Peach Cobbler

It seems that every region has their produce pride on during the summer - the best, most flavorful (fill in the blank) can only be found in MY hometown. The only (apples, cherries, peaches) worth eating are from MY state, MY region. I kind of love it! It feels old-timey and sweet that people so fiercely defend their perfect fruits and veggies. The South Carolina peach! The Washington apple! The Maine blueberry! The Traverse City cherry! It puts me in mind of state fairs and blue ribbon heirloom tomatoes, and I like that.



I have had the good fortune of tasting peaches from the Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest this summer, due to summer travel and generous, peach-toting friends. I must say that every peach is a poem in itself, and I usually just stuff my face full of as many as possible, not pausing to criticize. Juice dripping all over my hands and face, I am happy. And because they're so insanely delicious totally naked, I tend to do as little as possible when cooking with them. Such is the case with this cobbler: a touch of sugar and cornstarch, a simple drop biscuit on top, a bit of loosely whipped cream, and I am in peach heaven.



Peach Cobbler

about 4 pounds fresh peaches, pitted and sliced into 1/4- to 1/2-inch wedges
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Topping:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss peaches, sugar, and cornstarch together in a 9x13 baking dish, and bake for 10 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the topping. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Using your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles fresh bread crumbs. Pour the boiling water in, and working quickly with a wooden spoon, stir together until it forms a soft dough. Scatter pieces of dough over the hot peaches, sprinkle the top with more sugar, and bake until golden and bubbling, about 25 minutes. Serve warm.

Doing the can-can!

In August, I took my first nervous, hesitating step into the wide world of canning.  It's been a lot of fun playing with different recipes, learning about acidity and pectin, and listening to the Coppertop Guy's half-joking concerns about botulism.  The first thing I canned was several pints and half-pints of Traverse City tart cherry jam, which turned out beautifully.  It gelled.  It tastes amazing.  All the jars cooperatively sealed, with their satisfying little *pop* that could be heard from the other room.  Since then, I have canned several other batches of yummy things:

• Peach-lavender jam
• Peach halves in simple syrup
• Lord Grey's Peach Preserves
• Mixed heirloom tomatoes
• San Marzano tomatoes
• Un-labeled red tomatoes from the market

This weekend, I'm going to can what's left of the half-bushel of Roma tomatoes that I picked last weekend, raspberry jam, and peach butter.  Doing all this canning has made me feel like I'm taking full advantage of the almost embarrassing bounty of the market this time of year, and is a giant step toward year-round local eating.  It feels like a solution to the problem of mid-winter scarcity, rather than a sad compromise.  If I don't put up the food that's so irresistible and amazing right now, come January I'll have to decide between food that traveled half the globe to get to me (and tastes like it), or hold out until spring to eat myself silly on fresh food again.  Not this year!  This winter, I will remember the fresh tomato sauce that was so delicious that I actually licked my plate, and instead of sighing and waiting until August to taste it again, I will just pop open one of my big jars of tomatoes!

Have you canned things before?  Does canning intimidate you?  Do you think it's worth it?  I've found so many resources online that have outlined the proper way to process the jars, and helped me to feel sure that I'm being safe.  Marisa of Food in Jars has put my mind at ease many a time this summer, when I wanted to know exactly how to properly acidify and de-bubble a jar of tomatoes, or when I took a batch of canned tomatoes out of the canner and wondered why the eff they were floating in an inch or two of liquid.  As my stock of jars grows, I just feel so satisfied, like I've bottled up a little bit of summer to savor later.

Lord Grey's Peach Preserves
adapted from Bon Appetit, August 2011

A couple of notes about this recipe: the yield BA gives is 2 pints.  Maybe I just didn't boil my preserves long enough, but I boiled for the prescribed amount of time, and the recipe yielded 4 pints.  Good thing I had extra jars on hand.  They're a little runny, but I think I like that.  A little runny makes them better for stirring into yogurt, oatmeal, and batters, and spooning over ice cream for dessert.  Also, I've been having spotty results with blanching peaches.  Sometimes the skins loosen, and sometimes they just stay stubbornly attached to the peach.  If anyone knows the secret to this, please do share.  I think it just has to do with the fact that some peaches are a little riper than others.

5 pounds ripe peaches (A quart container is usually about 2 pounds)
4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
5 Earl Grey tea bags, or 3 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea

Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Cut a small x in the bottom of each peach, and drop them in the boiling water until the skins loosen, about 1 minute.  Plunge into an ice water bath, and then peel the skins off.  Halve each peach, and then slice into 1/4-inch pieces.  Combine with sugar and lemon juice in a large heavy pot, and set aside for 30 minutes.  Place 2 tablespoons of loose tea in a bouquet garni bag (or remove tags from individual tea bags) and add to the pot with the peaches.  Crumble the remaining tea slightly, and add it as well.  Bring mixture to a boil, and cook gently for 20-25 minutes. 

In the meantime, place lids in a small saucepan and heat over low heat until steaming, but not boiling.  Turn off heat and set aside for 10 minutes to allow the rubber seals to soften.  Bring a giant pot of water to a rolling boil, and boil your clean jars for 10 minutes. 

Ladle the hot preserves into the hot jars (use a funnel, it really helps with the mess), seal and process in boiling water for 10 minutes.  The processing time starts after the water is boiling, so if the water stops boiling when you add the jars, wait until it returns to a full boil before starting the timer.

Using tongs, remove jars to a cooling rack with a kitchen towel on top, and leave undisturbed until fully cool and sealed, up to 23 hours.  You may hear a little *pop* when the jars seal, but if not, just push the tops.  If they're solid, you're good to go.  If they give a little (you can press down on the lid), just put them in the refrigerator and use up within a week or two.



 

Pie oh my.

 

I've been going through some stuff.  When I'm not feeling like myself, and having to lean on friends and family more than usual, cooking grounds me and reminds me of who I am again.  There is such comfort in putting together simple elements and turning them into great food.  It's a sort of alchemy.

You can't lose with peaches like these.

I had been having a losing streak with pie crusts before this one.  But my mom happened to be in town, so I asked her to give me a lesson, since she is the queen of predictably delicious and flaky pie crusts.  Sometimes you just need to watch a master at work.

So I got myself this beautiful new enameled deep-dish pie plate, 5 pounds of ripe peaches from the market, and this lattice-top how-to from the August issue of Bon Appetit.  Oh my goodness.  If I had only known how easy it was to accomplish this wonderful, so-super-fancy-looking top, I would have been doing it forever.  You must try it. 

I mean, look at that!  Who wouldn't want to take that to a Labor Day party?

Peach Pie
adapted from Bon Appetit, August 2011

I used my brand-new shiny 10.5-inch deep dish pie plate, but this recipe will work in a standard 9-inch one.  Just use a little less fruit, but leave everything else the same.

For the crust:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Combine flour, half of butter, shortening, salt and sugar in bowl of a food processor.  Process until ingredients are well incorporated.  Add remaining butter, and pulse a few times, until the remaining butter is in pea-sized pieces (this is the secret to the flakiness).  Add apple cider vinegar and a few tablespoons of ice water and process in short pulses until the water is incorporated, adding one tablespoon at a time and continuing to pulse until the dough comes together in a cohesive ball on the blade.  Be very patient, allowing each tablespoon to completely incorporate before adding more.  The exact amount of water you'll need will differ each time you make it.  Remove from the processor and divide in half.  Shape each half into a disc about 5 inches in diameter, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.  In the meantime, prepare the filling.

For the filling:

5 pounds fresh ripe peaches (or other ripe stone fruit), pitted and sliced into 1/4-inch slices
1/2-cup plus 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
5 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 large egg, beaten to blend

Place peach slices into a large bowl, and sprinkle with sugar.  Toss to coat, and let sit at room temperature for an hour.  Strain liquid out into a bowl.  Whisk together 1/4 cup of reserved liquid with cornstarch and nutmeg, and pour back over the peaches, tossing to coat. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Roll out half of the dough into a circle on a floured surface, working patiently and starting from the outsides of the disk, repairing small cracks as you go along.  It should be about 1/8-inch thick.  Gently roll the crust up onto the rolling pin and place it into the pie plate.  Pour the prepared peaches into the bottom crust.  Roll second crust into a 14-inch circle, and use a pizza wheel or sharp knife to cut it into 1-inch strips.  Using half the dough, arrange parallel strips over the surface of the pie.  Working one half at a time. lift up every other strip and place a new strip perpendicular to the others.  Replace them over the new strip, and continue until the whole pie is covered in lattice.  Trim edges of strips, and fold overhang of bottom crust over.  Crimp edges decoratively.

Place pie onto a baking sheet that is lined with parchment, and bake for 20 minutes at 400.  Decrease the heat to 350 and bake for another 40 minutes, until the filling is bubbling and the crust is deeply browned.  Allow to cool completely before serving.