My Southern Peach Cobbler Recipe: Incredible Flavor Journey

The Southern peach cobbler recipe is the quintessential Southern dessert. This one is a classic recipe, passed along with the generations and preserved with the utmost care, and it’s also a personal one for me.

Some of my best memories include watching my grandma carefully prepare the peaches and layer the filling. Still, my grandma’s peach cobbler had this flavor that I just couldn’t get my head around. She used to keep saying that it was the secret ingredient: love.

I’ve now realized that it’s the combination of cinnamon and nutmeg.

This Southern peach cobbler recipe doesn’t require any fancy ingredients, only the most basic ones. It is all done in under an hour, using an oven. Although this one’s usually seen as the ultimate summertime treat, with the help of canned peaches, you can now enjoy this classic dessert any time you want.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Equipment
• Storage
• Pro Tips
• My Southern Peach Cobbler Recipe
• Comments

Ingredients

• Peaches — 4 cups, peeled and sliced
• Ground cinnamon — 1 tsp.
• Ground nutmeg — 1 tsp.
• Ginger — ½ tsp., minced
• Cornstarch — 2 tbsp.
• All-purpose flour — 1 ¼ cup
• Cold water — ¼ cup
• Egg — 1 pc.
• Granulated sugar — 1 tsp.
• Unsalted butter — ⅔ cup
• Salt — ¼ tsp.

Instructions

1. Combine salt with cornstarch in a mixing bowl. Add ¼ cup of cold butter, and work the mixture using your hands.

2. Pour the cold water on top and keep working the mixture until the dough melds together.

3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and transfer to your fridge. Let it sit for half an hour.

4. Set your oven to 350°F degrees and lightly grease an 8x8 baking pan.

5. Combine the peaches, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and flour in a mixing bowl.

6. Mix until the peaches are coated.

7. Melt ½ cup cold butter in a saucepan and add the peach mixture.

8. Cook until bubbly, which should take 10 minutes.

9. Transfer the cooked peach mixture to the baking pan.

10. Cut the now-chilled dough into 8 strips and lay them on top of the peach filling in a crisscross pattern.

11. Brush with the beaten egg.

12. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it rest for another 45 minutes before serving.

Substitutions

• Peaches — Cleaning, peeling, and slicing the peaches will take up some of your time, and you won’t always have access to fresh peaches, which makes this dessert a seasonal one. Luckily, canned peaches are always available, and they require less labor, considering that you only have to drain them. Frozen peaches would be another alternative, though we don’t really favor them.

• All-purpose flour — Flour is needed to make the pie crust, which is essential for making this peach cobbler recipe. After experimenting with different recipes, you should go with low-protein flour when it comes to pie crust. While all-purpose flour would do the job just fine, cake flour actually has the lowest protein content, which would create a tender pie crust.

• Granulated sugar — We had no problems with using granulated sugar, as it makes things sweeter. That might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Brown sugar, on the other hand, while not as sweet, would provide a deeper and darker flavor.

Variations

• Fruity — You don’t have to stop with peaches for this recipe. I have tried to combine peaches with suitable fruits, and the results were dreamy. Strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries all work great.

• Creamy — While the Southern peach cobbler recipe makes a great dessert, we realized that adding some ice cream to the mix elevates it to another level. With a creamy texture and the classic vanilla flavor, it’s a midsummer night’s dream.

Equipment

• Measuring cups and spoons

• Mixing bowl

• Baking pan

• Oven

• Brush

• Knife

• Plastic wrap

• Saucepan

Storage

• You should cover any leftover with plastic wrap, or simply transfer it to an airtight container. Once refrigerated, the leftover peach cobbler will last for up to four days.

Pro Tips

• The peaches — The peaches are important here. We tried this recipe with canned peaches and fresh peaches, and the latter had the best result! We also note that using extra ripe peaches would result in a soggy peach cobbler, so I’d strongly recommend staying away from those. Brown and dark brown peaches are the sweetest, softest ones and the best to use for this recipe.

• The acidity — Some variations of the Southern peach cobbler recipe call for buttermilk, vinegar, or lemon juice. That’s simply because they provide some moisture along with acidity, which could be a good thing. In the case of buttermilk, there will also be a creamy texture as well.