Magic Melted Butter Peach & Blueberry Cobbler

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As much as I’m looking forward to fall, I have a few recipes left to share that celebrate juicy, ripe summer produce! When we visited our local farmer’s market last weekend, the peaches were at their absolute peak of perfection – soft and sweet, bursting with juices that drip down your chin as you take a big bite. They were just begging to be made into my most favorite of summer desserts – a buttery, rich peach cobbler! And because the market blueberries were still going strong, I invited them to the cobbler party too!

You may assume that I learned to make cobbler during my time in Texas – it’s a traditional finish to a barbecue meal and Texans have strong opinions about who has the best version. But actually, every time the cobbler craving hits, I return to my mom’s recipe, written out on an aging 3×5 index card. It’s not actually called cobbler, but rather a “Fresh Peach Dessert (or Apple)”, but having eaten it all my life I can attest that it is, in fact, a very delicious cobbler. The handwriting is not hers, so it’s likely she inherited it from someone else (though it doesn’t seem to match my grandmother’s either, so from whom will remain a mystery). She did make a genius addition to the original version with an addendum to the side: “Add BB’s” – which is how she abbreviated blueberries in all her grocery lists and recipe notes. She was a pretty adorable human.

Upon reading the recipe you may think to yourself that there are some critical details missing or that this must be a misprint. While the first part is partially true (no specifications on the amount of fruit to use), the process is accurate as described. Unlike more traditional cobbler recipes, rather than making a cake batter or biscuit dough to pour/place over sweetened fruit, my mom’s version mixes flour, sugar, baking powder and a little salt with eggs only. The consistency will be like coarse sand, since there is relatively little moisture (note the lack of milk or cream!). Set that aside, and slice up your fruit, which left unadulterated – no additional sugar or flavorings – to let the flavor really shine through.

Spread the fruit in your pan, sprinkle the sandy flour/sugar mixture over the top, and then you slowly, slowly drizzle an entire stick of melted butter over the entire dish. It seems insane, and you will have doubts about whether this could ever produce something edible – where does all that butter even go? – but like magic,all these minimally mixed parts somehow meld together over an hour to produce the most delicious, buttery cobbler you’ve ever had in your life. The fruit gives up its juice as it bakes, which helps the flour and sugar absorb the butter and turn cake-like with a crackly, crunchy topping and soft, juicy fruit underneath.

I’ve doubled the recipe below to make a 13×9 version, but if you want to make my mom’s original version as written on the recipe card, you can use an 8×8 baking dish or even a large 9×5 loaf pan. I used my mom’s Pyrex dish, which is always how I remember her making it, but any type of dish will do. A word of warning – if you do use a Pyrex dish, never be tempted to brown the top using the oven broiler, as Pyrex can’t handle super high heat and can shatter (which will result in a sad and hazardous night of oven cleanup for you!). Let it brown slowly from baking alone, you can even leave it in a few extra minutes to get an extra crunchy top.

And, as the recipe states, you don’t have to limit yourself to peaches and blueberries. Any juicy summer fruit would be delicious – plums, apricots, strawberries, blackberries, (sweet) cherries, would all be delicious. I’ve never tried the apple version as suggested, but please let me know if you do by dropping a comment or snapping a picture and tagging me on Instagram!