Peach Cobbler

In Spring we eat strawberries like they're going out of style. In Summer, it's the same way with peaches. I usually buy my strawberries from the local Farmer's Market (Mount Vernon Farmers Market). There is one vendor I'll go to just for fruit, the Westmoreland Berry Farm. Best stuff you ever put in your mouth.

But in summer, I get peaches from the Egg Man. I don't know what farm he gets them from but they are so sweet and juicy. And the bagful I got this week were just begging me to make a cobbler out of them. And I had a new recipe I was just itchin' to try out. I found it in a magazine called Saveur. My mom had given me one of her old issues from last summer and while flipping through the pages, I found a recipe for peach cobbler. You can see it in the picture above, behind the cobbler I made.

The recipe had you make your own crust, something I haven't done in a very long time. But now that I had a food processor, I was up for the challenge. And after making the dough for the cobbler, may I just say that my food processor is schweet. Never again will I be afraid of making pie crust. The rest of the cobbler went together, the lattice top put into place and baked to perfection. We patiently waited for it to cool a while before we tried it. It was delish! And I'm quite pleased that it actually looked like the picture in the magazine.

Here's the recipe:
Peach Cobbler

Pastry (crust)
2-2/3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
16 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces (I actually used only 12 tbsp.)
6 oz. cold cream cheese, cut into pieces
1 tbsp. cider vinegar
3 tbsp. cold water
2-3 tbsp. milk
2 tbsp. sugar

Filling
5 lbs. peaches, peeled, pitted and cut into 1" pieces
1 to 1-1/4 cups sugar
5 tbsp. cornstarch
1-1/2 tbsp. fresh lemon or lime juice
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces

For the pastry: Put flour, salt, baking powder, butter and cream cheese into a food processor and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 6-10 pulses. Drizzle in vinegar and water and pulse until mixture begins to clump together (it won't form a ball), about 6-10 pulses. Transfer to a large zip lock bag and press dough together, then flatten out into a square as big as the bag, about 10". Refrigerate dough for 1 hour.

For the filling: Combine peaches, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl and set aside.

To assemble the cobbler: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut off 2/3 of the dough, roll out on a floured surface into a 14" X 18" rectangle and ease into a 9" X 13" baking dish. Brush rim of dough with milk, fill pastry with peaches and dot with butter. Roll remaining dough out into a 10" X 14" rectangle. Cut lengthwise into 12 strips and lay on top of the filling in a lattice pattern. Crimp and trim edges. Brush the strips with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 30-45 minutes until pastry is golden brown. Let cool briefly before serving.