Just Peachy

In late June, on her way home from Georgia -- a state known for its peaches -- a friend stopped at a roadside stand and bought several baskets of peaches fresh from the orchard.  My family was the lucky recipient of one of those baskets.  The peaches were juicy and delicious and we enjoyed peeling and eating them out of hand.  A few days later at a 4th of July party, I spotted a peach cobbler on the dessert table and knew exactly what I was going to do with the remaining few peaches.

Almost every church or school cookbook has a recipe for fruit cobbler.  A lot of times, the recipe has the word easy, simple, or like the one I'm sharing today, quick in the title.  All three are appropriate adjectives for this easy to make dessert, but I think versatile would be a better description.

Although the recipe I'm sharing is for peach cobbler, you can substitute other fruit for the peaches.  In fact, you can use fresh, frozen or canned fruit in the recipe.  If you're using canned fruit, be sure to use some of the juice or the cobbler will be dry.  If you're using fresh fruit, taste the fruit to see if you need to add additional sugar.  If so, add a little at a time until the fruit reaches the desired sweetness.    

Start by melting a stick of butter or margarine.  Instead of melting this in the microwave, I put the butter in the baking dish and set it in the oven while it's preheating.

The butter melts without me having to do anything and it keeps me from dirtying another dish.  

The sugar, self-rising flour, milk and vanilla are stirred together to make the batter.  If you don't have self-rising flour, you can substitute all-purpose flour and add 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon baking powder.  Once the ingredients are combined, pour the batter over the melted butter.  Do not stir the two together!

If you're using fresh peaches, here's an easy way to keep the cobbler from being dry.  Put the peeled and sliced peaches in a saucepan and heat them on low heat for about 10 minutes.

When heated, the juice seeps from the peaches.  This sounds counterproductive, but it's actually the secret to a very moist cobbler, since the juice is distributed over the entire cobbler.

Three peaches yielded almost 1/4 cup juice.

Spoon the peaches on top of the batter.  Pour the juice left in the pan all over the top of the cobbler.  Do not stir!!!  

The peaches will sink to the bottom and the batter will rise to the top and make a crust.

The cobbler is delicious by itself, or served a la mode with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  Either way you serve it, it's just peachy!

Quick Peach Cobbler

6 to 8 Servings

1 stick butter or margarine, melted

3 fresh peaches, peeled and cut into slices 

1 cup sugar

1 cup self-rising flour*

1/4 tsp. vanilla

1 cup milk

*One cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon baking powder may be substituted for self-rising flour.

Preheat oven to 400°.  Put butter in a 10-inch baking dish and set in the oven to melt while the oven preheats.  Peel peaches and cut into slices. Put the peaches in a saucepan and heat on low heat about 10 minutes. While the peaches are heating, combine remaining ingredients; mix well. Remove baking dish from oven.  Tilt pan to distribute butter, if necessary. Pour the batter over the butter.  Do not stir!  Spoon peaches over the batter.  Pour the peach juice over the top of the cobbler.  Do not stir.  Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until the crust is brown.

© Margaret's Morsels

The Saturday Special

Like most working parents with school age kids, weekday mornings are hectic at our house.  My husband has to be at work at one time, I have to be at work at another and our son has to be at school between the two. This leaves little time for me to prepare a sit down family breakfast during the week.  It's a different story on the weekend.

Several years ago, I started fixing a family breakfast on Saturday mornings.  My son promptly dubbed this meal, "The Saturday Special."  I usually fix bacon, eggs and biscuits.  Sometimes I make waffles, quiche or a breakfast casserole.  Once in a while, though, my family wakes up to the smell of cinnamon rolls.

My favorite cinnamon roll recipe is called Super Simple Cinnamon Rolls. The name may be a tongue twister, but the dish truly is super simple! Instead of making the dough from scratch, the recipe starts with two cans of crescent rolls.  I use Pillsbury Recipe Creations seamless dough sheets instead.  The dough sheets may cost a little more, but this is one time I'll pay extra for the sake of convenience.  If you use crescent rolls, make sure to press the crescent rolls into a rectangle and seal any perforations or holes.

The dough is easier to work with when it's cold so I leave it in the refrigerator while I mix up the filling.  If you're like me and forget to soften the butter, you can put the wrapped butter in the microwave and heat it at 10% power for 10 seconds.  This is long enough to soften the butter without it melting.

Once the filling is mixed up, I open the first can of dough and spread it on a cutting board.  The filling goes on the dough and the second can of dough is placed over the filling.  Most cinnamon roll recipes call for the dough to be rolled jellyroll style, but not this one.  The dough is cut into nine strips instead.  The easiest way to do this is with a pizza wheel.  You can get straighter lines if you roll the wheel away from you when you cut the dough.  If you don't have a pizza wheel, you can use a knife instead.  After you cut the dough into strips, roll each strip into a coil.  The rolls turn out prettier if you tuck in the sides of the dough as you roll it into a coil.

Cut into strips with a pizza wheel.

Ready to be baked.

As soon as the rolls are in the oven, I start preparing the glaze which is also super simple.  It's a powdered sugar glaze, but with a twist.  In addition to powdered sugar and milk, it also has a tablespoon of butter. The addition of the butter gives the glaze a wonderful flavor.

It's a good idea to sift the powdered sugar so there won't be any lumps in the glaze.  When adding the milk, it's best to start with the least amount called for because it's easier to add more than take away too much.  Once the glaze is mixed up, I put it in a pastry bag.  If you don't have a pastry bag, you could use a disposable resealable plastic bag instead.  If you don't want to mess with a bag, you can always apply the glaze with a spoon.

When the rolls come out of the oven, I put the pan on a wire rack and let the rolls cool a few minutes before adding the glaze.  It you add the glaze when the rolls first come out of the oven, it melts.  I like to swirl the glaze around the coils, but you can apply it in any pattern you like.

The aroma of cinnamon rolls will be wafting upstairs tomorrow luring my family into the kitchen.  Once they're up and have eaten breakfast, they can help me with some last minute Thanksgiving preparations.  The Saturday special isn't only for Saturday!

Super Simple Cinnamon Rolls

9 Servings

Filling:

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 cup butter, softened

Rolls:

2 (8 oz.) cans Pillsbury Recipe Creations seamless dough sheets or crescent rolls

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp. butter, softened

2 to 3 Tbsp. milk

Preheat oven to 375°.  In a small bowl, mix all filling ingredients; set aside.

Unroll one can of dough into a large rectangle.  If using crescent rolls, firmly press perforations to seal.  Spread filling over the dough.  Unroll second can of dough into a large rectangle.  If using crescent rolls, firmly press perforations to seal.  Place dough over filling, pressing dough onto filling.  Cut dough into nine 13-inch strips.  Roll from one end to the other, shaping each piece into a coil.  Place in a greased 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and place pan on a wire rack.

In a small bowl, combine all glaze ingredients, adding enough milk to make desired drizzling consistency.  Drizzle over warm rolls.  Serve warm.

© Margaret's Morsels