Peach Blueberry Cobbler

Yesterday dear hubby and I celebrated our 1st Anniversary. This is a cliche, but time really does fly. Only to think last summer we ate leftover wedding cake every week for three months. We did save one piece, which was retrieved from the deep freeze Sunday morning. A year in the freezer left it a bit stale and grainy in texture, so after eating a bite each, the rest of the slice met its bitter end in the kitchen trash.

Fortunately, we were not without dessert to our anniversary dinner since I had the foresight to realize year-old cake wouldn't be up to snuff.

It is peach season in South Carolina, with farm stands all over the place, which led me to bake the Peach Blueberry Cobbler from King Arthur's Flour Whole Grain Baking. Also, if I was going to have a lot of leftovers that wouldn't freeze well, I wanted something that I could eat without feeling too guilty.

It was pretty easy to put together, but the finished product tasted.... well... healthy. It isn't an overwhelming sweet cobbler (when I think of cobbler I think of syrupy-sweet goodness), and the whole wheat flavor comes through in the topping. I thought there was a lack of buttery flavor. This would be a good dessert for those who don't have a big sweet tooth. I liked it, but it wasn't the treat I was hoping for.

For those of you who would like to try this, here is the recipe.

Peach Blueberry Cobbler (from Whole Grain Baking)
For the topping
2 cups of white whole wheat flour
2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, chilled
2 tablespoons of packed brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten
2/3 cup of milk

For the filling
3 cups (1 1/4 lbs.) of sliced peaches
2 cups (10 oz.) of blueberries
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

I started out by preheating the oven to 450 degrees.Then I peeled and chopped up the peaches. Then I put the blueberries and peaches in a large mixing bowl. In a smaller bowl, I combined the cornstarch, nutmeg, salt, and sugar, and then added that mixture to the fruit. Then, the cornstarch mixture and fruit was tossed together and put in a 9X9 baking dish, and then drizzled with the lemon juice.

I let that sit while I made the topping. Simple enough, just mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a bowl, and put in the butter (in pats). I started out using a knife to cut the butter in, but that was taking too long so I used my fingers in integrate everything until the butter pieces were the size of peas. Next, I mixed in the brown sugar. In a measuring cup, I beat the milk and egg together, and then mixed that with the flour batter.

At this point a took a break to let the batter rest and do a quick clean-up. I finished up the topping by turning the dough onto a floured cutting board, and I patted it out into a 3/4-1 inch thick round. My biscuit cutters are MIA, so I used a knife to cut it into squares, and put the squares on top of the fruit. Into the oven it went for 45 minutes. The hardest part of the entire process was waiting another 10 minutes after it came out of the office so it would be cool enough to eat.

I served it with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.



I had a problem with with the filling--the fruit juices didn't thicken up, despite mixing it with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Maybe it thickens the longer it sits? I will have another piece tonight and report back...