A co worker’s birthday was coming up. I had had a few drinks at post-work happy hour and promised to make her a cake to bring to a friend’s belated birthday party the next week (complicated - I know). She seemed excited about it and asked if would make a “funfetti cake.”
“No. Absolutely not.” I replied. I do not engage in that cake-package-just-add-water-and-egg-and-oil dribble. And then I kept my nose elevate at 70 degrees so I could look down at her and the idea, and snort. But then I put out some other ideas, like the red velvet cake that Amateur Gourmet made to get his friends to watch his cat (which also worked when I went out of town for a week). But she does not like chocolate cake – what!?!?
For a whole week, sugar plum fairies and other desserts danced through my head. What about those canned cherries patrick and Andrea gave me from the cherry tree in their front yard? No, too special; I must save them for a more intimate cherry pie gathering. I even thought of making a basic yellow cake and home-made chocolate frosting, which by co-worker’s caveats would have been fine. But that idea bored me. Instead, I decided on peach cobbler, as peaches are in season and thus inexpensive.
I followed a recipe from the book, “The Home Baker” and went to the grocery store to retrieve the peaches I’d need. I bought about nine peaches, understanding that I was using a 9X13 in pan rather than the recommended 9×9. Gently getting the peaches off the pit proved just as difficult as I had imagined, but only more so since some of them were more ripe. I eventually succeeded with six peaches and a borrowed nectorine, and cut the skin off with a knife on each piece.
With the peaches in the bowl, I added 4 tbsp of sugar, 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch, and 1/2 tsp almond extract and mixed it all together using my hands before arranging the peaches in my giant dish in a single layer. Then I threw it into the oven at 425 for about 20 minutes, letting the peaches and the above ingredients mingle.
While I waited , I made the cobbler. Because my dish is larger than the recomended size, I doubled the cobbler recipe and mixed 2.5 cups of all purpose flour, 1 cup of sugar, 3 tsp baking powder, 1tsp salt and 12 tbsp of chilled and diced butter. My butter was softer though so I was able to just mix everything together with a fork. After which, I mixed 2 eggs with 10 tbsp of milk in a small bowl and added it to the dry ingredients.
It was time to take the peaches out of the oven and plop some cobbler mix on top while reducing the oven to 400. You do not need to spread the mix evenly and actually shouldn’t touch it at all, lest it loses it’s cobblery look. Also, sprinkle some sugar over the raw cobbler. It wasn’t until I started baking the finished product that I decided I needed to make more cobbler, hence why I should have originally doubled the mix but didn’t. Regardless, this is what it looked like without the other half in my giant pan:
It was mighty tasty. Aside from using the correct sized pan, or doubling up my cobbler recipe, I also learned that in using such a large pan, I should have added another layer of (insert your fresh fruit here), as there was more cobbler than fruit.
I brought it to the party, and the birthday-girl was absent. Sad. But it made for a delightful breakfast just the same.
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