Lavender Vanilla Southern Peach Cobbler Recipe

How to make it

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• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Combine the sliced peaches, honey, cinnamon, vanilla, and lavender in a large mixing bowl. Taste for sweetness and add more honey to sweeten to taste (see Recipe for Success).
• In a food processor combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, and kosher salt. Pulse 3-4 times to mix. Add the egg and the stick of butter to the dry ingredients. Process on low speed for about 30 seconds to a minute until the dough comes together in a sticky ball.
• Place the remaining Tbsp. butter in the bottom of the cast iron skillet or baking dish and place in the hot oven for 5 minutes or until melted. Carefully remove the hot dish from the oven and swirl the butter around until it coats the bottom of the dish.
• Spread the peaches evenly in the baking dish.
• Drop tablespoons of the dough all over the top of the peaches and press them down with your fingertips to form a mostly uniform crust. Don’t worry if it’s not completely even or covered. The crust will spread a bit during baking and the slightly uneven look is very rustic.
• Brush the top of the cobbler with the egg wash and sprinkle with the sugar.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the peach juices are bubbling up on the sides.
• Recipe for Success
• The amount of honey you use has everything to do with how sweet and ripe the peaches are. Early season or under-ripe peaches may need a little more help in the sweet department. Late season and juicy overly-ripe peaches may do just fine on their own. Start with just a couple of tablespoons of honey, taste the mixture, and add more until the mixture is just about (but not quite) as sweet as you’d like it to be. The peaches will give off some of their natural sugar and sweeten while they cook to round out the final flavor.
• You can use regular sugar instead of honey if you’d like. I think the honey lends a complexity to the peaches that you don’t get with sugar, but that’s a personal preference.
• I made this is a cast iron skillet because it makes it feel more traditional. You can use a deep dish oven baker or even a glass pyrex dish just as easily.
• Instead of greasing the bottom of the baking dish with melted butter you can use baking spray. The butter tastes better though and what’s one more tablespoon among friends?
• I use a tablespoon scoop or mellon-baller to drop the dough in even rows over the peaches. After that it’s easy to press into an even crust.
• You could make this cobbler with frozen peaches if you had to. I’d reduce the amount of peaches to about 3.5 lbs (a couple of good size bags) and I’d thaw and drain them first to prevent the cobbler from being too watery.