It’s peach season! Those elusive days where peaches are ripe and juicy makes them all the more special. Peaches give me major nostalgia, remembering lazy summer days noshing on my mom’s famous peach pie. So today I’m thrilled to unveil another peach recipe that’s about to be famous: this incredible peach cobbler. Imagine: cinnamon-spiced, ripe and tangy peaches, covered in delightfully flaky ricotta biscuits. It’s truly something special, from the new cookbook Dappled, by Nicole Rucker, chef behind LA’s Fiona Bakery. Keep reading for more about the book and the recipe!
About the book: Dappled
If you’re a fruit dessert lover (like we are), the cookbook Dappled is for you. It’s written by LA baker Nicole Rucker, the face behind LA’s restaurant and bakery Fiona. She’s all about the decadence and creativity of fruit desserts: which can be just as indulgent and decadent as chocolate, right? The recipes are classic with creative takes, like Black and Blue Pie with Brown Sugar Crumb and Flourless Chocolate and Pear Spoon Cake. For our preview recipe from the book, we chose this Peach Cobbler with Ricotta Biscuits…and man, was it a showstopper! Because my mom has such a stunning peach pie recipe, I’m a little picky about peach cobbler. No canned peaches or Bisquick topping here! Luckily, Nicole’s peach cobbler absolutely held up and will be a new family favorite. Get it: Dappled: Baking Recipes for Fruit Lovers
How to make peach cobbler
Now, there are all sorts of ways to make a peach cobbler. And there are lots of ways to shortcut the work and make a decent peach cobbler. But this recipe is about making a stellar peach cobbler. That means making flaky ricotta biscuit dough: like the professionals do it! Nicole notes in the book that the ricotta melts into the biscuit in most places and created “a fluffy crumb that I had been trying to achieve for years but never knew the secret to”. She also notes that these are dangerously addictive and to proceed with caution. You can’t say we didn’t warn you! To make the biscuits, you’ll whisk together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and then add cold butter, mixing it in with your fingers until you get a pebbly dough. Then add the buttermilk and ricotta cheese and form a shaggy dough. Form it into a rectangle, then fold it into thirds. You’ll do this two more times to form the layers of the biscuits. Then refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes while you assemble the filling. The filling for this peach cobbler is simple: just peaches, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and a little flour. It forms into a gooey, cinnamon-y mess that truly brings out the peach flavor. We made one tweak to the original recipe and cut the sugar back from 1 ½ cups to 1 cup. It was still incredibly flavorful, so we’d recommend it. Once the filling is ready, you’ll drop the biscuits onto the top of the filling. The original recipe called for cutting biscuits into 2-inch squares: here we did about 1-inch rectangles and the biscuits turned out quite large! Another option is you can drop blobs of dough onto the top of the filling: this would yield a more organic, free-form shape. Then all you’ve got to do is bake it! It results in what we think is the best peach cobbler on the planet. Not even joking. Have leftover ricotta? Try these Genius Ricotta Cheese Recipes.
How to peel peaches
Here’s another a simple way to peel the peaches: without a knife or vegetable peeler! You’ll use boiling water, but just for a minute. It won’t cook the peaches; it will just make the skin easy to peel. Here’s how to peel peaches using the boiling water method:
Prepare a large pot of boiling water. Drop one peach into the pot so that the water fully covers it, and boil for about 1 minute. Remove the peach from the water with a fork, and drop in the next peach. As the second peach boils, use a sharp knife to remove the thin skin of the peach (it should peel off in large sheets with your fingers). Repeat until all peaches are peeled.
We hope you enjoy this recipe: it’s absolutely perfect for summer occasions that require a showstopper dessert! Like cookouts, potlucks, barbecues, baby showers, bridal showers: really all the things! Let us know if you try it in the comments below.
More peach recipes
Nothing beats fresh peaches in the summertime. A few of our favorite peach recipes are:
Fresh Peach Pie or Peach Galette Peaches and Cream Oatmeal or Peach Cobbler Muffins. Peach Sorbet or Peach Ice Cream Peach Cobbler or Peach Crisp Peach Salad Peach Sangria or Peach Lemonade Grilled Peaches or Roasted Peaches
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2 ½ cups (250g) cake flour, plus more for rolling 1 ½ tablespoons sugar ½ tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, cold and cut into ½-inch cubes 1 cup (236ml) cold buttermilk, plus more for brushing ¾ cup (186g) cold whole-milk ricotta cheese*
For the peach cobbler filling
2 pounds (908g) ripe peaches, skinned, pitted, and cut into ¾-inch pieces (about 6 cups) 1 cup (200g) sugar 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon Pinch kosher salt 2 tablespoons heavy cream, for brushing
