"Ruined Nostalgia" Peach & Blueberry Cobbler

I remember once when I was a very young child watching my mother prepare peaches for peach cobbler.  She sat on the footstool in the kitchen, leaning over the garbage can with a peeler in hand as juice dripped off the edge of her pinky, sternly warning me to keep my distance from the already pealed peaches.  I've always been a pretty good kid, so I imagine I left well enough alone and went along my merry way.

As a matter of fact, I distinctly remember indulging in that evening's dessert, so I'm nearly positive I did walk away because there's no dimension (not even in a parallel universe) in which I would have disobeyed either of my parents like that and still gotten dessert.  No, I would have been the one sitting at the table watching enviously while everybody else in my family gorged themselves beyond any rational level of fullness just so I'd never get even a smidgen of that dessert.  Ever.

But, I digress.

So, my mother made peach cobbler.  I ate it.  Loved it.  And was always over the moon anytime she fired up the oven and pulled out the peaches with a warning glance in my direction.  (Really, I was a good kid.  I don't know why all these warning glances were tossed about in my general direction.)

Fast-forward maybe twenty years, and I found myself now making it on my own.  Well, sort of.  I lived with three close friends during college in what we've lovingly come to refer to as "The Crouse House," and it was during this stage in my life, sometime during my senior year in college, that I was given my very own copy of The Joy of Cooking.  Commence bad cooking thrust upon the unsuspecting (and very kind) roommates and friends who gratefully devoured (almost) anything I offered them (the most notable exception to that being the key lime "pie" I made that never quite gelled but instead jiggled in a gooey mass in the fridge for a week before I finally dumped it down the disposal).

One Sunday evening, probably sometime in the middle of the summer, I got the bright idea that I'd make peach cobbler like mom used to.  I hauled out my cookbook, paged through until I found the recipe, and set to recreating the summer treat I so loved.

But as I read the recipe, I became a little suspicious.  This didn't sound anything like mom's peach cobbler.  Not even in the least.  Well, okay, the recipe called for peaches, flour, and sugar, but really, that's where the similarities ended.  Chalking it up to my own inexperience in the kitchen and a child's vague memory, I plodded on, meticulously following each step Irma Rombaur laid out.  But in the end, when I shoveled out a heaping spoonful, I was not met with my mother's "peach cobbler."  Don't get me wrong, it was peach cobbler.  The same peach cobbler you're probably imagining right now...with that yummy warm puddle of fruit topped with a fluffy, golden cobblestone crust (plus ice cream and whipped cream, no doubt!).

But imagine my disappointment when I thought I'd be creating a dessert I'd adored throughout my entire childhood and then came away with something entirely different.  My best guess is that my mom was actually making some kind of peach cake because the best way I can describe it is...well, a cake with peaches thrown in the bottom.  Absolutely delicious.  And, sadly, still a distant memory.  Why she told me it was peach cobbler when it clearly was not?  Your guess is as good as mine.   Someday, I'll find or develop the long-lost cake from my childhood.  Until then...real cobbler is a pretty good second-best.

And so I give you:

"Ruined Nostalgia" Peach & Blueberry Cobbler


Fruit filling:
3 cups peaches, peeled and sliced (about five peaches)
2 cups blueberries
1/3 cup plus 2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp cornstarch

Cobblestone topping:
1 3/4 cups flour
3 tsp double-acting baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick), chilled and cut into 1/4" cubes
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425.
1.  Mix fruit in medium bowl.  Add in 1/3 cup sugar, lemon juice, and nutmeg.  Let sit for ten minutes.
2.  Meanwhile, mix together remaining sugar and cornstarch.  After ten minutes, mix the cornstarch mixture into the fruit and dump into a greased baking dish with ample room at the top for the cobbler.
3.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
4.  Cut in butter until mixture is course (like cornmeal).
5.  Add vanilla to milk and stir into the flour mixture, stirring only just until the dry ingredients are wet.  Too much stirring will murder the cobblestone's fluff.
6.  Drop topping over fruit in small dollops.  You want to create the effect of a cobblestone road...hence the name.  Sprinkle with some cinnamon & sugar.
7.  Pop into the oven uncovered for thirty minutes, or until the topping is fluffy and golden.
8.  Allow to cool slightly.  Top with ice cream (vanilla bean is the best), a dollop of whipped cream, and enjoy!