Epicurean Peach Cobbler

OK. Georgia may call itself "the Peach State." They may even have a picture of a peach on their license plate. But epicurean news flash: the best peaches come from Alabama. I scored a basket of about twenty large mouthwatering tangy sweet Chilton County peaches at a farmer's market yesterday ($10), and needed something to do with them. Having recently overindulged in peach daiquiris, I decided to try my hand at a peach cobbler. I will admit--I wasn't disappointed.

10 large peaches or so, enough to yield 4.5-5 cups of fruit with the pits, stems, and peels removed (be sure to squeeze all the juice you can out of the peels before you discard them).

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1.25 cup all-purpose flour

1 heaping tsp. baking powder

1 heaping tsp. salt

1 cup Splenda/sugar blend (available wherever synthetic groceries are sold--I only used it because I ran out of real sugar, but it worked well)

1 egg, beaten

1 stick unsalted butter, refrigerated


Preheat oven to 375.

Wash, peel, and slice the peaches, and pour into a 19x11x2 baking dish.

Add sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, Splenda/sugar blend.

Add the egg, mixing (I used my fingers) thoroughly until the the egg is evenly distributed and the mixture has a uniform texture.

Cover the peach layer evenly with the flour mixture.

Using a vegetable peeler or something, shave the butter lengthwise into thin strips. Place these evenly on top of the flour mixture layer.

Sprinkle a little sugar and a little cinnamon on top.

Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes. Turn off heat, and allow the cobbler to cool a bit in the oven. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.