This easy cobbler recipe showcases the flavors of fresh peaches and blueberries in a dessert everyone will love! It consists of a juicy fruit layer topped by a biscuit dough that bakes to a golden brown and is terrific served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It can be made ahead using fresh or frozen fruit.
What is a cobbler?
It's a baked dessert with a layer of fruit and a starchy topping.
The fruit bakes and releases its juices while the top dries and turns golden brown. A fantastic and very easy-to-make dessert!
There are different types of toppings or top crust, as it's sometimes called. We have a whole post dedicated to fruit cobblers, with recipes and tips.
Drop biscuits, the type we're using for this recipe today is a wetter, spoonable dough that can be lightly spread, as we do for our popular Pear 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 and 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
- Blueberries: use fresh blueberries when available, or frozen ones. They both work very well.
- Peaches: using fresh peaches is the first option. Frozen peach slices and canned peaches can be substituted during the off-season. Nectarines also work wonderfully.
- Lemon: fresh lemon juice is highly encouraged and not bottled stuff.
- 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 to buy one of them.
- Whole milk or buttermilk.
- Unsalted butter.
- All-purpose flour.
- Salt: I like to use kosher salt when baking. But regular table salt works just fine.
- Baking powder: make sure it's not expired.
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 hold their shape somewhat.
- Blueberries: you only need to wash them if fresh and 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, where you might not have access to many utensils.
- Mixing the ingredients: 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: will thicken the fruit juices, and it's optional. Use it if you like a thicker, richer sauce and don't if you like a lighter, more summery bite. We add it to most fruit cobblers, but for this recipe with mixed fruit we're letting the natural juicy blueberries and peaches do their thing. So it's up to you.
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:
- Put the peaches in boiling water and boil for 30 seconds.
- Immediately place them in a bowl with iced water and leave for 30 seconds.
- Scrape the skin with your finger and peel down. It will come out easily.
- 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 simple dough that involves mixing a few ingredients in a bowl.
- Dry ingredients: include flour, baking powder, salt (the flour mixture), and white sugar.
- Wet ingredients: in this recipe, it's the milk and melted butter. They are added at once to the dry ones.
- 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: the peach blueberry filling and the dough layer.
Preparing the baking dish: I don't butter it, but you can. It will add some extra flavor and mix with the juices.
The biscuit topping: put it in mounds on top of 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 you'll serve later.
Baking a fruit cobbler
TIP #1: make sure the topping mounds have space around them to allow the fruit to 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 because the juices have space to bubble up freely.
When is the cobbler done? The tricky part is ensuring 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.
Family style desserts
Cobblers are baked in ceramic or glass dishes and then taken to the table. They are not removed from the pan. Similar to dump cakes.
What type of dish to use
Choosing a nice baking dish you like to showcase on the table is a good idea.
For me, ceramic ones are the best. I use my favorite Emile Henry small ceramic rectangular dish or the medium Emile Henry ceramic dish whenever possible, but they can be pricey.
Several others, from rectangular ceramic dishes, and porcelain bakeware sets, to glass baking dishes or round ceramic baking dishes, work just fine.
Also, a cast-iron skillet fits this type of dessert if you like a Southern style.
Kitchen notes
- Organization: read the recipe first and ensure you have ingredients at the correct temperature, equipment, and enough workspace. This will make the process so much easier!
- Baking time: keep in mind that all ovens and pans are different, even if they look the same or very similar. The baking time in my recipes is as accurate as it can be, but it might take you more or less time. You can use a thermometer inside the oven (like the OXO oven thermometer) to check that your oven is at the right temperature. I recommend you keep track of how your oven works and what tiny details you might need to adjust.
- Make ahead: you can make the cobbler up to two days before, let it cool down completely, and keep it refrigerated well covered with plastic wrap or in an airtight container.
- Pan sizes: the dish size mentioned in the recipe instructions above is good for 6 servings. You can easily double or triple this recipe, make half the recipe or a recipe and a half. Use larger or smaller baking dishes accordingly and adjust to differences in baking times, which should not be considerable if you scale the pan size correctly.
- Serving a cobbler: you can eat it plain, at room temperature, and slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.
- Extra crunch: you can sprinkle an extra tablespoon of sugar on top of the cobbler dough before popping it into the oven.
- Flavoring variations: orange or tangerine is another citrus that works very well in a peach blueberry cobbler recipe. It's not as sharp as lemon, so it will add a little more sweetness. Also, a dash of ground cinnamon and/or a few drops of vanilla extract are a delicious addition to this mixed fruit dessert.
- Other fruits: I love mixing peaches and blueberries, but this wonderful stone fruit also works well with blackberries or cherries.
Related recipes you might like:
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Blueberry Peach Cobbler
Ingredients
For the fruit layer:
- 2 pounds of peaches, before removing stones (about 1.6 pounds peeled and cored)
- 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen without thawing
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¼ cup water
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch, optional, see Notes below
For the topping:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon lemon zest, optional if you want more lemon flavor
- 4 tablespoons ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup milk
- ¼ cup butter, melted
Instructions
For the fruit layer:
- Blueberries: wash the berries and reserve.
- Peaches: wash, dry, and remove the stone (core) from the peaches if using them with skin. Cut in slices or small chunks. You might want to peel them before cutting them, which is very easy to do.
- Dump the fruit onto an 11 x 7-inch glass or ceramic dish (I don't butter it, but you absolutely can) and spread evenly. Or use a large mixing bowl to mix all the fruit part ingredients first and then pour them onto the baking dish.
- Sprinkle the brown sugar over the fruit layer.
- Drizzle the lemon juice and ¼ cup of water over the sugar. You can lightly mix everything if you want to.
For the biscuit dough:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and lemon zest (if using) in a medium bowl.
- Pour the melted butter and milk. Quickly mix with a wooden spoon, rubber spoon, or rubber spatula. It all needs to be incorporated, but don't beat or over mix.
- Drop 6 mounds onto the fruit filling, making two rows of 3. Leave space between them, especially around the edges, so that the fruit juices can bubble up during baking.
- Bake for about 35-40 minutes and check to see if the biscuits are fully baked. They will be golden and dry on top but lift one of them a bit with a fork and check that there's no unbaked dough. Sometimes they look perfect and the juices are bubbling, but there's still some raw dough inside.
- Bake it 5-10 more minutes if this is the case, or until it's fully baked when you lift it a bit. You might want to cover the whole surface with a piece of aluminum foil to prevent the topping from darkening while it continues baking.
- Let cool on a wire rack until warm enough to serve.
- Serve it plain, at room temperature, but it's really great slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, or a dollop of whipped cream.
- Refrigerate leftovers, covered with plastic wrap or in an airtight container.
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