Recipe: Summer peaches, nectarines featured in this version of Blue Ribbon Cobbler
(Photos: Debbie Arrington) |
One of the great pleasures of midsummer is a rich and satisfying fruit dessert that makes the most of a sweet-tart bounty.
My favorite is this cobbler: easier than pie and flexible to what’s ripe.
I discovered this recipe 35 years ago when I first started writing about food. “Blue Ribbon Peach Cobbler,” which according to accompanying recipe notes won top prize at an unnamed state fair, was part of Ronald Johnson’s wonderful “The American Table: A Festive Sampler of Regional Cooking at its Savory Best.” Johnson encouraged readers to substitute other fruit or combinations for the peaches, which I have done often.
In honor of closing day of our State Fair, this Blue Ribbon Cobbler will win smiles at summer gatherings. (Just use the correct size pan.)
The example here uses yellow peaches and nectarines, peeled and sliced. Strawberry-rhubarb, peach-blueberry, apple-rhubarb, mixed berries; all these combos work well, as do straight peaches or other fruit.
The recipe itself looks out of whack with way more sugar than flour, plus lots of butter. That’s what makes it delicious. The batter bubbles when it’s spooned over the melted butter, and the fruit is dropped on top, not layered underneath. As the cobbler cooks, the fruit sinks down into the batter. The top and sides develop a rich, brown crunchy crust, wrapped around sweet-tart syrupy filling.
All that sinking and rising needs some room. Use a DEEP baking dish (3 inches preferred), not a shallow pie pan. Place a cookie sheet under the baking dish to catch overflow, just in case.
Blue Ribbon Cobbler
Adapted from “The American Table,” by Ronald Johnson (Pocket Cookbook, 1984)
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Garden Checklist for week of Jan. 12
Once the winds die down, it’s good winter gardening weather with plenty to do:
* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.
* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. (The exceptions are apricot and cherry trees, which are susceptible to a fungus that causes dieback. Save them until summer.) Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease.
* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.
* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.
* After the wind stops, apply horticultural oil to fruit trees to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective.
* This is also the time to spray a copper-based fungicide to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl. (The safest effective fungicides available for backyard trees are copper soap -- aka copper octanoate -- or copper ammonium, a fixed copper fungicide. Apply either of these copper products with 1% horticultural oil to increase effectiveness.)
* When forced bulbs sprout, move them to a cool, bright window. Give them a quarter turn each day so the stems will grow straight.
* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.
* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.
* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.
* Plant bare-root roses, trees and shrubs.
* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.
* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.
* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.
* In the bulb department, plant callas, anemones, ranunculus and gladioli for bloom from late spring into summer.
* Plant blooming azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. If you’re shopping for these beautiful landscape plants, you can now find them in full flower at local nurseries.
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