Almost There... Peach Cobbler

Peach (Nectarine) Cobbler It has been my custom to make fresh peach cobbler at least once every summer since I came back to Kochi in 2000. Every time I tried a different recipe, and every time I thought “Well… not bad, but…” The problem was that I couldn’t find fresh yellow peaches and I didn’t want too-sweet canned stuff, so I always used white peaches. I love fresh white peaces so much, but when baked in a cobbler, I felt that something was not quite right. They didn’t go well with brown sugar as much as I had expected and I always preferred eating them raw. So this time I decided to use nectarines instead. Nectarines were on sale yesterday at the supermarket I always shop at. They were pitiful ones--- already turning brownish even though they were not quite ripe --- but I thought it wouldn’t matter too much when baked in a cobbler. I found this recipe on the net this afternoon and scaled it in half. I guess I didn’t make a mistake in calculation or conversion this time. I had to throw away some bad parts of the nectarines, but I had enough left for my half-sized cobbler. While it was in the oven, the wonderful smell of cinnamon and sugar filled my kitchen, and I realized that it was about a month ago when my kitchen was filled with the aroma from baking last time! It turned out pretty good. :D Using nectarines was definitely a right choice and I liked this recipe. Well, there’s actually a few things that I’d do differently next time: I’ll reduce the amount of brown sugar, add a bit more lemon juice and slice nectarines into thicker wedges so that I can enjoy their texture better. Also, I might use milk instead of hot water for the crust. But I’m glad I found this recipe. For some reason, I like “crust-on-top” peach cobbler recipes better than “peach-on-top” ones. Too bad that the nearby supermarket ran out of vanilla ice cream today!! Next time, I’ll make a bit less sweet version of this nectarine cobbler and, when I eat it, put a big scoop of ice cream on top while the cobbler is still warm… Hmmmmmmm!!!. For now I’m enjoying it with cool, crisp iced tea. Ah... heavenly. ;)