Breakfast Pear or Peach Cobbler
This is a recipe from Ruth Reichl's My Kitchen Year. It is my favorite breakfast dish of all time. I use pears, rather than the peaches she uses. Given the lack of full-fat buttermilk in my area, I have to use buttermilk powder instead of liquid buttermilk. I once tried to use apples in place of the pears, and it wasn't that great, but feel free to experiment. You do you. DO use a real lemon. Bottled lemon juice is NOT the same. It doesn't take much time at all to juice a lemon and the taste is SO MUCH better, promise.
Ingredients
- 3-4 Large Pears Ruth uses 4 Large Peaches.
- 1/3 Cup Buttermilk I follow the label on my buttermilk powder container. Give it a whisk before you add it to liquid ingredients to break up any annoying clumps.
- 1 Lemon Half Juiced (watch out for seeds)
- 1/4 to 1/2 Cup Sugar Want it sweeter? Go for the full amount of sugar. I use 1/3 Cup sugar.
- 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
- 1 Cup Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 4 Tablespoons Butter (otherwise known as "half a stick."
- Heavy Cream for serving, to taste (the oldest does NOT like it with cream, but I LOVE it).
Instructions
- 400* oven.
- Ruth says you can peel peaches by dropping them into boiling water for 40-60 seconds and then running them under cold water until your hands are no longer burning. Then you slip the skins off and drop them into the dish, juice and all. I use pears, simply peeling and chunking them up a bit.
- Add lemon juice to the fruit.
- Combine the sugar and the cornstarch, and stir into the fruit.
- Combine the flour, baking powder ,baking soda, and the salt.
- Cut in butter.
- Mix in buttermilk.
- Set the dough over the fruit. It won't be perfect. It won't be pretty. BUT it will be amazing. Remember, the topping will rise during baking, so it will cover a little more than it does pre-baked. It is NOT meant to completely cover the whole thing, FYI. Part of the appeal is seeing some fruit here and there.
- Bake at 400* for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
- Serve with heavy cream on the side. I drown mine (our oldest says I eat pear cobbler soup).
- It's best served warm on the day it's made. Hide leftovers in the fridge so you don't have to share.