portions that you'll be serving later.

Baking a fruit cobbler

TIP #1: make sure the topping mounds have some space around them to let the fruit bake better. You can lightly spread it if you wish. But don't cover the whole layer of fruit. This will help the biscuit bake better also because the juices have space to bubble up freely.

When is the cobbler done? The tricky part is making sure the inside of the biscuit dough is fully cooked. So check by lifting a piece of dough with a fork and checking that it's not still wet inside.