Gluten Free Peach Cobbler - 1-Bowl Dessert Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to use canned or frozen peaches for cobbler? ›

Readers have raved about this dessert using frozen, thawed peaches. Canned peaches are not ideal because they're already too soft and mushy. Buttermilk: You can make your own DIY version of buttermilk if needed. Add 1 teaspoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to a liquid measuring cup.

We love cobblers for being juicy, but really ripe fruit can make more puddles than a spring rain. The result is a soupy cobbler with a soggy top. Try this: Add one to two tablespoons of cornstarch to the filling. Partnered with a little sugar and lemon juice, this will make a lush sauce for the fruit.

The biggest difference between a cobbler and a pie is the placement of the dough. Pies have, at a minimum, a bottom crust with the fruit placed on top, while a cobbler has the fruit on the bottom and a dolloped dough on top instead.

Keeping those beautiful skins on gives the cooked cobbler a gorgeous, deep peachy-pink hue and even more depth of flavor. Plus, unlike other cobbler or pie fruit with tougher skins, like apples, peach skins melt away into the cobbler filling.

At Walmart, the pre-baked cobblers will be sold fresh in the bakery, but samples provided to us by the company came frozen, meaning we had to reheat ours for about 40 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees, vs. the 12 to 16 recommended on the package.

You shouldn't have a problem with Peach Cobbler being gummy if you use fresh fruit unless you overcook it. Canned peaches, however, can result in a gummy filling because the peaches are already softer to begin with and bathed in heavy syrup. Make sure to thoroughly drain the peaches before using.

Making the Fruit Filling

You can bake a cobbler with just fruit as the filling, but a little sugar and cornstarch tossed with the fruit before baking will work together to create a lush sauce from the fruit's juices. This is the thing that turns a good cobbler into a knock-out dessert.

Bake for 30-45 minutes. If using 4 cups of peaches: You'll know it's done because the topping has risen to the top, surrounding the peaches with it's goodness. Topping will look cake-like and browned.

Cobbler is sometimes described as a kind of fruit pie, but strictly speaking, the two are different. Pies are made from pastry, rather than biscuit batter, and they are fully encased, with a crust at the top and the bottom, while cobblers typically only have a topping.

Why is peach cobbler popular in the South? ›

“The history of peach cobbler as a Southern dish dates back to the early 1800s when African Americans started to combine fruits like peaches with spices and flour to make a sweet, tasty dessert. This combination was then covered with a biscuit-like topping and baked.”

The method for the topping goes like this: Combine equal parts flour and sugar, and add enough melted butter to make a dough. This makes a very sweet cobbler with a topping somewhere between a sugar cookie and pie crust.

Cobbler is usually topped with batter or biscuits in lieu of crust. Cobbler's name comes from its sometimes cobbled texture, which is a result of spooning or dropping the topping over the fruit rather than distributing it equally. This way, the filling can peek through.

Freezing peaches is a little easier and quicker and produces wonderfully sweet and delicious peaches to put in your freezer. Canning peaches produces jars of peeled and halved peaches for your pleasure.

Fresh peaches are best for peach pie, though you can get away with unsweetened frozen peaches. If using frozen, thaw, chop, and blot them dry before using. Canned peaches are not ideal as they're already too soft and mushy.

A Note on Frozen Peaches vs.

Canned peaches have their own fan club, and I admit some of the best peaches I've ever eaten were home-canned by somebody's MawMaw. But canned peaches are cooked peaches, even if they were raw packed. For smoothies and savory applications, frozen peaches are unsweetened and ready to cook.

Frozen peaches don't need to be thawed before adding them to baked dishes because the oven's heat will gently defrost them as the recipe cooks. You may want to add extra thickener to absorb the excess liquid, though, or let the recipe bake for an extra 5 minutes to cook off the extra moisture.