Peach Cobbler and Back-to-School

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Back in May - just as school was about to let out for summer vacation - we headed over to Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek for their annual Peach Festival.

In the late spring sunshine, as the days in the desert were just starting to get robustly hot we picked a bounty of delicious peaches, which resulted in us making this peach ice cream. But there were many peaches left over. So like any good Martha we took the ripe peaches and peeled, pitted and sliced them up. Then sprinkled them with sugar and lemon juice and stuck them in the freezer.

Here it is time for school to start again, and we have pulled out the frozen peaches. This week is about new backpacks, the smell of freshly sharpened pencils, new packs of crayons, lunchboxes, and for dessert peach cobbler.

To make the filling, first we defrosted our peaches. You could also start with 1 ½ pounds of fresh peaches, pitted and cut into slices. In a bowl combine with ¼ to ½ cup sugar depending on the sweetness of the fruit along with one tablespoon cornstarch and one tablespoon lemon juice. Stir to combine and then pour into a 2-quart baking dish.

For the topping stir together one cup of flour with 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda and ¼ teaspoon salt. Next, take 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter cut into small cubes and with your fingers mix it into the flour mixture.

We kept sort of smashing the butter into the mixture until it turned into a crumbly (though still powdery) meal. Add 2/3 cup buttermilk and stir until a wet, sticky dough forms. We dropped the dough by sticky clumps across the peaches until we had covered the baking dish. Bake at 350 until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden, 35 to 45 minutes.

This cobbler is sweet with out being overly so, and the topping is like a puffy biscuit. That we started with such flavorful fruit certainly enhanced the finished product. We prefer it best served warm with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar across the top or a scoop of vanilla ice cream as we swap stories about the first days of school.

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