Peach Cobbler

A few nights ago, I made myself some cheese grits & peach cobbler. Although Georgia is known for its peaches, South Carolina actually produces more of them. We just have more important and interesting things going on to be famous for, so we let that slide.

In addition to Smitten Kitchen, as previously mentioned, we in my house love Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen. To the extent that we are disappointed that one cannot be a "fan" of them as an entity on facebook, and must be a fan of the TV show, which we do not watch. We have the cookbook, The New Best Recipe, and we are fanatic about it. I really appreciate their scientific approach to cooking. Multiple tests with controlled variables and a totally obsessive pursuit of perfection: it warms my compulsive little heart.

But, in real life, I don't cook like that at all. For someone so in love with perfect scientific recipes, I really play fast and loose with them. How hypocritical.

Click here for the recipe I used, sortof. (You have to be subscribed in order to use Cook's Illustrated's website, and I happened to have one issue with this recipe in it. Fortunately, other people have typed it up for me.)

I had bought a pint of peaches at the farmer's market, but they went bad in about 3 days, and I was vexed. I salvaged what I could of them, leaving me with about 2 cups, if we're lucky, of peach mush. That's not at all the 2 1/2 pounds of firm but ripe peaches that the recipe calls for, so I halved the rest of the recipe (again, more or less.)

I used more than the proper proportionate amount of lemon juice, and didn't drain the peaches at all, just added extra cornstarch. I also didn't have plain yogurt, so I used sour cream. In addition, I ate about a quarter of the dough before I baked it (it was delicious).

We ate it with ice cream and watched the Up Series documentary. Lovely!

Image from here.