Hi there! I'm lucky enough to be Tammy's oldest daughter, and I'm here with a recipe for Sourdough Skillet Cobbler. While I've been on the receiving end of the goodness from this corner of the internet since before it's inception, and I've given my blessing for Mom to share a few of my recipes over time, I haven't made an appearance on the blog itself until now.
About me: I'm married to a tall, skinny, red-headed engineer. We have five (sadly not red-headed) kiddos between the ages of seven and two months. My husband works from home, we homeschool, and pretty much home cook everything. Basically, we don't get out much! But we don't mind that. It's a happy place to be!
Emily
You'll find that all of my recipes are simple and pretty hands-off. Maximum enjoyment for minimal effort. With five small kids, meal prep has to be nudged in between schooling, diaper changes, kissing ouchies, overseeing itty bitty sibling relationships, and running food up to my husband's office. Someday I might have consecutive hours to scurry about the kitchen preparing a feast...today is definitely not that day!
So why is Sourdough Skillet Cobbler to be my pick for my first guest post? Because it's a quintessentially Emily recipe.
- Dessert? My sweet tooth and I are all over it.
- Sourdough? My starter (Dolly Starton) is my bonus child.
- Peaches? Fave.
- One dish? And one that hardly needs to be washed? Yes. Yes that qualifies as a selling point.
Also, for me...it's a bit daring. Wait, what? Peach Cobbler is fairly basic, right? How could it be daring?
Here's the thing-I generally don't like fruit baked into bready things. So for example, blueberry muffins are not my jam. Not a popular opinion, I'm aware! I just cannot stand soggy bread. So cobblers have never really been a favorite for me. But I love everything else about the idea and felt sure I could figure out how to un-sog-ify a traditional peach cobbler. Turns out it was easier than I'd anticipated!
While some may think the filling for a Sourdough Skillet Cobbler is the primary sog factor, I knew that for me it'd be alllll about the biscuit. I started off with a kinda standard drop biscuit recipe, but they were just kinda lumpy and still soggy. So I wound up going with my regular, tried-and-true sourdough biscuits amended to be more dessert-appropriate. They're flaky and buttery and crispy and everything they should be!
Why sourdough?
It's a long story, and I'm sure it'll all come out eventually. Suffice it to say that Chez Nous, things that are gut-friendly are very welcome, and their counterparts aren't so welcome. So we work very carefully with our grains. Grains are among the most subsidized and modified crops, so we always opt for organic, and in their raw state they're packed with anti-nutrients so we improve the digestibility by soaking, sprouting, or fermenting grains to reduce the phytic acid and/or gluten content when applicable.
Using a sourdough starter for baked goods is a way to ferment the flour, reducing the gluten content and increasing digestibility. With a enough fermentation, the gluten gets eaten up almost completely, that 97% of Celiac patients can comfortably eat it!
Why peaches for Sourdough Skillet Cobbler?
Because I like peaches. You really could use any fruit for this. Stone fruit is probably your best bet for consistency, but if you were to mix some berries in there you definitely wouldn't be hurting anything.
If you use a less juicy fruit, just cook it a bit longer before topping it with the biscuits, and maybe add a bit more sweetness to the skillet as it cooks down.
How to serve Sourdough Skillet Cobbler
Dish up a biscuit or two and whatever peaches are under them, and dig right in! To really level it up, go a la mode. It's my personal opinion that vanilla ice cream is the king of all ice creams always and forever amen. However, if you were to go the extra mile and make cinnamon ice cream (stay tuned...), you might just win. Other good options would be a drizzle of straight cream, a dollop of whipped cream, or even creme fraiche if you wanted to make it seem fancy.
Recipe
Sourdough Skillet Cobbler
Ingredients
FOR THE BISCUITS
- ½ cup (113g) cold butter
- 2½ cups (360g) white flour
- ¼ cup (50g) white sugar + 2 Tablespoons
- ½ cup (125g) sourdough starter
- 1 cup (240g) whole milk
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- cream to brush on top of the biscuits
FOR THE FRUIT
- 6 peaches, sliced or diced 5-6 cups
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
FOR THE BISCUITS
- Weigh the flour and 50g of sugar into a medium mixing bowl, tossing to combine. Roll cold butter in the flour-sugar mixture until coated. Using a handheld cheese grater, grate butter into the flour mixture, stopping occasionally to toss so the cold butter shreds are coated with flour.
- Add sourdough starter and milk. Mix until combined, working the dough as little as possible. A dough whisk works well for this. Cover and allow to sit on the counter for at least 7 hours to ferment.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400°F.
FOR THE FRUIT
- Melt butter in an oven-proof skillet over medium-low heat. Add peaches, brown sugar, and nutmeg, stirring to combine. Cook until fruit softens and juices release a bit, about 10 minutes.
TO PUT THE COBBLER TOGETHER
- Gently knead baking powder, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon into the biscuit cough. Turn dough out on to a clean surface and pat into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out the biscuits and carefully place them on top of the softened peaches until well-covered.
- Brush the biscuits with cream and sprinkle evenly with the remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar.
- Place in the oven and bake 30-40 minutes, until peaches are bubbly and biscuits are golden.
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