Cobbled Together

Peach Cobbler is another Spicery recipe (sick of them yet?!)  I'd never really heard of it until the spice box hit my doorstep but it is such a tasty and simple dessert that is perfect for this time of year and I highly recommend you try it!

Pouring yoghurt into a dough does feel odd I grant you but go with it.

Cobbler is a very American dessert.  Apparently British colonists were trying to recreate the pies they had grown up with but struggled with the dutch ovens (yes I sniggered the first time I read that too) available to them.  They invented a new type of biscuit or scone topping which became known as a cobbler as it looked a bit like cobblestones on the top of the dessert.

For UK people who haven't had them before, they are a bit like a cross between a dumpling and scone with a sweet taste and almost breadlike texture.  As with most desserts there are now hundreds of regional varieties in the States and this version is based on those of Georgia, the 'Peach State' of the Deep South.

Quick note - the riper the peaches you can get, the better this cobbler will be.  If you can get fresh ones from a farmers market instead of from a supermarket (which can be a bit tasteless in my opinion) then you will really kick this pud up a gear.

So, you will need:

4 ripe peaches, halved, de-stoned and sliced into wedges
150g punnet of blueberries
60g soft brown sugar (plus 1 tablespoon sugar)
1 lime
200g self-raising flour
80g cold unsalted butter, diced
150g natural pourable yoghurt
1/2 teaspoon ground cassia
1/4 teaspoon vanilla paste
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cinammon quill
Small piece of root ginger, peeled
Whole nutmeg

Cream or ice cream to serve

Pre-heat the oven to 180.

Put the peaches, blueberries, sugar, 3 tablespoons water, zest and juice of half the lime, cassia, vanilla, ground ginger, cinammon quill and root ginger in a baking dish and carefully toss the whole lot together so that everything is covered.

Rub the flour, pinch of salt, remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and the butter together until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the yoghurt and about 30 grates of the nutmeg to the flour mix.  Mix it all thoroughly together and form balls of the mixture, dolloping it on top of the fruit mix (it should resemble cobblestones)

Bake for about an hour until the fruit is soft and a sticky syrup is forming from the juices and the cobbles have expanded in size and are beginning to brown.  Cover the cobbles with tinfoil if they are catching and darkening before the fruit is soft.

Serve with cream and ice cream.  2 cobbles per portion is normally enough - these things are filling and ridiculously moorish! 

Berry Go Round

At this time of the year I often have half-empty packets of berries floating around in the fridge.  They don't look particularly appetising and are often past their best but I am loathe to just throw them out for the birds.

The quickest, easiest option is normally to blitz them into a smoothie which I then gulp down in the mornings with breakfast.

As this is a strictly use-whatever-you-have-lying-around type of smoothie there isn't a 'recipe' as such.  It's more a nudge to have a think about how you can make the most of your leftover fruit and veg!

For this one I used half a punnet of blueberries, half a dozen strawberries and some cherries (that I remembered to de-stone at the last minute otherwise I would have had a busted blender blade).  I added some fresh basil for flavour and as I had no yoghurt in the house I used some sugar-free apple and blackcurrant squash (diluted, not neat) to mix it all together.

Hey presto, a few minutes blitz in the blender and you have an instant, delicious and refreshing smoothie!  I bottle it, stick it in the fridge and it lasts for about 2 days.