Lazy Little Peach Cobbler

I'm housesitting while my sister and Rich are in Chicago for a conference. Housesitting means dogsitting. Dogsitting means they wake me up at 5am to go outside. Woof. It's their schedule, not mine so I go along with it. Well I wouldn't want someone to wait until it was convenient for them to take me outside, so I'm surely not going to do that to the pups.

When I'm just cooking for myself I like to shrink down some of my favorite recipes. This is a smaller version of the peach cobbler I've been making for years. The hardest part is slicing the peaches, and it makes just enough for me to have dessert for a couple of days.

You need: peach slices, sugar, self-rising flour, butter, milk, vanilla, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and an egg yolk. I nearly forgot the egg yolk until I went to make the cobbler-y part of the dish and thought "Hmm, something is missing." Erm, yeah.

First things first. Melt the butter in the baking dish. I generally do this while the oven is preheating. Keep an eye on it though, so it doesn't burn. I used a small baking dish that looks to be 6x6. Really it looks like something you would make spinach artichoke dip in, so let that be your guide. You can use a square or round dish.

Sprinkle a little sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract over the peach slices. Toss it so that each slice is coated.

Whisk together the sugar and flour. I almost never use self-rising flour, but for some reason I just have to use it in this recipe. Nostalgia, perhaps? Also, I don't like my cobbler too sweet, so if you want it a little sweeter add another 1/4 cup of sugar.

Add the egg and milk.

And whisk until just combined. You might have a couple of lumps, and that's fine.

When the butter has melted it's time to put it together. You can see where it was starting to brown in a couple of spots. I took it out in the nick of time!

Pour the batter over the butter.

And pour the peaches over the batter. Don't stir. The batter will rise over the peaches, and the peaches will peek through.

After it spends a little time in the oven, you get a pretty, peachy, buttery dessert. You'll want to wait a couple of minutes before you cut it so that the butter soaks into the cobbler. Just trust me.

 I mostly eat vanilla ice cream with my peach cobbler, but I figured a scoop of French Toast ice cream would be pretty rockin'. I figured so right.

Peach season makes the summer heat a little more bearable. It's hard to be mad at the world when you have a sweet peach on a spoon with a buttery cake-bread.

I love that feeling of hot and cold when you take a bite of cobbler and ice cream together. It's pure summertime to me, and I'm going to milk it as long as I can. Although, the way I can go through cobbler that might not be as long as I think.

Lazy Little Peach Cobbler (serves 3-4)

4 tbs unsalted butter

2 c peach slices

1/4 c + 1 tbs granulated sugar, divided

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c self-rising flour

6 tbs milk

1 egg yolk

• Preheat oven to 350º. Melt butter in a small baking dish while oven preheats.
• Combine peach slices, 1 tablespoon sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Toss to evenly coat the peaches.
• In another small bowl, whisk together the flour and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Add the milk and egg yolk and whisk until just combined.
• In the baking dish, pour the wet batter over the melted butter. Pour the peach slices over the batter but do not stir them in. Bake 30-35 minutes or until lightly golden brown on top and the edges are brown. Let stand 5-10 minutes and serve warm or room temperature, preferably with a scoop of ice cream.