Rainy Day in June = Cobbler Time!

There's something so special about rainy weather in summer.  You get to combine the best baking weather with fresh fruit!

There are very few people from my childhood that I still keep in touch with.  Maybe three.  And of those three only one is someone who I actively keep up with.  My wonderful Kristi.  I met this girl in 3rd grade, and as of this day she is one of my absolute favorite people to hang out with.

Freshman year of high school we were really into cobbler for some reason; I can't even remember why.  We tried a number of recipes, and we found this delightful one at her house.  I think her mom had it in a cookbook, and after trying it, I made sure to write it down!  It's super easy, and super delicious!  This recipe has been in the very middle of one of my many random notebooks of terribly embarrassing angsty teenage poetry.  And being the clever girl that I am, I knew exactly which box and closet it was hiding in in my house.

  Now it's time to immortalize this recipe on the interweb! 

Peach Cobbler

Ingredients - 

1.5 cups of flour 
1 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 cup of milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon of oil (I use vegetable)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 quart of peaches (or other random mixture of fruit that sounds yummy!)
A little bit of corn starch

Totally forgot to put the oil and starch in the pic.....

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  My oven takes forever to get up to temp, so I ALWAYS do this way in advance.

First mix all of your dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Then toss your wet ingredients right on top.

Then mix it all up!  You can use an electric mixer or Kitchenaid, but I just used a whisk; it's a pretty runny batter, so it's super easy to mix.

Now for the fruit!

Growing up I used to use canned peaches, but we have a wonderful farmer's market where I live now, and summertime = lots of fresh, local, organic fruit!

If you use canned fruit, separate the fruit and juice, and save the juice.

If you use fresh, then you'll need to cook the fruit to get some juice.  Just throw it all in a big enough pot with 2 cups of water and cook it down a bit.  Then separate out the fruit and save the juice for later.  

I cut my fruit up pretty small, but feel free to cut it to whatever size you like.  I used a mixture of peaches, plums, and apricots.  LOVE summer fruit!


Now take a greased 9x13 inch pan and pour your batter into it.  Then spread your fruit on top of it.  Don't worry, the batter with rise through!

Now pop that bad boy in the oven for 45 minutes.  

Remember that fruit juice we set aside earlier?  Now's when that comes into play!  You'll need a little bowl with some cold water, then mix in some corn starch.  I always kind of wing it, and the exact amount isn't in my little book.  Anyway, take that little bit of mixture and stir it into your fruit juice.  Heat it up until it just starts to bubble, and stir stir stir! And then take it off the heat.  It'll thicken up as it cools.  If you are unsatisfied with the level of thickness, add a little more cornstarch mixture.  But don't add too much!  It'll taste weird...

Mine is super red from the plums :)

Now I just watch the rain until....

Beeeeeeeeep!  45 minutes is up!  Try not to burn your thumb on the pan getting it out like I did......  I was maybe a tad too excited.......

Isn't it just beautiful?

Let it cool a bit so that your mouth doesn't end up like my thumb, maybe 10 minutes?  

You now have two options: dump that amazing fruit sauce all over the top, and then scoop a huge portion into your bowl.  OR scoop a huge portion into your bowl and then pour some sauce into your bowl.  Either way you're in for a treat! 

YUM!!!!!  Feel free to throw some vanilla ice cream in there.  The hubby likes to pour cream on it.  Enjoy!