Peach and raspberry cobbler with buttermilk biscuit crust

4 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
Filling:
2½ To 3 pounds firm, ripe
Yellow-fleshed free stone
Peaches, about 8 to
10 Peaches
½ pint Basket (about 1 cup) fresh
Raspberries, or 1 cup thawed
Frozen
Raspberries, drained
⅔ cup Sugar
2 tablespoons All purpose flour
Crust:
¾ cup All purpose flour
¾ cup Cake flour
½ teaspoon Salt
1½ teaspoon Baking powder
½ teaspoon Baking soda (if the dough is
Made with cream or milk,
Omit
Baking soda)
4 tablespoons Cold, unsalted butter
⅔ cup Buttermilk, cream or milk
Glaze:
1 tablespoon Buttermilk, cream or milk
1 tablespoon Sugar
One 1 1/2 quart ovenproof
Baking dish

Directions

To make the filling: Peel the peaches by cutting a cross in the blossom end of each and lowering them a few at a time into a pan of boiling water. Leave the peaches in the water for 20 to 30 seconds, then lift them out with a slotted spoon or skimmer and put them in a bowl of ice water. If the peaches are ripe, the skin will slip off easily. If it does not, remove skin with a sharp stainless steel paring knife. (If you have to use a knife to peel the peaches add an extra peach to make up for what is peeled away). Hold a peeled peach gently in your left hand over a mixing bowl. With a stainless steel paring knife, make a cut from stem to blossom end. The blade of the knife should touch the pit. Make another cut about ¾ inch ahead of the first one along the circumference of the peach. Angle the knife blade so it meets the first cut at the pit. Twist the blade upward slightly and a wedge will fall off the peach into the bowl. Continue around the outside of the peach, cutting it into 8 or 10 wedges.

Discard the pit and repeat with remaining peaches. Add the raspberries to the bowl. Combine the sugar and flour and gently fold them into the peaches and raspberries. Scrape the filling into the baking dish and dot the surface of the filling with butter. Set aside while preparing dough. Set a rack at the middle level of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees. In a bowl, combine the flours, salt, baking powder and baking soda and stir well to mix. Cut the butter into 8 or 10 pieces and rub into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse meal (or pulse in a food processor fitted with the metal blade). Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk. Stir gently with a fork to mix in the buttermilk, being careful not to overwork the dough. Let the dough stand in the bowl for a minute or two to let the flours absorb the liquid. Flour the work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Fold the dough over on itself 2 or 3 times, until it is smooth and less sticky. Lightly re-flour the work surface and the dough and roll the dough to a little less than ¼-inch thick and the approximate size of the baking dish. Transfer the dough to the top of the filling (use a large, floured cookie sheet, sliding it under the dough, then easing it off onto the filling, for best results) and trim away any excess dough around the rim of the dish. Flute the edge of the dough at the rim of the dish.

Slash 4 or 5 vent holes, each about an inch long, in the center of the dough; paint with buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake the cobbler for about 20 minutes, or until the crust is deep golden brown and the filling is bubbling gently. (To avoid dirtying the oven from spills, center a large baking pan covered with a sheet of foil on the bottom rack of the oven, directly under the cobbler. This will catch any juices that boil out of the cobbler.) Cool on a rack. Serve the cobbler warm or at room temperature. Use a large spoon to cut and place a portion of the top crust on a plate, then spoon some of the filling next to the crust.

BLUEBERRY LEMON COBBLER: Substitute 2 pints blueberries, rinsed, drained and picked over for the peaches. Add 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg to the sugar and flour.

Double the crust for a lattice top.

To make a lattice crust: Lightly flour the work surface and dough and shape the dough into a square, by pressing the sides against the work surface. Roll the dough to a 9 by 12-inch rectangle. Cut the dough the short way into 24 strips, each ½-inch wide and 9 inches long.

Arrange 12 of the strips, ¼ inch apart, on a floured cookie sheet or the floured back of a jelly-roll pan. Position the pan so that the strips are facing vertically to you. Beginning with the first strip of dough on your left, fold every other strip in half, back toward you. Place one of the reserved 12 strips of dough horizontally across the unfolded strips, just above the fold of the other strips, as in the illustration. Unfold the strips away from you, back to their original position, over the horizontal strip. Now begin with the second vertical strip from your left and fold back every other strip again. Insert another horizontal strip and unfold the vertical strips. Repeat steps 5 through 9 twice more until you have inserted 6 horizontal strips to the top of the pan. Turn the pan 180 degrees and repeat the process, beginning with the first vertical strip, and inserting 6 more horizontal strips of dough, that is steps 5 through 9, three more times. Gently press the top of the lattice to make the strips stick together slightly, and refrigerate the lattice until firm, which will make it easier to slide onto the pie.

COOKING LIVE SHOW #CL8953

All recipes courtesy of Nick Malgieri

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