Poor Man's Peach Cobbler

There are hundreds--maybe even thousands--of cobbler recipes out there. And grunts. And brown bettys. And crumbles.

But this, my friends--THIS is the one your family will ask for. Because it's so tasty... so butterylicious... so eye-rollin'-toe-curlin' good.

It really is.

Now Mr.W's office has a lot of women in it. And as we know, where there are lots of women, there are lots of office events that require me to cook something to send in. Way back when he started this job, I made this cobbler recipe.

Now it's all they ask for. If there's a party, they sign Mr.W up for This Cobbler Recipe. They don't want anything else.

Which makes things pretty easy for me, wouldn't you say?

(Most southerners probably know this recipe already... but for the rest of y'all, enjoy!)


Poor Man's Peach Cobbler
serves 4 to 6

1 stick salted butter
1 cup self-rising flour*
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk
1 large can (mine says 29 ounces) peach halves or slices in heavy syrup

In a 13x9x2-inch pan (actually I used foil roasters this time, because I had to send them to the office), place the stick of butter. Put in cold oven and preheat to 350*F.

While the oven is preheating and melting your butter, mix together the flour, sugar and milk. I like to use my kitchenaid to stir together the dry ingredients then add the wet--but you really can't mess this up, folks. Just mix it together.



Remove pan from oven before butter is all the way melted. Or not. However, really.


(Obviously you see two pans here; I made two batches for Mr.W's office.)

Dump in the batter. Yes, the batter first. Trust me. I wouldn't steer you wrong.

Now spoon in your undrained peaches (don't get too much of that syrup just yet) and plop them onto the batter. Decoratively, or not. If it's a little uneven, don't worry about it. Then you'll have some peachier sections and some cobblier sections. It's all good.



Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of your heavy syrup from the can over the peaches.

Now put in the oven (center rack is best) and bake for a good hour or more. The batter will rise up over most of the peaches and get all brown and bubbly... oh, my.



Can you see the goodness? And you'll have to make this to understand the wonderful aroma this leaves all over your house.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Or half-n-half drizzled over. Or just out of the bowl. You'll be licking the plate before long.


This recipe lends itself to any number of variations. You could add cinnamon and nutmeg. You could use different fruit. And as much as I've thought about gourmet-ing this up, I can't bring myself to do it. Because it's so good, just as it is.

Sometimes simple is best.

*If you don't have self-rising flour, combine 1 cup all-purpose flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder. Works perfectly--in fact, that's what I did for the recipe photographed above.