Ingredients:

Butter/nonstick spray
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 heaping tablespoons sugar, plus extra for sprinkling over the top
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons cold butter
3 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening or lard
3/4 cup whole milk
2 whole eggs
Vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream, for serving

The Fruit Filling:
3 pounds frozen peaches
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Pinch of salt
*I add a cup of strawberries, raspberries or blackberries, but this is totally optional.

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Grease your pan. Use the extra butter or nonstick spray, whichever tickles your fancy.
3. Time to prep the fruit. For this, only use the ingredients listed above in, “The Fruit” section. So:
Pour the whole bag of peaches in a large bowl. Whack the bag on the counter once or twice to break up the peaches before pouring them into the bowl. Add berries if you so choose.
Stir in the sugar (2 cups), flour (1/2 cup), lemon juice (3 tablespoons) and salt (Note: Pinch means pinch. Don’t go crazy.)
Stir together. The dry ingredients will stick to the frozen peaches, so really work it around for a minute or you will get a bite full of salt, and that is just not good.
Pour the peach mixture into your greased dish.
4. Time for the yummy topping.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour (3 cups), sugar (3 tablespoons), baking powder (1 1/2 tablespoons) and salt. Stir together.
Before adding the butter and sugar, cut the cold butter into squares. There are almost always markings on the sticks of butter indicating tablespoons, so cut along those lines. Then cut the square patties into fourths. Do the same with the shortening.
If you have a pastry cutter, combine this with a pastry cutter. I do not, so I do it the old fashion way — with my hands.
5. In a separate bowl, beat the milk and the eggs together.
6. Add the milk and egg mixture to the flour/dough mixture and work together with a fork.
7. Grab chunks of the dough and drop it on top of the peach mixture in the pan. It doesn’t have to cover the entire pan; it should look cobbled. (See what I did there?)
8. Sprinkle additional sugar over the top.
9. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the dough is gold and the peaches are bubbly.
10. Allow to sit for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
11. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.
NOTE: If the cobbler is a little runny, save the extra juice to put over the leftover ice cream. You will not regret it.

ELLISE CHASE
[email protected]