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Monday, July 02, 2012

Cornbread Cobbler


***update for gluten free folks.  I have made this recipe many times by doubling the cornmeal eliminating the flour.  Do it.  You won't regret it.  I've also replace the half-n-half with an equal amount of buttermilk.  SHUT UP.  so good.


My friend Marian asked for this recipe after I posted the above photo on Facebook. I figured if it was good enough to gush about over on Facebook, then it must be good enough to post a blog about. And it is good enough people...it is.

Lots of cornbread recipes use half flour/half cornmeal. I like the cornmeal texture so I tend to play a little loose and use more cornmeal than flour but I'm posting the recipe the 'right' way.

This setup so nicely-crisp texture on the top, creaming pudding-like in the middle, soupy goopy peaches on the bottom. You're going to love it.


I'm intentionally starting to mark organic and non-GMO items in my recipes because that is how I cook. Aside from the health reasons that you should eat as naturally as possible, there are some very tangible taste differences between local and/or organic food. It's clearly your choice whether you buy organic or conventional. I understand the resistance and the cost arguments. However, if you are really eating thoughtfully, you can easily end up spending the same amount  of cash on better quality food. (Thank you to all our farmer friends for making that possible!)

 Peach Cornbread Cobbler recipe

Ingredients
 Filling
 6-9 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced*
 2TBSP vanilla extract
 4 TBSP organic sugar (depends on how sweet the peaches are/how sweet you want this thing)

 Topping
1 cup organic yellow corn meal
1 cup organic all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup organic sugar
1 stick of organic butter-sliced into cubes and cold
1/3 cup of organic half and half *(you may need a tiny bit more or less)

Preheat oven to 375
Slice peaches and place in the bottom of a well-seasoned cast iron pan.
Sprinkle vanilla extract over top.

 In a medium size bowl, blend the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar.
Add the cubes of butter. Work them into the flour with your hands. If you’ve ever made biscuits then this part might be familiar. Basically, you want to smush those little bits of butter into the dry ingredients until the whole thing feels like slightly damp sand. Go at it with a will and it will only take about 5 minutes (although the first 3 minutes will seem like an impossible feat).

Add the half and half and blend quickly. Yes, it will look a little goopy but not TOO goopy. You want all the dry ingredients to be moistened but they will still form a little lump of goop when spooned up.

Drop spoonfuls over the peach mixture until the whole top is covered in goopy dough. I started thinking this recipe would be like drop biscuits but it was goopier than that and worked out just beautifully in the end.

Place in the heated oven for about 35 minutes or until top begins to brown.
Eat it while it’s still warm. Preferably with homemade vanilla ice cream.

*Note about the peaches-mine were local but not organic.  Peaches are one of the things that EVERYTHING loves to eat and we modern humans have gotten persnickety about wanting to make sure ours are blemish free.  That kind of snobbery can make it pretty hard on growers to commit to not using pesticide since they MUST sell their crop or loose their livelihood.  If you can find organic, I recommend them. If you can’t, at least talk to your farmer and see what happened to that little peach before you eat it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Should the batter look like a bread batter? Should it pour? Or not be that wet?

Beth Mullenberg said...

The batter is pretty thick and goopy. Much like wet sand.