Paula Deen is one of my favorite Food Network stars.  I love her quirky southern accent, her big hair and her liberal use of butter and sugar.  Watching her reminds me of my own Grandmother in the kitchen, and she is always inspiring me to bake something new.  So, after buying nearly four pounds of peaches at the grocery store last weekend, I knew I was finally going to try Paula’s Peach Cobbler. 

I am used to a pie-crusted cobbler (and one of these day’s I’ll share my Grandma G’s famous cobbler recipe) but this one is more cake-like and fluffy…it uses self-rising flour so it poofs up into a light, sweet, cinnamon-y pillow.  The peaches sink to the bottom and the whole thing absorbs the syrup and natural sugars from the fruit.  It’s really marvelous.  You could top it with a crumb or streusel topping for an added kick, but I thought it was just fine the way it was. 

I would definitely recommend that you use fresh peaches.  Canned would work, but they just aren’t the same.  I like to chop my peaches into 1 inch pieces, because I think big chunks of peach can be a little bit overwhelming in such a light cake.  I followed Paula’s recipe exactly, except that I added cinnamon to the batter mixture and I increased the recipe by 1/2 and still baked it in a 9×13 pan. 

I hope you enjoy this one!  I’m glad to be back and I’ll have more to share soon. 

Ingredients:
12 Tablespoons butter (1 and 1/2 sticks)
8 fresh peaches (about six cups) peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 and 1/4 cups milk
2 and 1/4 cups self-rising flour (IMPORTANT!)
1/2 cup water
2 and 1/2 cups sugar, divided
2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place butter in a 9×13 baking dish, and place in oven to melt the butter.

Meanwhile, place peaches, 1 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 cup of water into a saucepan.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a large bowl, combine flour, remaining sugar, and 1 teaspoon of sugar.  Using a whisk, combine dry ingredients.  Slowly stir in milk and whisk to remove lumps. 

Remove peaches from heat.  Remove melted butter from the oven.  Slowly pour the flour mixture over the melted butter.  DO NOT STIR.  Then, carefully spoon the peaches over the top of the flour mixture.  DO NOT STIR.  Pour half of the remaining syrup from the peaches over the top of the casserole dish. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.  Spoon reserved syrup over the top of the ice cream.  Enjoy!

Recipe Courtesy:  Paula Deen at The Food Network