Nathalie Dupree's Peach Cobbler!

Nathalie Dupree's New Southern Cooking (c1986)--
one of my favorite Southern cooks and a great lady.

Peach cobbler--just the thought of this wonderful Southern dessert makes me think of family reunions and summer cookouts. If you live in the Texas Hill Country, you know it's summer when the numerous roadside stands selling Fredericksburg peaches appear up and down the Capital of Texas Highway. Texas peaches aren't as pretty as Georgia peaches, but they are as sweet as a cube of sugar and make the best cobbler you'll ever have. Thanks to Nathalie Dupree, a talented and revered Southern cook and author, I have the perfect cobbler recipe. 

Sweet perfection--from my peach tree.

Several years ago, we planted a peach tree, as a tribute to a family friend, who passed away from cancer. All of his friends lovingly called him Beek. He wore a black patch on one eye, grew up on a ranch in South Dakota, and loved to hunt, fish, garden and build things. A natural born cook, Beek made the best dill pickles, elk and beef jerky I had ever tasted. He stocked his freezer with fresh caught fish from salmon to trout, venison steaks and elk sausage, and a family favorite--his giant burritos. Even after years of cooking side-by-side, I can't recreate his food. I have attempted his jerky recipe; but without the old rusty charcoal smoker, and his watchful eye, it's just not the same.

The only thing in the kitchen I found to teach Beek was how to make homemade corn tortilla chips, bean and cheese nachos, and chile rellenos. He was an excellent helper; always there to pit the peaches, peel and core the apples, or drive back to the store when I forgot something! Sometimes it took him hours and a few stores before he found his way back; but he never failed to show up with what you had asked for, along with ten different versions that "might" work, just in case. Typical male--right?

One of my only contributions to Beek's repertoire--bean and cheese nachos on homemade chips.

This year our peach tree overflowed with gorgeous pink and yellow fruit. With a watchful eye and a daily reminder on my iPhone, I managed to out maneuver Mr. Squirrel and his hungry buddies before their annual peach picking party. Every year, these clever fellows have managed to steal my sweet peaches just days before the harvest--obnoxiously taking out one bite (I think just to mess with me), then tossing the ripened fruit down to the ground. Wasteful little critters! This year I beat them at their own game and had my own peach picking party! I felt a bit guilty taking all the sweet fruit, so as a token of my appreciation, I left a few peaches at the top of the tree for their snack. If only they could learn to do the same.

Poor little squirrels and birds.....but lucky me!

Off to the kitchen with baskets filled with fresh, ripened peaches and no time to waste. I had managed to let most of the fruit ripen on the tree for ultimate sweetness, so they all had to be washed, dried, peeled, pitted and sliced for the freezer immediately. Ripe peaches are very delicate, and perfectly soft, ready-to-eat fruit will turn rotten almost overnight. One sweet bite from my enormous haul and I'm happy to continue with the laborious task until all the peaches are put up, as my mother used to say in her canning days. Stained fingers and nails proved it a labor of love.

The aroma of ripe peaches fills the kitchen each June.

Unfortunately, when I ordered the peach tree years ago, I paid little attention to what type of pit the fruit would have--clingstone or freestone. I obviously chose poorly (cling), and these little guys are a real pain to peel, pit, and prepare. But whatever challenge they present, they make up for with sweetness. Hundreds of pits later, my freezer is full of sliced peaches ready for future cobblers, homemade ice cream, and pies.

Come visit in the summer and dessert is usually
warm peach cobbler and Blue Bell vanilla bean ice cream.

I wrote this brief note in the cookbook many years ago--a sweet memory of a wonderful day.

As Nathalie says in her recipe description--"This is it--the best peach dessert there is."

Enjoy!


Peach Cobbler
from Nathalie Dupree's Southern Cooking
serves 8

Printable recipe

1/2 cup butter ( I use unsalted)

1 cup all-purpose soft-wheat flour*

1 1/2 teaspoons baking power

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole milk

1 cup sugar

2 cups peaches, peeled and sliced, juices reserved

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Put butter in a 9" x 13" ovenproof serving dish and place in the oven to melt.**

Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and stir in the milk and sugar to make a smooth batter. Remove the hot dish from the oven and pour in the batter. Spoon the peaches and then the juices evenly over the batter. (If your peaches were frozen don't add all of the juices or your cobbler will be soggy--my experience. Not a problem with fresh peaches though.)

Place the dish back in the oven and bake until the batter is browned and has risen up and around the fruit, about 30-45 minutes.  

Serve warm with ice cream (Blue Bell's Peach ice cream if you can find it!).  

*Use White Lily Flour if available, for best results--this is a true Southern soft winter-wheat flour. Ordinary all-purpose flour is a hard summer-wheat or blended flour. If you don't have access locally, you can order or find out where to purchase through White Lily Foods (www.whitelilyfoods.com).

If that isn't an option, Natalie suggests in her book that you substitute one part all-purpose to one part cake flour for the soft-wheat flour she calls for in the recipe. I have used both White Lily and the substitution blend. The White Lily makes a lighter dessert, but both are good.

**Be sure to use a 9x13 Pyrex pan or the cobbler will overflow--I made that mistake once.