Posted on 06/17/2012 1:26:15 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Nothing says summer like peach cobbler, and, thanks to a terrific Texas peach crop this year, there are plenty of wonderful fresh, local peaches to do the dish justice. Like many Texans, Fairmont Hotel pastry sous chef Maggie Huff starts with an old family recipe.
“I think this recipe is technically a buckle,” she says, “but this is the cobbler I grew up with. You make a cake batter that you pour on top of melted butter and the peaches.”
But the peach cobbler she created for the hotel’s Pyramid Restaurant is not quite the one from her Dallas childhood.
“My grandmother’s recipe was made with canned peaches and margarine,” she says. Huff’s calls for butter and fresh peaches, like the ones the Fairmont gets from the Lightseys, a multigenerational Texas farm family from Mexia that has sold its peaches and other produce at area farmers markets for years.
“I added a streusel topping,” says Huff, the general manager at Il Sorrento before it closed, who followed her dream to study at the French Culinary Institute in New York. Her streusel topping gets extra crunch from pecans. Her secret for bringing out the best flavor in the peaches? She adds sugar and vanilla bean. “There’s something about peaches, vanilla and butter,” she says. Butter — that’s another ingredient that makes this dish so good, you can’t stop eating it. You think I’m joking? I thought Fairmont Hotel executive chef André Natera was joking when he said he couldn’t stop tasting it. Then we sat down, and I ate the cobbler. The combination of intensely ripe peaches, crisp buttery topping and bread-pudding-like texture does keep your mouth begging for another bite.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
I made peach cobbler on Thursday but didn’t have any ice cream. It was all gone by Friday morning so I made more on Friday but bought ice cream that time. It was all gone by the morning again.
Same with the Weekly Gardening, Recipe and Homebrewing threads here on FR.
Here ya go. From dear Ol Mrs. Evans, DeBerry, Texas.
“Mrs. Evans’ Fried Pie Secret Crust” -
2 cups flour
1 cup of Bisquick
an egg size of Crisco
salt
ice water
make into balls, roll them out flat, fill, pinch the edges.
She says any fruit pie filling recipe is OK.
Better Half says this one is better: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/dessertex/msg081735515047.html
What if you use coconut oil instead of Crisco?
Strawberry rhubarb pie is so easy. I cheat and buy the Pillsbury pie crusts in the same section as the refrigerator biscuits. I just googled for the recipe. I did pre-cook it a bit. yum. Waiting for it to cool right now and then add the vanilla ice cream.
“really sweetened biscuits”
My Mother made Blueberry “Slump”
Put in a sauce pan:
1 quart blueberries
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water...cook mixture until berries are soft
Drop tablespoons of sweetened biscuit mixture ontop of berries.
Cover and cook for about 20 min Do Not open lid during the 20 min.
Sweet biscuit:
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbs shortening
few grains salt
1/3 cup milk
Yummy! The absolute BEST shortening I ever had was what I made myself. Equal parts of Coconut oil, lard, and clean rendered tallow. Melt together in large pot, then ladle into 1-quart size containers.
oops. forgot. If you use straight coconut oil, you'd probably have to use a jar full of icewater for a rolling pin, since c/o liquefies at 76 degrees F.
I cook all this beef and get leftover tallow all the time. It’s so clean, hard and white. I don’t know what to do with it so it ends up in the garbage. What could be made from it? Soap, candles — and now shortening?
I like coconut oil, but unless making coconut fried pies.....
Hey give em a try and let us know.
Mrs. Evans will be rolling over in her grave!
Just melt equal parts lard, tallow, and coconut oil together and store in clean containers in a cool place. Coconut oil is incredibly stable. So is clean tallow. It is so hard when cold that you can hardly put a mark on it. Lard is like a monounsaturated fat. It adds a little softness to the mix. This mix makes AWESOME pies, deep fries like a total dream. You should love it.
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