Cooking for Alan – Dinner # 11 Fresh Peach Cobbler
For those of you who read my previous post about Cooking for Alan Dinner #11 that featured poached Maine Lobster…you know that we ended the meal with this mouth watering dessert: Fresh Peach Cobbler. My husband, Alan, is really the cobbler “master” in our family. He spent many a weekend preparing a variety of dutch oven cobblers to feed hungry Boy Scout leaders during camp outs. He is masterful at cooking over an open fire. While some of the meals he prepared were simple, basic camp fare, he never let it stop him from wowing his friends with gourmet treats. From smoked prime rib to gumbo to roasted quail to fried shrimp po’ boys…his fellow scout leaders never went home hungry.
Today was my turn at making another one of Ina Garten’s recipes from her Cooking for Jeffrey book. I chose peach cobbler because this is their time of year to shine with ripe freshness. Although we have our own peach trees, we lost most of the crop from an ill timed frost that froze all of the flower buds. So instead of using our own crop, I headed to a nearby farm stand and loaded up.
One of the things I admire most about Ina Garten’s cooking is that it’s not overly complicated. She is all about using the freshest, high-quality, in-season ingredients you can find. When you pair excellent ingredients with straight forward directions you’ll end up with something delicious.
Parboiling the peaches for about 3 minutes makes their skin pull right off. Worth the extra step. Make sure to plunge them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.
See how shiny they are once the skins are removed.
Ina instructs you to dice up about 1/4th and slice the rest. You’ll add the diced ones into a saucepan on the stove.
You boil this mixture in a saucepan and then add the chopped peaches. Notice the orange zest and juice? It really brings out the flavor of the peaches.
You boil the chopped peaches in the sauce until it becomes silky and slightly thickened.
After adding the sliced peaches to the filling mixture, pour into a casserole dish and then cover with the topping.
The butter filled homemade topping comes together very quickly in a food processor.
Bubbling peach cobbler fresh from the oven. Baked at 350 degrees for 60 minutes.
