This time of year Peaches wait for no one. You must grab them by the bushell and eat them no more than a day after you buy them. Their sweetness doubles by the day as their juices release and the sugars mature.
You can bake any peach, no matter how ripe they are. The heat and added sugar with cook them to a nice soft sweetness. But cooking a perfectly ripe peach means you need less sugar and less time in the oven. Which is better for my waistline and it means I can eat them faster. I know when my peaches are ready just by squeezing them. Have some restraint when you are squeezing your peach, but think about smushing it into baby food with your hand. If you think its soft enough to relinquish its power and turn into a juicy squishy mess in your hand, then your peach is ripe. If it is firm enough that you would struggle to smush it with one hand, then it needs to sit on the counter for another day or so.
I made this cobbler to share with friends. Just a weekday after work visit, sharing time in the backyard and some laughs over "Get him to the Greek". What was meant to be 8 servings quickly disappeared between the 4 of us. We just kept going back for more. The biscuits are fluffy and basic so they merely compliment the star of the show, the beautiful Ontario Peach.
Enjoy the fruits of your area and eat whats in season to experience true freshness
8 fresh Peaches
Base mixture:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Cobbler biscuit dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, cold
3/4 cup almond milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and hunt down a baking dish.
- Mix the base ingredients together in the bottom of your baking dish. Shake the dish to level out the flour mixture evenly.
- Wash and slice peaches, about 8 slices per peach. Layer over the bottom of the dish.
- Mix biscuit dough by sifting all the dry ingredients together, then cut in the cold butter until crumbly. Then pour over the almond milk and vanilla. Mix until the dough comes together.
- Don't over work the dough. Too much movement with make the cobbler heavy. No body likes to be overworked.
- Roll out the dough, to about 2 cm thick. Cut with anything circular, like a drinking glass
- Gently re-roll the dough, getting as many cobbler biscuits as you can.
- Layer biscuits over the peaches, using leftover scraps to fill in the gaps. This will keep all the juicy goodness in.
- Bake for 30 mins, until brown and biscuits are cooked.
