Friday, August 18, 2006

A lovely peach cobbler

Apple Crisp? Rhubarb Crumble? Peach Cobbler? These type of puddings were all unknown to me until I moved to Edinburgh and shared my kitchen with postgrads from all over the world, including lots of Canadian girls doing diplomas in education. Whereas I was baking Canadian apple cakes, they were throwing together apple crumbles and crisps in no time whatsoever. I was hooked. I mean, I still make MY CAKE regularly, but sometimes you just want something even easier. There are differences between all those puddings (if you cannot tell your crisp, betty, cobbler, crumble, buckle, pandowdy and grunt apart, then read this definitive guide by Martha Stewart); this particular cobbler was inspired by a recipe and picture seen over at eGullet.

I've reduced the quantities a little, as well as replaced the self-rising flour with plain flour. Using demerara sugar gave a delicious hint of caramel to the finished dish, and we devoured it with some fresh vanilla custard.

Peach cobbler
(Virsikuvormi retsept)
Adapted from Food Network
Serves 4-6




Peach compote:
6 large peaches, stoned and sliced
150 ml demerara sugar
75 ml water

To the tin:
100 grams butter

Batter:
300 ml plain flour
a pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder
200 ml sugar
300 ml milk

Put sliced peaches, sugar and water into a saucepan, shake to combine, and bring to the boil. Simmer on a low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring gently every now and then. Remove from the heat.

Take a medium-sized oven dish, put the butter into the dish and place into a 200 C oven to melt.

For the batter, mix sugar, flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix in the milk, little by little. Pour the batter onto the melted butter - do not mix!

Spoon the peach compote onto the batter, drizzle the sweet liquid on top.
Bake at 180 C for 30-45 minutes, until the cobbler is golden brown.

Serve with whipped cream, vanilla custard or vanilla ice cream.

UPDATE 18.8.2006
Sam included this post in her BlogHer entry "Once More Unto The Peach" - thank you, Sam!

UPDATE 21.8.2006
I made this cobbler again last night. My friend George came over to cook his famous lemon chicken in my kitchen for a mixed bunch of friends (George - a Greek/South African currently residing in the US, our friend Paul and his girlfriend Anjie - both English and studying/working in Edinburgh, and my Romanian friend Ruxandra who was visiting from England). I replaced about a fifth of the flour with wholemeal flour (simply because I ran out of plain flour), and scattered few handfuls of blackcurrants on top of the cobbler. Again, very tasty, the wholemeal flour making it somewhat more earthy and, well, wholesome, in flavour.

14 comments:

Kalyn Denny said...

I have great memories of my grandmother, and later my mother making this. It looks wonderful.

Anonymous said...

How delicious that looks! You're right that there's a lot of confusion around crisps, crumbles, cobblers and the like, but it doesn't really matter since they're all so good! By the way, are you going to see Claudia Roden next Friday?

K and S said...

mmm, looks delicious!

Anonymous said...

I had roast dinner tonight and this would have gone really lovely for afters with homemade fresh vanilla custard indeed!

Looks very enticing! Shame i've already committed myself to baking some cheese cake tomorrow!

Joycelyn said...

hi pille, awesome looking cobbler - i can just imagine the peachy, intense, sticky juices oozing with each golden bite!

Anonymous said...

Lovely peach cobbler, indeed!

Paz

jasmine said...

Hi Pille

A good peach cobbler is one of my many weaknesses.

Sweet, intensley peachy and steaming-hot, gilded with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream...it can't get much better than that :)

j

Pene said...

Looks scrumptious, Pille, but "Pour the butter onto the melted butter - " sentence doen't make sense to me. Do you mean "Pour the batter"?

Anonymous said...

It looks simply delicious. Compliments from Demerara, Guyana.

Anonymous said...

I guess I need to read that guide myself!
But I would get a piece of thie peach "thing" anytime!

Anonymous said...

Oh Pille, this looks absolutely lovely - I love the idea of using demerara sugar with the fruit.

Anonymous said...

My wife (Polish) is going through a similar learning experience with wacky Scottish food!
We've just been on a weekend in Scotland where she encountered Venison in chocolate sauce, Haggis, and other such goodies!

Anonymous said...

Last week I made the peach cobbler for some of my friends and they loved it. I scattered some blackberries, like you did before, and used white flour, it was dead easy to make and tasted fab. Highly recommended for the incoming winter days xxx

Pille said...

Kalyn - glad to bring back some nice memories!

Melissa - thank you! I hope to bake my way through all these different puddings during the coming winter. (Sadly, I'll miss Claudia Roden, as I have yet another wedding to attend)

K&S - thanks!

Mae - there's always another time, so no worries:)

J - believe me, 'the peachy, intense, sticky juices oozing' from the cobbler were delicious, and I really loved the slightly caramel-like crunch that demerara sugar yielded.

Paz - thank you!

Jasmine - it's addictive indeed - as you see, I made it again just two nights later. I'll try it with ice cream next time.

Pene - thanks for commenting, and for pointing out the typo -I've corrected it now.

Demerara Man/RedSpider - well, am sorry to hear you're not coming to Brussels (I could have baked a cobbler there for you:)

Bea- I'd be happy to give you a piece of this peach 'thing' anytime:) Maybe in return for some of your white chocolate muffins? :)

Keiko - I only have demerara sugar these days in my kitchen, and I like it a lot. Gives a nice crunch and caramel flavour to all my puddings.

Scott - venison in chocolate sauce? Like a venison mole you mean? Haggis is good, and I've now also tasted the infamous Scottish delicacy of deep-fried mars bar:)

Roxy - glad to hear that you liked the pudding enough to recreate it at home. Hope I'll get a chance to cook for you again soon!