I Tried 4 Popular Peach Cobbler Recipes and the Best Was Also the Easiest

It’s not likely summer season till you’ve scooped recent peach cobbler onto an already-overloaded paper plate at a yard BBQ. The basic summer season dessert of juicy recent peaches and candy cake (or pastry!) is without doubt one of the solely causes I’ll get close to my oven within the warmth of July or August.

To me, the right peach cobbler is filled with peak-season fruit lined in a candy, buttery topping. It doesn’t matter whether or not that topping is extra like pie crust, cake, or a biscuit: So long as it’s crisp and golden-brown, I’m comfortable.

On this recipe showdown, I wished to seek out the key to the right peach cobbler. Does pie crust, biscuit dough, or cake batter make the most effective cobbler? Do peak summer season peaches style greatest with sugar and spices, or only a squeeze of lemon? What’s the most effective proportion of peach to pastry? I went into the kitchen to seek out out.

I started by narrowing my search to recipes that used recent peaches. Many fashionable cobblers are made with canned or frozen fruit, however throughout peak peach season in July and August, recent is the one option to go. I’ve eaten a fair proportion of cobblers throughout the South, and people topped with pie crust are simply as genuine and scrumptious as these baked with biscuits or cake batter. Due to that, I included recipes that showcased quite a lot of toppings.

Edna Lewis‘ recipe straddles the road between cobbler and pie, but when this culinary icon calls it a cobbler, then who am I to say in any other case? First you make Lewis’ old style lard pastry crust. Put half of the crust in your pan, sprinkle with granulated sugar, then high with recent, sliced peaches. Add extra sugar, pats of butter, and weave a lattice with the remaining crust. I used to be intrigued.

It doesn’t get simpler than Southern Living’s four-step recipe, the place recent peaches simmer with sugar and lemon juice till tender and syrupy. Then, within the comforting custom of dump desserts, you layer melted butter, the syrupy peaches, and a straightforward cake batter in a baking pan — with out stirring any of it collectively.

Garden & Gun’s peach cobbler flavors the peaches with heat spices like ginger, allspice, and cinnamon, after which tops them with tangy buttermilk biscuits. I had by no means made a cobbler with so many heat spices, and I used to be curious to know if it was the key I’d been in search of.

Renee Erikson’s recipe for peach cobbler is like nothing I’ve seen earlier than. This recipe requires twice the quantity of peaches of any recipe within the showdown and flavors them with simply lemon zest and juice. Cake batter is unfold excessive of the peaches, then showered with a layer of granulated sugar. Simply earlier than baking, you drizzle scorching water over the whole dish. It could both be good or go horribly flawed, and I couldn’t wait to seek out out.

I ready every of the 4 recipes on the identical day precisely as written. I tasted all of them at room temperature, and once more after being reheated in a low oven. I used the identical model of sugar, flour (aside from the recipe that known as for self-rising flour), butter, vanilla, and many others. to restrict the variables between recipes. I bought recent peaches of comparable ripeness from the identical grocer on a single day.

In my seek for the right peach cobbler, I used to be in search of a recipe wherein the recent peaches took heart stage. However on this recipe, the tangy buttermilk crust was the star, leaving me looking with each spoonful for extra peach items. The flavour of the fragile candy summer season fruit was additionally overwhelmed by a trio of heavy spices, making it higher fitted to autumn.

That mentioned, the cobbler got here collectively shortly and the biscuit-Iike topping was tremendous tasty — tender and tender with a slight tang from the buttermilk. So for those who like your cobbler heavy on the topping and light-weight on the fruit, that is the recipe for you.

I’ve made and cherished lots of Edna Lewis’ recipes, and now I perceive why everybody loves this one, too. Piling the peaches between two layers of lard-based pie crust means you don’t have to decide on between pie and cobbler! Plus, the golden lattice crust makes for a stupendous presentation. This cobbler was additionally the smallest of the bunch, which makes it nice for a weeknight dessert.

My solely qualm is that whereas the highest crust was flaky, the underside crust remained doughy due to the juicy peach filling. Subsequent time, I’ll skip the sauce (the cobbler was candy sufficient with out it) and simply add the nutmeg and orange zest to the peach filling.

Seattle-based chef and restauranteur Renee Erikson inherited this recipe when she took over the now-shuttered Boat Avenue Cafe from Susan Kaplan. It was the one recipe of the 4 that didn’t require peeling the peaches, and now I’m perpetually a convert. The skins gave the peach items a rosy sundown hue and, to my shock, they didn’t give the filling an unappealing texture. This recipe known as for far more peaches than any of the opposite recipes, and also you know I’m right here for that! Flavoring the peaches with simply lemon zest and juice additionally let their candy, floral taste shine.

Probably the most intriguing a part of this recipe, nonetheless, is its hot-water and sugar crust. You unfold cake batter over the peaches, sprinkle with sugar, then pour water on high, which I’ve gotta say simply feels flawed while you do it. I pressed on within the title of science and was richly rewarded. The water helped the sugar soften into the topping, making a crackly crust with tender cake and juicy peaches beneath.

The one motive this recipe didn’t obtain an ideal rating? You must pull out a stand mixer to combine the topping, which suggests extra dishes to scrub.

Once I consider peach cobbler, that is the dessert I think about scooping onto my plate within the late-afternoon solar. Begin with melted butter in a baking dish, then pour in a milky-sweet batter. Recent, candy peaches are cooked with lemon and sugar till tender and syrupy, and spooned on high of the batter. And right here’s the important thing to success: Don’t stir! Because the layers bake, the magic occurs; the fruit sinks and the batter bubbles up and over the peaches till it’s puffed and golden.

I couldn’t imagine how shortly and simply it got here collectively, requiring no further tools or specialty components. Plus, it makes sufficient to feed a crowd, and highlights the most effective in peak summer season peaches. In case you’re in search of a real style of summer season, look no additional than this recipe.

Do you might have a favourite peach cobbler recipe? Inform us within the feedback.