Feel-Good Peach Cobbler
I created this recipe after running the numbers on my usual cobbler recipe. The new recipe is considerable lighter and more thrifty, using about 2/3rds less sugar and about 4/5ths less butter than the original. It also replaces an egg with yogurt. This cobbler even uses more fruit!
Cutting the biscuit topping into star shapes makes it pretty enough for a special meal while making it easy to serve. Feel-Good Peach Cobbler can sweeten a brunch buffet or star as the finale for Sunday dinner. You'll have enough topping left to make four biscuits for breakfast.
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Active time: 30 minutes. Total time: 1 hour and five minutes. Makes 12 servings, one biscuit each plus the fruit under and around it.
Ingredients
Fruit base:
9 cups peeled, chopped peaches
1 cup sugar (200 grams)
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 teaspoon vanilla
Biscuit topping:
2 cups all-purpose flour (240 grams), plus more for kneading
2 tablespoons sugar (1 in the dough and 1 for sprinkling on top)
1 tablespoon baking powder
4 tablespoons cold butter
3/4 cup plain yogurt (6 ounces or 170 grams)
Method
- Prepare fruit base. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter or grease a large, oven-proof casserole, approximately 13 by 9 by 2 inches. Peel and chop peaches into half-inch pieces, putting them in the casserole as you go.
- In a small bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar and corn starch. Sprinkle sugar mixture and vanilla over fruit. Mix by lifting fruit gently with large spoon. Cover with casserole lid or aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes, until fruit begins to release its juices.
- Prepare biscuit topping. Put flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, and baking powder in food processor with blade attachment. Pulse two or three times to combine ingredients. Cut butter into 4 pieces and put in processor. Pulse just until flour mixture looks like coarse sand, about 8 to 10 pulses. Add yogurt and process until dough forms a ball, about 10 seconds.
- Flour a clean counter top or cutting board. Put dough on floured surface, sprinkle with flour, and gently pat out until about 1 inch thick. Cut dough into 12 biscuits about 2 inches wide using a cookie cutter or an upside-down glass. If dough sticks, flour edge of cutter. After cutting the first set of shapes, gently gather up dough scraps and pat out again. Cut remaining shapes. If you still have extra dough, see "extra biscuits" in notes below.
- Top and bake. When fruit is hot and juicy, remove casserole from oven. Stir fruit. Arrange biscuits on top of fruit. Brush biscuits with water until just moist, then sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for about 35 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown and fruit bubbles in center of casserole.
- Serve hot or at room temperature. Keeps at room temperature for two hours. Cover and refrigerate any extra. The fruit base keeps the biscuit topping moist, so this dessert keeps well for two or three days. Reheat servings a few at at time in the microwave if desired.
Tips and notes
- For easy peeling, start with ripe, free-stone peaches. Cling peaches cling to their pits. To peel, put a few peaches at a time into a pot of boiling water, boil for 30 seconds, and then put immediately into a big bowl of ice water for another 30 seconds or so. Cut off any bad spots, slide off the skin, and cut in half or quarters so the fruit falls away from the pit. Testing note: boiling peaches less than 30 seconds doesn't loosen the skin enough and longer times start to cook the peach.
- The secret to a light biscuit topping is keeping the dough cold and handling it as little as possible. Use cold butter and yogurt. Run the food processor just enough to get the job done, otherwise it will heat up the dough. I've tried using various amounts of white whole-wheat flour, but even a half-cup moves the topping from a delicious dessert to a tough and wheaty health-food.
- If you don't have a food processor, cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender. Don't have a pastry blender? Cut butter into small pieces and rub into flour with your finger tips.
- Extra biscuits. The star-shaped cookie cutter that I use leaves me with enough extra dough to make four extra biscuits for breakfast the next day. Just gently pat the last set of dough scraps into a circle. Cut cross-wise into four pieces. Put on a small, ungreased pan and bake with cobbler for about 15 minutes. You can also refrigerate dough and bake the next day. Baked biscuits keep for up to a day in a sealed container at room temperature.
