Easy Southern Bourbon Peach Cobbler

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This is the best peach cobbler recipe; it's so fast, easy, and simple to make from scratch! Use canned peaches for ease or ripe fresh peaches in the summer. It's baked with a delicious cinnamon-sugar drop biscuit-dumplings and spiked with a splash of bourbon, then topped with vanilla ice cream for the perfect southern dessert.

This cobbler is the classic sister of my super easy no-fuss peach crisp, a popular dessert on Sweet Tea and Thyme!

When I was a little girl, my mother would make homemade peach cobbler at the end of summer. A bubbling dish full of sugary southern peaches and deliciously spiced cobbler crust would pop up at the Labor Day cookout and after dinner when I would spend all day riding bikes and climbing trees with my friends in base housing.

I wanted to bring that comforting southern peach cobbler to the blog because here we are at the end of summer, school starting for my now-first-grader (yes, Greyson is now going into SECOND grade!), and my mind has been on slowly transitioning into fall with delicious warm spices and the best ever homemade southern peach cobbler topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

And honey, this one, with simple ingredients, many cups of peaches, and a fluffy biscuit-like cobbler topping covered in a sugary cinnamon mixture, it's the best southern peach cobbler recipe you will ever find. And so easy that even the most novice baker will have no problem making it.

Jump to:

• Origins of Peach Cobbler
• How to Make it
• Ingredients
• How to Peel Fresh Peaches
• How to Make Peach Cobbler in Advance
• How to Store
• How to Freeze and Thaw
• More Cozy Desserts:
• Recommended Tools
• 📖 Recipe

Origins of Peach Cobbler

Cobblers are an entirely American dessert in origin. A cobbler is a dessert made by English settlers who wanted pie but didn't have the ingredients and culinary knowledge of how to make one. So they 'cobbled' preserved fruit with biscuit dough on top, which was baked in a wood oven or over open fire in hearths.

One of the first Black cookbook authors, a freed Black woman named Abby Fisher, had become famous for her popular peach cobbler recipe in her cookbook What Mrs. Fisher knows about Southern Cooking which was lost for over 80 years due to an earthquake in San Francisco where she lived before popping up at an auction in the 1980s and you can now buy copies of on Amazon. That peach cobbler recipe is actually used by Disney theme parks during Black History Month, giving Mrs. Abby credit and keeping her legacy alive.

The peach cobbler, however, is simply a southern dessert through and through. At the time, American peaches only grew in the South; it has the best temperature for growing peaches as peaches are a temperamental and finicky crop. So when peach season is among us, the perfect peach cobbler will be sitting on every table until Christmas (because those summer peaches will get canned with a quickness!).

Canned peaches became popular to use as the English settlers began colonizing more Native American land in the west. In the 1950s in order to make canned peaches more mainstream, the state of Georgia declared April 13th National Peach Cobbler Day. I love using canned peaches or even frozen peaches in my peach cobbler for Thanksgiving, and yes, we do make some for the holidays! Most soul food is year round!

I'm very picky about my peach cobblers. Mostly because of my need to know what everything is...but I need you all to know that the peach cobbler you're used to, where you make with a cake-like topping in a dish and put the peaches over it isn't a peach cobbler.

That's right, it's not peach cobbler. It's a peach buckle. But all soul food peach cobblers are made with similar ingredients in different ways to create the same (or similar) dish.

How to Make it

Some people will say that good peach cobbler with either fresh OR canned and they will fight tooth and nail about it. Look, I find that fresh peaches are great in the summer but I love making peach cobbler for Thanksgiving so canned peaches come in clutch. Either way, these tips will help you make the best cobbler you'll ever taste.

1. Combine peaches together with the sugar, spices, bourbon (if you're using), and cornstarch. The sugar macerates the peaches --soften the peaches up in its own juices-- and the cornstarch thickens this into our cobbler's filling.
2. In a large bowl, mix all the topping ingredients together with a pastry cutter (also called a pastry blender) then mix in the hot water with a spoon.
3. Pour the peach mixture into an 8x11 or 9x9 baking dish then drop large spoonfuls of the biscuit topping on top of the peaches with a spoon or spring-loaded cookie scoop. Sprinkle the top of the entire cobbler with generous amounts of cinnamon sugar before baking in the oven.
4. Let cool then eat warm, topped with vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients

• Canned peaches. They're just so easy to use and take out so much prep time! But if you're using fresh peaches, use about 8 large ones.
• Light Brown Sugar and Granulated White Sugar. If you don't like a sweet cobbler, you don't have to use the full amount of sugar.
• ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and freshly ground nutmeg. The fresh stuff slays pre-ground nutmeg.
• Lemon juice and lemon zest.
• A jigger of your favorite bourbon (I used a brown sugar bourbon that was gifted to me!) but it's optional if you're not an alcohol person.
• Vanilla Extract, which rounds out the flavors in almost any dessert
• Cornstarch, which is your thickening agent for the macerated peach juices while the cobbler bakes.

• All-purpose flour. Perfect for the biscuits in this situation, they aren't tough but won't fall apart like they would with softer flours.
• Baking powder, for lift. No baking powder, no lift, and you'll have a dense, hard biscuit cobbler!
• Cold unsalted butter, cubed up. Use a pastry cutter or food processor to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. Cold butter is what makes biscuits nice and flaky and light.
• Boiling hot water. The boiling hot water is weird, I know. But it messes with the gluten structure of the dough, bringing a delightful mouthfeel (and not a dry, crumbly biscuit situation)
• Cinnamon Sugar. So easy to make and gives the topping delicious texture and a gorgeous golden brown color to the buttery crust!

Best Types of Peaches for Cobbler

If you're going for fresh peaches, let me put it out there: the best type of peaches for cobbler are yellow freestone peaches with the most popular variety being fresh georgia peaches.

Freestone versus Clingstone

The two most common types of peaches are freestone and clingstone. Freestone peach pits are easily removed, while clingstone peaches' pits won't come out to save your life. A lot of canned peaches are clingstone peaches, which are prized for being super juicy.

But for cobbler, you'll want freestone peaches to make your life easy.

How to Peel Fresh Peaches

You want plenty of juicy peaches for a fresh peach cobbler, but peeling an entire thing of peaches can be a big hassle. So here's my favorite trick to peeling them for the peach cobbler filling.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Score an x on the bottom of each peach with an X and drop them into the boiling water for about one minute. Use a paring knife to gently peel the skins off. 

Cut the peaches in half, using the seam of the peach as a guide, working the knife around the pit. Twist to open the peaches and gently remove the pits. Slice the peaches into wedges about ½" thick and use in the recipe!

Can I Use Canned Peaches Instead of Fresh?

In a word, YES! I'm using canned peaches in this recipe. Canned peaches make prep so much easier and are no less juicy or sweet as the fresh ones.

But I also like using fresh peaches for the novelty, too.

How to Make Peach Cobbler in Advance

Peach cobbler can be baked a few days ahead before serving, but if you want hot and fresh cobbler without prep on that day (perfect for big summer cookouts and Thanksgiving!) here's how to prep ahead:

1. Combine peaches, spices, and sugar together in a bowl. Cover and set in the fridge for up to three days. If you're using the bourbon, it will be added the day of baking along with the cornstarch.
2. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl with the pastry cutter, then cover and put it into the fridge as well. Pour the boiling hot water into the mixture the day of.
3. Follow the directions to build and bake the peach cobbler the day you're ready for it!

How to Store

Place the completely cooled peach cobbler in the refrigerator, with a lid or wrapped with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Keep it away from anything with strong smells like garlicky foods or onions or it can absorb those flavors. It should be eaten within three days.

How to Freeze and Thaw

Wrap the peach cobbler with two layers of plastic wrap first, then add a layer of foil to keep as much moisture out as possible. Keep in the freezer for up to 4-6 months.

To thaw, take it out and thaw on the countertop for a few hours or in the fridge overnight and reheat in the oven at 325 degrees F until warmed through.

How to Freeze Cobbler in Individual Serving Sizes

The benefit of freezing peach cobbler in serving sizes is that you don’t have to worry about wasting any precious cobbler by reheating the whole thing and not being able to finish it.

Simply put separate servings in freezer safe containers or zip top bags and freeze (freezing the bags flat helps them thaw faster!

Thaw and reheat the same away as above, but it'll thaw much faster with the smaller servings.

More Cozy Desserts:

• Easy Caramel Apple Galette
• Super Moist Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
• Southern Banana Pudding with Meringue
• Crispy, Snappy Gingersnap Cookies
• Apple Fritter Donuts with Maple Glaze

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