Kentucky Peach Cobbler

Kentucky Peach Cobbler was one of the favorite desserts my mom made when we were growing up!  We had peach trees and I loved the fall when we got to enjoy peach cobbler and peach ice cream (look under desserts, Granny's Homemade Fruit Ice Cream for the peach variation...yummy!)  Even canning peaches was (kind of) enjoyable.  Lots of good times together.  I'm apologizing in advance for some of the pictures.  They didn't turn out really well - sorry.  I'll see if I can get some hints from my daughter-in-law who is a professional photographer and is coming to visit tomorrow.  Can't wait to see her, my son and my cute little granddaughter!   

Ok, so you probably know the quick way to peel peaches, but just in case you haven't tried this, put peaches in a pan of simmering water for about 15 seconds.  

Remove with slotted spoon or tongs.

Let cool a few seconds or put under cool water and rub peach with fingers and voila!  

The skin comes right off.

Slice the peaches and cover with the sugar.  Set aside.  

Bad picture, but you get the idea.  Put butter in a 9" pan (I doubled my recipe in a 9" x 13" pan because we love this!) and melt butter in the oven or in the microwave.

Combine the remaining ingredients to make the batter.  It will be thin.

Another bad picture...spoon the batter over the butter.  Do Not Stir!

Carefully add the peaches on top and again, Do Not Stir!

Bake about 1 hour until the top is light brown.  I like the edges best because they are nice and crispy.  Serve with ice cream if desired.  Mmmm...enjoy!

Kentucky Peach Cobbler

2 c fresh sliced peaches (or frozen)              2 tsp baking powder

1 c sugar                                                       ½ tsp salt

½ c butter (no substitute)                              1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 c flour                                                         sprinkle nutmeg

 ¾ c sugar                                                     3/4 c milk

Preheat oven to 375º F.  Slice peaches into bowl and cover with 1 c sugar; set aside.  In 9” square pan, melt butter and let cool.  Make a batter from remaining ingredients.  Batter will be thin.  Spoon carefully over melted butter.  Do not stir!  Gently add peaches.  Do not stir!  Bake about 1 hour at 375º  F. until top is light brown.  Can serve with vanilla or peach ice cream.  Blackberries, apples or cherries may be used instead of peaches.

 

White Chocolate Cream with Raspberries

Fresh raspberries are my favorite fruit and when they came on sale, I had to buy a case.  I wanted to make something delicious and creamy with the raspberries.  After looking through my recipes, I just couldn't find quite what I was looking for so I set out to combine four recipes:  White Chocolate Truffles, Bavarian Creme, Nanaimo Bars (you Canucks know what those are) and raspberry sauce.  Okay...it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  Five tries later, I think this combination finally worked.  (Yup, I had to go buy some more raspberries, especially since my husband was eating them as fast as I could rinse them.)  Thanks to my brother and his family for their taste testing and feedback.  Unfortunately, they didn't get to try the final product.  As I was taking the plate out of the frig to run over to them, the frig door hit my arm and kersplat!  It ended up all over the floor.  Sorry bro.  Aren't some days just like that?  Let me know what you think!

 White Chocolate Cream with Raspberries

18 oz raspberries (3 cups)                                          3 c whipping cream

Crust:                                                                        2 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp butter, melted                                                  2 tsp light corn syrup

1/8 c sugar                                                                2 c (12 oz pkg) white chocolate chips

2 Tbsp cocoa                                                             1/2 tsp vanilla (mexican pure is best)

3/4 c graham cracker crumbs                                    Raspberry topping:

1/2 c slivered almonds, slightly crushed                     1/2 c sugar 

1/2 c sweetened & flaked coconut                              1 Tbsp cornstarch

Cream Filling:                                                          1/4 c water

3 tsp Knox unflavored gelatin                                      2 of the 3 c of raspberries

1/4 c cold water 

Carefully rinse raspberries and lay on clean towel or paper towel to dry.  Meantime, mix sugar and cocoa together in small bowl.  Add melted butter and rest of crust ingredients.  Stir to combine and press in bottom of 8" x 8" pan.   Put in frig while making cream filling.

In small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over cold water.  Let sit while combining whipping cream, butter and corn syrup in medium saucepan over medium heat.  After butter melts, add gelatin mixture and bring to a full boil.  Remove from heat and pour in white chocolate chips.  Gently cover with cream but don't stir.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Whisk the mixture till smooth.  Whisk in vanilla.  Put in frig or ice bath until cool.  Carefully spoon over crust and refrigerate 2 - 3 hours until set. 

In small saucepan stir together sugar and cornstarch.  Add water and 2 of the 3 cups of raspberries.  Crush the raspberries and stir over medium heat until sauce thickens.  You can strain the seeds out in a fine mesh strainer if you would like.  I don't mind the seeds, so I left them.  Cool.  Place the 1 cup of fresh raspberries over the top of the set cream filling.  Carefully spoon sauce over raspberries.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Cut into pieces to serve.   Enjoy!

Fresh Peach Pie

There is nothing like fresh peach pie!  In this recipe, since only the sauce is cooked and not the peaches, you get a wonderful fresh peach taste.  Add whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and the "peaches and cream" taste is amazing!  You can use a store bought crust or the pie crust recipe below which is easy (and inexpensive) to make and nice and flaky.

Fresh Peach Pie

                    1 - 9" pie crust, cooked                   2 large peaches, mashed
                    1 c sugar                                          1/2 tsp pure almond flavoring
                    4 Tbsp cornstarch                            2 Tbsp butter
                    1/3 c water                                       3-4 large peaches, sliced

In large saucepan, mix together sugar and cornstarch.  Add water and peaches.  (Peaches can be easily peeled if you first submerge them in simmering water for 15-20 seconds.)  Cook at medium heat stirring until sauce thickens and looses opaque look.  Remove from heat and stir in almond flavoring and butter.  Cool.  (Can use ice bath to hurry process.)  Spread a small amount of sauce to cover bottom of pie crust.  Fill crust with sliced peaches.  Spoon rest of sauce over peaches, covering to edges to seal.  Place wax paper over top and refrigerate for 2-3 hours until chilled and set.  Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy!

Flaky Pie Crust

                    2 c flour                                            1 c Crisco shortening

                    1 tsp salt                                           1/2 c cold water

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.  Mix flour and salt together in medium bowl.  Cut in shortening with a fork or pastry blender until the shortening is broken up into small pea size pieces.  Add water and gently combine until it starts to stick together.  Do not over mix or knead!  Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.  Roll into a ball and divide in half.  Flour surface and roll into circle big enough to hang over pie pan.  Fold in half, then half again and gently pick up and place in pie pan.  Unfold gently.  The crust will tend to shrink as it cooks, so make sure not to stretch the crust in the pie pan.  Prick the bottom and sides generously with a fork to prevent bubbles while cooking.  Cook for 10-12 minutes until light golden brown.  Cool.  Makes 2 pie shells. (For cooked pies, fill pie shells before cooking and follow pie instructions for baking.)

Granny's Homemade Fruit Ice Cream

Did you know that July is national ice cream month?  President Reagan make the declaration in 1984.  That seems a good enough reason to me to make ice cream!  

My mom would make ice cream at pretty much every barbeque or get together during the summer as I was growing up.  Delicious fruit ice cream - all different flavors depending on which fruit was in season.  This is her wonderful, versatile ice cream recipe. 

To me it is a comfort food because it brings back so many good memories.  All 7 of us kids would keep listening for the motor to slow down.  When it would stop, my dad would always turn the container to see if he could get it going again for a few more minutes to make it as thick as possible.  We would gather around anxiously waiting for him to finally unplug the motor and dish it out to us impatient kids.  The paddle was the big treat because it would have chunks of fruit stuck to it.  He always got first crack at that and then would scrape off big spoonfuls and feed us like little birds huddling around him with our mouths open. 

I just had to show you a picture of the hand crank ice cream freezer my husband's family used when he was little.  I love it.  Someday if the electricity is out and we need some ice cream, we just may use it.

There are such beautiful berries available right now that I decided to make Jumbleberry Ice Cream.  I used raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries with raspberry Jell-o.

Pour the sugar, Jell-o and canned milk in a large pan.  Stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved, but don't boil.  It doesn't have to be that hot.  

Cool the mixture.  You can put it in the fridge or put it in the sink in an ice bath to hurry it up.

In the meantime, crush enough fruit so you have 3 cups.  I use a potato masher and mash it quite fine.  You can leave bigger chunks if you want.  Pour the fruit in the cooled mixture and also add the whipping cream.

Now it's time to pour the mixture into your ice cream container.  Put the paddle in and then add milk until the container is 2/3 full.  Don't add all the milk if it will make the container more than 2/3 full - remember the mixture will expand as it freezes and needs the room.  Don't worry about mixing the milk in, the paddle will do it for you as you start the motor.

Put the lid and motor on the container & turn it on before you add the crushed ice and salt.  You can use rock salt, water softener salt or even the salt you use on the driveway to melt snow in the winter.   Use about 8 cups of ice to 1 cup of salt.  Follow directions for your ice cream freezer to freeze - it generally takes 20-30 minutes.  Sometimes I plug it in outside because it is kind of noisy, but make sure you can hear it when the motor slows down.  Just like my dad, I turn the container by rotating the lid when it stops.  Sometimes the position of some ice will stop it.  If it keeps stopping after 10-15 seconds a few times, it is time to pull the plug.  It will be the consistency of a soft ice cream.

Isn't Jumbleberry a beautiful color?  And it is so creamy and delicious!  Serve immediately and if there is any left, go ahead and freeze it.

Granny’s Homemade Ice Cream

                            2 c sugar                                            3 c whipping cream

                            1 - 3 oz pkg Jell-o                                3 c crushed fruit

                            1 - 12 oz can evaporated milk               1 to 2 c milk

In large pan, mix sugar, Jell-o & evaporated milk together.  Stir over medium heat just until sugar is dissolved.  Do not boil.  Cool.  Can put in ice bath or frig to hurry cooling.  Add crushed fruit & whipping cream.  Mix well.  Pour into 4 quart ice cream freezer.  Add milk until container is 2/3 full.  Follow directions for ice cream freezer to freeze.  Makes about 4 quarts.

Here are some of my favorite combinations:  strawberry Jell-o with strawberries or strawberries and bananas, raspberry Jell-o with raspberries or a mixture of berries (jumbleberry), and orange or lemon jello with peaches (can't wait for peaches in the fall!)  Use your imagination!  I'd love to hear your favorite combinations.  Enjoy!