I am not a baker by any means. Sure, I love to cook, I love creating all sorts of dishes, but there is a massive difference between cooking and baking.
Meaning that baking is an exact science. Meaning that baking doesn't so much entail a "pinch of this, sprinkle of that" as it means measuring ingredients to the nth degree and not over mixing or opening oven doors or heating ingredients too high so that your end product doesn't end up with craters on the inside, a concave middle, or scrambled eggs instead of a velvety custard.
That being said, there are a few sweet dishes that I am damn good at. My English Toffee Cheesecake is to die for, my banana bread is moist and scrumptious and my first ever attempt at peach cobbler last year turned out to be spectacular.
First off, let me say, don't judge a dish by its picture, ass holes. Yeah, I know it doesn't look like all that, but trust me, this shit was amazing, and turned a cobbler lover out of me, a girl who doesn't much care for pies unless they are of the moon variety.
This dish came about as a special request from my mother, and after extensive research on the internet, in magazines, and old cookbooks, I "cobbled" (see what I did there) together the following recipe.
The secrets to making this cobbler a success are: fresh, very ripe, verging on mushy Georgia or SC peaches (I'm on the border of the two states, so these are easy to come by around these parts) and vanilla extract, which perfectly compliments the flavor of the vanilla ice cream that you serve with this warm dish, should you choose to...and I think you should.
Ingredients:
1/2 c. (one stick) unsalted butter
1 c. all purpose flour
2 c. sugar (divided into 1 c. portions each)
1 T. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 c. milk (I used whole, might as well, it's a dessert, why try to watch calories now)
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 c. fresh (peeled & sliced) peaches (3-4 depending on the size of the peach, I used 4)
Preheat oven to 350°.
In a small saucepan, melt stick of butter. Pour into bottom of a 13x9-inch casserole dish.
Mix together flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder & salt in a bowl. Add milk & vanilla extract and stir just enough to blend. Pour over melted butter, but don't stir!
In a separate saucepan, bring remaining 1 c. sugar, 1 c. water and peaches to a boil, stirring constantly.
Pour over batter, but again, don't stir!*
Bake for 40-45 min; batter will rise slightly, and the peaches will get all bubbly & syrupy and peek through the batter. It's supposed to look like the pic above, I was told. & I chose to believe this because it was so damned tasty.
Enjoy warm or cold, but hot is best with a big ol' scoop of Breyer's vanilla ice cream plopped on top.
*At this point some recipes called for sprinkling cinnamon on top, others called for nutmeg. I don't really care for the taste of either, so I didn't use it, but if that's your thing, go for it. Last I heard, it's a free damn country.
Can you tell I'm ready for summer? Summer fruit, at least, summer heat...not so much.
Oh, and I didn't include serving size: in this case, it served mostly one hungry should-know-better diabetic mother, but it's a dessert, so my best guess is 8-10 normal sweet eaters.
Meaning that baking is an exact science. Meaning that baking doesn't so much entail a "pinch of this, sprinkle of that" as it means measuring ingredients to the nth degree and not over mixing or opening oven doors or heating ingredients too high so that your end product doesn't end up with craters on the inside, a concave middle, or scrambled eggs instead of a velvety custard.
That being said, there are a few sweet dishes that I am damn good at. My English Toffee Cheesecake is to die for, my banana bread is moist and scrumptious and my first ever attempt at peach cobbler last year turned out to be spectacular.
First off, let me say, don't judge a dish by its picture, ass holes. Yeah, I know it doesn't look like all that, but trust me, this shit was amazing, and turned a cobbler lover out of me, a girl who doesn't much care for pies unless they are of the moon variety.
This dish came about as a special request from my mother, and after extensive research on the internet, in magazines, and old cookbooks, I "cobbled" (see what I did there) together the following recipe.
The secrets to making this cobbler a success are: fresh, very ripe, verging on mushy Georgia or SC peaches (I'm on the border of the two states, so these are easy to come by around these parts) and vanilla extract, which perfectly compliments the flavor of the vanilla ice cream that you serve with this warm dish, should you choose to...and I think you should.
Ingredients:
1/2 c. (one stick) unsalted butter
1 c. all purpose flour
2 c. sugar (divided into 1 c. portions each)
1 T. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 c. milk (I used whole, might as well, it's a dessert, why try to watch calories now)
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 c. fresh (peeled & sliced) peaches (3-4 depending on the size of the peach, I used 4)
Preheat oven to 350°.
In a small saucepan, melt stick of butter. Pour into bottom of a 13x9-inch casserole dish.
Mix together flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder & salt in a bowl. Add milk & vanilla extract and stir just enough to blend. Pour over melted butter, but don't stir!
In a separate saucepan, bring remaining 1 c. sugar, 1 c. water and peaches to a boil, stirring constantly.
Pour over batter, but again, don't stir!*
Bake for 40-45 min; batter will rise slightly, and the peaches will get all bubbly & syrupy and peek through the batter. It's supposed to look like the pic above, I was told. & I chose to believe this because it was so damned tasty.
Enjoy warm or cold, but hot is best with a big ol' scoop of Breyer's vanilla ice cream plopped on top.
*At this point some recipes called for sprinkling cinnamon on top, others called for nutmeg. I don't really care for the taste of either, so I didn't use it, but if that's your thing, go for it. Last I heard, it's a free damn country.
Can you tell I'm ready for summer? Summer fruit, at least, summer heat...not so much.
Oh, and I didn't include serving size: in this case, it served mostly one hungry should-know-better diabetic mother, but it's a dessert, so my best guess is 8-10 normal sweet eaters.
It looks delicious, but stop enabling our diabetic mother. :-P
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