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By 300 Sandwiches
Posted in recipes, Travel | Tags : cobbler, dessert, Oregon, peaches, Portland, recipe, summer, travel
This is not a sandwich. But it’s something just as special.
Two things about Oregon make me think of my childhood. I lived here when I was about 5 years old, in Eagle Point, a tiny town near Ashland, home to the world renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival during the summer. Being in Portland on vacation, staying in a glass box in the mountains and driving around the hilly, evergreen-lined Columbia River reminds me of the log cabin in the woods we lived in back then.
This view never gets old.
The area E and I are vacationing along the Columbia River Gorge is known as the “Fruit Loop” because of the various fruit farms and vineyards nearby. Because fruit is so fresh here, I got to thinking about cobbler. My mother makes a mean cobbler–she creates the perfect ratio of crumbly, cakey dough to ooey gooey fruit filling. As a kid, Mom’s cobblers were one of the things I looked forward to most about summer.
I love blueberries, so Mom still usually has one, sometimes two, blueberry cobblers waiting for me when I go to the Midwest for my summer visit. While it’s still warm, Mom scoops on some vanilla ice cream or Cool Whip on top, and serves it up while we watch movies in the living room. I’ve been known to polish a whole cobbler off by the time I hop on the plane back to Brooklyn.
Since E and I rented a beautiful home with a killer kitchen in the Gorge, I was inspired to make cobbler. No, it’s not a sandwich. But we’re on vacation, we went out for dinner, and I wanted to make E something that makes summer special to me.
Peaches are in season, so I bought a bunch from the local market, and called my mother for her recipe while pacing up and down aisle 5. I whipped up the cobbler after dinner at 3 Rivers Grill in Hood River, then scooped out the warm dessert and served it up for E and I while we took in the night view over the river (no ice cream, though–we’re roughing it, remember?).
This morning, we polished off the rest for breakfast, before checking out of our glass box in the mountains and heading towards Portland for some city fun.
Filling:
9 peaches, peeled and sliced
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Crust:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
generous pinch of salt
6 tablespoons butter, sliced into small pieces (not melted, but softened)
1/4 cup boiling water
Topping:
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine filling ingredients in a large bowl, then pour into oven safe 8 inch baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine the crust ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix flour, sugars, baking power and salt with a fork. Then, add butter and mix with wooden spoon until just combined, but still crumbly. Then add boiling water, and mix until just combined.
Remove peach mixture from oven, and spoon out dollops of crust mixture on top. Don’t make it pretty, but evenly distribute on top.
Finally, combine topping ingredients in a small bowl and then pour over top of cobbler. Pop back in oven and bake for another 30 minutes.
Remove, let cool slightly, then spoon out servings into bowls. Top with ice cream or Cool-Whip if desired.
Adapted from Mom, and this goodness.
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