How to confidently bake summer’s favorite dessert by intuition  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

	Open in browser Welcome to the free issue of Between the Layers: An honest conversation about life through the lens of cooking and baking. If you want all the cobbler recipes this week, consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. Cobbler Week! Peach Cobbler with a Lattice Crust - No. 129 🍑 How to confidently bake summer’s favorite dessert by intuition Anne Byrn Jul 5 Happy July 4th week to all! If you didn’t get your fill of cobbler over the holiday weekend, you’re in the right place. Today I share a peach cobbler recipe from an old tea room in Atlanta, and it’s a recipe I could make over and over. And on Thursday I’ll share four more cobblers—blueberry, blackberry, cherry, and a lazy peach cobbler baked in an iron skillet—with my paid subscribers. Enjoy! Subscribe now Frances Virginia Fresh Peach Cobbler with Lattice Crust. You can absolutely use a mix of peaches and blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries in this recipe. What makes it different is that you add a little water to the peaches before the cobbler bakes. FOR THE LAST WEEK I’VE BEEN SWIMMING in peaches, blackberries, blueberries, sour cherries, pie pastry, and vanilla ice cream. And I’ve learned a few things. One, that my husband, the pie guy, is ready to renew our wedding vows. And two, your cobbler is not my cobbler. I was raised on peach cobbler with a pie crust on top, and sometimes on the bottom, too. My mom cut the top pastry into strips and weaved them, which I thought was just her being fancy. But it actually let the steam from the hot fruit escape, which translates to more flavor. The nuances of cobbler are interesting if you want to bake a better one. And who doesn’t? Cobbler is summer comfort. It is this wonderful food we can visit each summer with berry stains on our teeth and ice cream dribbling down our chins. It’s a food we don’t have to agree about, something rooted in history as people have ‘’cobbled’’ together leftover pastry scraps, fruit, and sugar. It’s a lot less pretentious than pie. There’s no first slice to worry about. You just spoon in. I know this first hand because, like I said, I baked cobblers all last week. Or so my waistline tells me. Blueberry Cobbler with a crunchy sweet biscuit topping. Half blueberries and half blackberries is nice. Also grated lemon zest or a splash of vanilla complements blueberries. Recipe is coming on Thursday, Why fruit desserts don’t work the same for everyone Last year this time, I made a note in my calendar to investigate cobblers because I read the whiny (sorry, it’s true) comments in a New York Times piece where people were upset a fruit crisp recipe didn’t work perfectly for them. In addition to our own fruit dessert DNA, we live in different places with different ingredients, different ovens and most importantly, different pans. So, instead of following a recipe, perhaps we should know enough to follow our intuition. If you bake a fruit cobbler or crisp in a 13- by 9-inch glass pan, which is how my mother made every cobbler of my memory, it’s going to be quite good. But, you can’t overfill that pan with too much fruit and then lay a crumble or crust on top and place it in a 350-oven and walk away, especially if you want a crispy crisp, a crumbly crumble or a cobbler with crust that browns to deliciousness. Fruit desserts are much about the pan. (And the best ripe fruit and oven temp too, but we’ll get to that…) If the pan is dark and large, like the Great Jones line of pans or even your granny’s cake pan that’s been charred from years of use, the cobbler will spread out and caramelize and have more surface area and have these incredibly darkened and flavorful corners and pockets. But if you try to cram the recipe in a smaller pan—that’s all you have, or you think it won’t take up so much space in the oven—the fruit will just steam as it cooks and never taste as good. To me, 6 cups fruit is perfect for a 13- by 9-inch glass pan, never more. And for a smaller recipe baked in a 9-inch pie pan, half that. I learned some other things, too…so I created a list of rules to help you bake cobblers right this year. Share I tossed a handful of blueberries into this blackberry cobbler and love how the two fruit play well together. This recipe coming Thursday has a crust on the bottom and top, and you bake it in the lower third of the oven for the crust to get nice and crispy. How to make a better cobbler? Follow these rules… Use ripe fruit in season. It will have the best flavor and be more affordable, too. Although, I did break the bank and order sour cherries for this testing after talking cherry cobbler with Robin Watson of The Detroit News. I ordered 10 pounds (the minimum) of fabulous King Orchards’ Montmorency cherries from northern Michigan, which cost $60 plus $74 in overnight shipping. They were FABULOUS and a good reason to think about moving to Michigan. But I’m not going to make a habit of it. You need 6 cups fruit for a rectangular pan and half that for a pie plate. When it comes to slicing peaches, depending on the size, count on about 12 peaches for 6 cups. And peel and slice them over a bowl to catch the juices, then pour those juices into the pan, too. Ask yourself, are you a crust person or not? Cobblers are generally for crust people. If not, make a crisp. I made a small cherry cobbler with store-brand frozen pie crust to begin my cobbler intensive, and it didn’t do the fruit justice. So I recommend you make a homemade crust. My crust recipe that follows can be made in a food processor and is easy-peasy to work with. On Thursday, the cherry cobbler recipe has a homemade double crust, soft on the bottom and crispy on top, and the blackberry cobbler has bottom crust and top. So lots of good stuff for crust people! Bake what you love. Cobbler memories are based on what we ate as children. You decide if it’s a latticed pastry, pastry on top and bottom, a biscuit topping, or a poured batter. Use the correct size pan. Said it one more time in case you missed it. For crispy pastry on the bottom of the pan, bake the cobbler in the lower third of the oven. If your oven bakes hot, make an adjustment in the recipe, but if your oven doesn’t bake as hot as you’d like it do, bake cobbler at a slightly higher heat to encourage bubbling and browning. And if your cobbler isn’t as browned as you want it to be when the cooking time is over, you can always run it under the broiler briefly to brown. Want the comfort of a soggy crust? Place pastry on the bottom as well as on top, but bake in the middle of the oven at 350 degrees. I know some of you are partial to a biscuit-like topping on cobblers, but IMHO only juicy fruits like blueberries and cherries, possibly peaches, work in these recipes. The biscuit topping bakes quickly but the fruit needs some time in the oven for the juices to cook down. So start those fillings of fruit and sugar on top of the stove first, to jumpstart things, and then pour this mixture into the pan and place on the biscuits, dropped or cut into circles or squares. Brush with milk and dust with sugar, then bake. If you rely on store-bought pastry, and I get it because I often do, too, buy the best you can. I like Trader Joe’s pastry sheets sold in the frozen section. Make sure you dab butter on top of the fruit to add the buttery flavor you are not getting from store-bought. Or brush the top of the pastry with milk and dust with cinnamon and sugar to dress it up. But really, honestly, you should make homemade crust. Use butter in your pie pastry, absolutely. My mother used Crisco, but butter is so much better in fruit pie crust. If you’re vegan, you get a pass. Raspberries are genius. I folded them into my blackberry cobbler because I ran out of blackberries and detected a touch of citrus, but there was no citrus. Add a handful to peach cobblers, too. You will see what I mean… Sour cherry cobbler is one of my favorites, especially because in Tennessee we don’t have access to fresh summer sour cherries. I ordered the Montmorency cherries from King Orchards, and they ship frozen, pitted cherries overnight. They’re expensive, but an incredible splurge for someone homesick for cherry cobbler. Recipe on Thursday. And a few other things: The recipes I share this week are thickened only slightly with a little flour that is mixed into the sugar. This is an old trick I learned from my mom’s friend Ella and it is a gentle way of thickening because you really want a juicy cobbler, not one that’s over-thickened. I’m not a big fan of cornstarch in cobbler because I think it makes the filling gluey. Buy good ice cream and taste it first. If it’s sweet, don’t over-sweeten the fruit. Warm up leftover cobbler for breakfast. Share cobbler with others. Make a dinner of cobbler. Invite people over and have them bring the ice cream. Bring in a helper to slice peaches. Make a day of it. Turn on peach cobbler-making music. And my favorites from a week of eating nothing but cobbler? This peach cobbler recipe, absolutely, and also the cherry cobbler I’m sharing on Thursday. And the blackberry, and the peach cooked in an iron skillet. I’m thrilled to finally know how to create cobbler at a moment’s notice! And to be confident doing so. All it took was a boatload of fruit, butter, sugar, and vanilla ice cream, a husband happy to help slice peaches, and weather too hot to leave the house! - xo, Anne What’s your favorite cobbler? Leave a comment Thursday for Paid Subscribers: Cobbler Part 2! Blueberry with biscuit topping, cherry with a double crust, blackberry lattice cobbler that could easily be a mixed berry cobbler if you need it to be, and the lazy-day peach cobbler everyone loves baked in a cast iron skillet. Why on earth did I bake all these cobblers? To figure it out, and take advantage of the glorious summer fruit! Don’t miss a recipe… Subscribe now How Do You Save Money on Food? With rising food prices, I’m collecting ideas on how to save money at the supermarket but still cook well. Several readers have asked me to write about this subject, and it’s one dear to my heart because I love cheap eats like beans and rice! Please share your cost-cutting ideas by taking this quick 5-question survey. I so appreciate. Take the Cheap Eats Survey 6 cups of Georgia Peach Truck peaches sliced and sugared and ready to be covered in pastry lattice. This recipe adds a little water to the peaches before baking to give a few more pan juices. Pastry can sometimes get stingy and soak up all the juices, so adding a little water is the trick in this recipe. THE RECIPE: Print the recipe Frances Virginia Peach Cobbler The recipe is adapted from the Frances Virginia Tea Room Cookbook by Mildred (Millie) Coleman. It’s a cookbook I’ve turned to through the years although when I was writing about food in Atlanta the tea room was long gone. Just reading this peach cobbler recipe for the first time made me feel like I was back in Georgia where like in other peach-producing states, everyone has peaches on the brain come summertime. So when my husband brought home a box of Peach Truck peaches, grown in Georgia, I babied and let those peaches ripen on the counter for four days before making this cobbler. I used a pan like my mother used, and I did add a whisper of cinnamon on top, which she wouldn’t have done, but I do think it makes a cobbler even more appealing. The pastry is my recipe, easy to throw together in the food processor. I put a range on the sugar because it really depends on the ripeness and natural sweetness in the peaches as to how much to add. Taste a few slices of peach before you make the cobbler. If they are sweet and perfect, hold back a couple tablespoons sugar, which you can always make up for with a scoop of ice cream. But if the peaches are flat, add a squeeze of lemon juice and the full amount of sugar. Or, add a handful of raspberries or blueberries to perk things up. Makes 8 servings Prep: 40 to 45 minutes Bake: 45 to 50 minutes Crust: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter 6 to 7 tablespoons ice water Filling: 6 heaping cups sliced fresh ripe peaches (from 12 to 15 peaches depending on their size) 1 cup sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour Pinch of salt To finish: 1/4 cup water 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces each 1 tablespoon milk, to brush the top 2 tablespoons sugar or cinnamon sugar, for sprinkling on top For the crust, place the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Cut the butter into small pieces and distribute around the bowl. With your fingertips, toss with the flour to separate them. Pulse the mixture 8 to 10 times, just to incorporate the butter. Add 6 tablespoons of the ice water, and pulse until the dough just comes together. Add the last tablespoon of water as needed until the dough pulls together and is moist but not sticky. Press down on the dough to make a disk, and wrap it in wax paper and chill while you prep the peaches. For the filling, peel and slice the peaches. Spoon them into a 13- by 9-inch casserole. Place the sugar in a small bowl, and stir in the flour and salt. Spoon the sugar mixture evenly over the top of the peaches. Set aside. Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove the dough from the fridge. Dust the counter with flour, and roll the dough to about 1/4- to 1/3-inch thickness. Cut it into 1/2-inch strips, or strips the width you like. To finish, pour the water over the peaches. Dot the peaches with the butter. Arrange the strips of pastry in a lattice pattern over the top of the peaches, and push the ends gently into the sides of the pan. To create a basket weave pattern, alternate over and under with every other strip. Brush the pastry with milk, and sprinkle generously with sugar or cinnamon sugar. Place the pan in the oven. Bake until the pastry is golden brown and the peach juices are bubbling, about 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven, let stand 20 minutes, then serve warm with ice cream. Like Comment Share You’re on the free list for Anne Byrn: Between the Layers. If you’re liking what you’re reading, why don’t you become a paying subscriber for more recipes, stories, and content. Subscribe now © 2022 Anne Byrn PO Box 159314, Nashville, TN, 37215 Unsubscribe

Posted in: