In my freezer were 3 containers of peaches from last summer, that I’d frozen. What’s better at this time of year than a fruit cobbler, but made with those luscious slices of fruit that were just so very ripe last July? I’d bought them at Costco, let them finish ripening, then froze them in batches.
The containers of peaches sat front and center in my kitchen freezer, and I looked at them almost every time I opened the darned thing. I’d invited Bud & Cherrie over for dinner (they’re doing a kitchen remodel and are so happy when somebody invites them over so Cherrie doesn’t have to try to cook something in their currently overcrowded outdoor barbecue area and small sink). And son-in-law Todd and granddaughter Taylor were still here too. I had tons of the Pork Shoulder Ragu to serve. Cherrie made a caprese salad when she got here, and I whipped up dessert. Neighbors had dropped off a basket of ready-made appetizers for me (crackers and cheese already combined in a sealed up thingie, some olives and salami too. Perfect. Easy.
In looking on the ‘net for something new and different in the way of a cobbler or crisp or galette or something, I ran across several recipes calling themselves Texas-style. I’d not heard of it, but soon learned that it means there’s more cake part than usual. And it means you pour in the batter first, then pile the peaches on top, but during the baking process the cake/pudding part rises up and nearly covers all the fruit. The fruit is completely encased in the cake part – no layers at all. 
Sounded good to me, and this particular one sounded especially good because it had a sugar and lemon zest topping sprinkled on the top just before baking. That meant that each serving had a bit of this lovely sugary crust thing, nicely browned in places. Yummy. The recipe came from Cook’s Country, though I got it from a website called scarletbakes.com.
The batter is rich – the whole dish requires 3 cubes of butter, but it does serve a bunch – at least 10 people if you don’t serve Texas sized portions. Just normal servings, and loaded on top with whipped cream, thank you! In Texas sometimes this is served with both vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. That’s seemed a bit much in my book. I prefer the whipped cream. Preferably you serve this warm, but a couple of nights later I took it to our son’s house for dinner and a couple of people preferred it cold. I think I like warm better, but room temp obviously would work too. Sorry you can’t really see the top of it – when someone put whipped cream on it, it kind of covered all the crunchy sugary lemon zesty topping.
What’s GOOD: loved the crunchy, sugary topping – a couple of people mentioned they liked that part best. The ratio of cake or shortcake or whatever you call that part was good, to the amount of fruit – I liked it, but then we served it with ample whipped cream to make it plenty moist anyway. It does have more cake/batter than most such cobblers. This is more like a cake with peaches in it than peaches with a topping. It has far more cake than that! Good, though. I’d definitely make it again. I used a slightly smaller oval dish – the recipe called for a 9×13 and I should have used that – because the cake part completely came up and covered the fruit. In a few photos I saw online you could see fruit poking up through the top. But hey, the taste is what’s it’s about anyway. If we’d had this left over the next day I think I might have had some for breakfast, but alas, we ate it up at the 2nd dinner, which was fine.
What’s NOT: absolutely nothing at all. Just be sure to use a 9×13, not something larger or smaller, either one. Exactly 9×13.
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Texas-Style Peach Cobbler
Recipe By: scarlettabakes.com – she got it from Cook’s Country
Serving Size: 10
4 tablespoons unsalted butter — melted (half a cube)
1/4 cup sugar — granulated, divided
2 tablespoons lemon zest
3 cups peaches — roughly chopped (or apricots, plums, nectarines, apples, pears or berries)
BATTER:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter — melted (2 1/2 cubes)
1 1/2 cups milk
Notes: Texas style cobbler just means there’s more batter/cake part than usual, and you place the fruit on TOP and as it bakes the cake part rises up and almost covers the fruit. You can use other fruit – plums, nectarines, apples, pears, and you can add some berries to it as well (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries or blueberries).
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Place 4 tablespoons chopped up butter into a 9×13 baking dish and bake until butter is melted, about 3-4 minutes. Remove melted butter and set aside. If the butter has gotten slightly browned, don’t worry – it’ll taste just fine – not burned but golden is fine.
2. Meanwhile, toss 1/4 cup of sugar with lemon zest in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt and remaining sugar in a large bowl. Melt remaining butter and whisk, with milk, into the flour mixture. Continue whisking until smooth. Pour batter into dish with melted butter (before pouring your batter into your dish, you may want to carefully tilt the dish to ensure that the melted butter is coating the bottom of the dish evenly). Sprinkle fruit pieces evenly over the batter. Top with lemon sugar.
4. Bake until the edges are golden brown, crispy, and pulling away from the edges of the pan, approximately 45-50 minutes. Cool for several minutes and serve warm.
Per Serving: 474 Calories; 29g Fat (53.9% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 52g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 79mg Cholesterol; 357mg Sodium.
Diana
said on April 24th, 2014:
Did you thaw the peaches?
Yes, I did thaw them and included some of the juice, but next time I’d not use any of the delicious juice as it made the center a little bit soggy. Still good, but maybe too moist. . . carolyn t
jan
said on April 25th, 2014:
1 and 1/4 cups butter…wow
Yes, I know. A lot of butter. I guess Texans aren’t butter-averse! . . . carolyn t
jan
said on April 25th, 2014:
Can not wait to try it though!! On my menu plans!!
jan
You’ll like it, I’m sure. You probably could use frozen (and defrosted) peaches too. I’ll definitely make this version again. . . carolyn t
Jan C.
said on April 27th, 2014:
I made this recipe today–but I halved the recipe and baked it in an 8X8 pan and it worked great.
Oh good! I have one more container of peaches and thought I might do the same in the half-sized pan. Glad to know it works! . . .carolyn t