Carolina Peach Cobbler
Juicy peaches cooked until melting under a soft, cake-like crust, golden and crackled with sugar. Served warm, ideally with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Juicy peaches cooked until melting under a soft, cake-like crust, golden and crackled with sugar. Served warm, ideally with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
When Carolina peaches come in, late July, so full of juice they run down your chin, there's only one thing to do: make a cobbler. You don't need to be fancy, honey — you cut your peaches, sugar them, pour the batter on top, and the oven does the rest. The crust rises up around the fruit, it caramelizes on the edges, and you serve it warm with a spoonful of ice cream melting over it. All of summer is in that bite.
- •Ripe Carolina peaches — a large basket (fruit)
- •Sugar — generously (sweetness, syrup)
- •Flour, butter, milk — for the batter (soft crust)
- •Cinnamon, nutmeg — a pinch (spices)
Carolina Peach Cobbler
Juicy peaches cooked until melting under a soft, cake-like crust, golden and crackled with sugar. Served warm, ideally with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Why this dish? South Carolina, Andie MacDowell's home state, is unofficially called the "Peach State" and produces more peaches than Georgia. Peach cobbler, the quintessential late-summer dessert, closes Southern family meals.
When Carolina peaches come in, late July, so full of juice they run down your chin, there's only one thing to do: make a cobbler. You don't need to be fancy, honey — you cut your peaches, sugar them, pour the batter on top, and the oven does the rest. The crust rises up around the fruit, it caramelizes on the edges, and you serve it warm with a spoonful of ice cream melting over it. All of summer is in that bite.
Ingredients (period version)
- Ripe Carolina peaches — a large basket (fruit)
- Sugar — generously (sweetness, syrup)
- Flour, butter, milk — for the batter (soft crust)
- Cinnamon, nutmeg — a pinch (spices)
Ingredients
- Ripe peaches — 6 to 8 (about 1 kg) (fruit)
- Sugar — 200 g (some for fruit) (sweetness, syrup)
- Flour — 150 g (batter)
- Butter — 100 g (crust)
- Milk — 180 ml (batter)
- Baking powder — 2 tsp (leavening)
- Cinnamon and nutmeg — to taste (spices)
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Melt butter directly in the baking dish.
- Peel and slice peaches, toss with some of the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg; let them release some juice.
- Prepare batter by mixing flour, remaining sugar, baking powder, and milk until smooth.
- Pour batter over the melted butter in the dish — do not stir.
- Spoon peaches and their juices over the batter; the batter will rise around the fruit during baking.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes until the crust is golden and crackled. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
How it was made : Cobbler was born from American colonists' ingenuity: lacking proper pie ovens, they topped fruit with a rustic batter baked in a deep dish. The name likely refers to the "cobbled" appearance of the irregular crust. In the South, the local peach is the star ingredient.
The contemporary twist : A touch of lemon zest and fresh grated ginger in the fruit to brighten the sweetness — a "red carpet" version.
Andie MacDowell · Charactorium