Cobbling together... a cobbler. Peach

It's officially high summer. Annalena so declares. There are more tomatoes than she knows what to do with, the cherries are gone, the apricots are waning, plums are everywhere, and the squash... well... the cudgels are amongst us. When it is high summer, it's time to get your fill of peaches. This year, the peaches have been absolutely outstanding. Meaty, sweet, and drippy too, with that combination of sweet and slightly tart flavor that says SUMMER!!! the way few things do.
When I was younger (that long ago), I used to be able to eat one peach after another, and just never get filled with them. Those days are long gone, probably for the better. Still, they may be my favorite fruit, up there with nectarines.
Peaches cook fabulously. They work in savory applications (chicken, pork, quail, even shrimp), in salads, and of course... in desserts, to which we turn our attention now.
Cobblers fall into this big category of desserts that include buckles, crisps, slumps, pan dowdies, bettys, and so forth. You can get into enormously long, complicated, and detailed arguments about what makes a cobbler differetn from a buckle, what makes a buckle different from a crisp, etc. Here's Annalena's definition of a cobbler: a baked fruit dessert, with a top made of risen dough, usually based on baking soda. That dough is sweetened. There is no bottom crust. Period.
OK, take your pot shots at it. I'm especially interested in Tennessee Dan's views on cobbler, because Sue Hubbel, in her wonderful book of occasional essays "Far Flung Hubbel" writes about the pie/cobbler line, which she posits runs just about at the mid point of Kentucky. According to Sue, if you go into a diner above that line, you will be confronted with a variety of pies. Below it, you're in cobbler country, and that's what you'll get.

Cobblers are terrific. They are not hard to make, and they are GOOD. This is one I made today. It's based on peaches. It's generous, juicy, and it's really foolproof.

Let's start with the fruit: PEACHES (DUH). About five pounds of them. Get them at the correct ripeness. What is that? OK, a lesson in peach and nectarine buying. First, LOOK at the fruit. Does it seem to have an undertone of pink or orange or yellow? If it does not, leave it alone. It will never ripen. Now, smell it. Bring it ripe up to your nose. If the vendor will not let you do that, move on. Do you get that "peachy" smell? If you do, we're still in business. If not, put it back. Finally, find the end opposite the end it attaches to the tree. Press it very gently. Is there a slight yielding? If there is, then you've got a perfect peach for this cobbler. If there is no yield, you will want to leave it to ripen a few days and then use it. If it feels like your finger might squash the peach, you can still buy it, but use it fast.

Get a big pot of water to the boil, and fill a bowl with water and ice cubes. Now, cut an X at that point where you were pressing the peaches and drop them into the boiling water for a minute. Get them out with a slotted spoon, and leave them in the iced water, until they're cool enough to handle. You will be able to peel them with no trouble. (you do tomatoes the same way, by the way. You don't need to do this with nectarines.). Slice the peaches right off of the pit, into a bowl. Surgical precision is not necessary. When you're done, squeeze half a lemon into the peaches, stir them together gently, and IF you have about a cup of raspberries or blueberries, or blackberries, toss them in too. If not, no bother.

Let's make our thickener now. Half a cup of sugar, please, and 3 tablespoons of corn starch. Also, about a half teaspoon of cinnamon, and a quarter teaspoon of salt (don't leave it out). Stir that together, and then stir it into the peaches. Pile them in a 9 inch earthenware or ceramic baking dish.

Now, we'll make the dough topping. This is so easy in the food processor, you should do it there, if you have one. If you don't, it's easy to do by hand. Combine a heaping cup of flour (closer to 1 1/3 cups, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, a pinch of salt together. Cut in a half stick of cold, unsalted butter. You can do this with your fingers or the food processor. Finally, a SCANT half cup of buttermilk or yogurt (you can use lowfat yogurt, don't use nonfat). Pour most, but not all of this, into the flour mixture. Stir it together. Is it moist, but not horrifically wet? If so, you're done. If not, add some more milk. If it gets too wet, don't worry. Just put out some flour on a board, and either roll this out, or press it out with your hands, until it's about 1/3 inch thick. Then, use whatever you have, to cut circles, or stars, or half moons of dough. Put these on top of the fruit, in whatever pattern you like. You'll have scraps. Reroll em and recut them. Use as much of the dough as you can. You have enough. When you're done, get a little milk and a paint brush and paint the top of the cobbler. Move the baking dish onto a baking sheet, and then move it into a preheated, 375 oven. Let it bake for 30 minutes or so. The fruit will bubble up, the dough will brown and your kitchen will smell wonderful. Be careful taking it out of the oven, because fruit and sugar when hot is very sticky and the burn is painful.

This will keep warm for many hours. The fruit releases the heat slowly. Don't refrigerate it. The moisture in your fridge will make that top crust yucky. Cover it with something if you must, and for heaven's sake, eat it as fast as you can.

Now, go through that and tell me: was it really that hard? Now look at the fat content: half a stick of butter is four ounces. The only other source of fat is from the buttermilk. PULEEEZE. If you figure that this will serve at least 8, and you leave out the ice cream, it's not all that bad a dessert.

Of course, leaving out ice cream with cobbler? UNTHINKABLE.