Menu Monday: FOURTH OF JULY PHARR PEACH COBBLER

Happy Independence Day!

Over the years, I've become known for my cobbler recipe in our family. I have to admit it is damn good. :) In honor of the holiday, I decided to share it with you. You can use canned or fresh fruit.

Last year, blackberry was all the rage, although my mama and I stuck to peach for years. This Fourth I returned to the roots and whipped up a FOURTH OF JULY PHARR PEACH COBBLER!

FYI, as I have altered the original recipe from the one my mama makes, I have renamed it the Cobbler Pharr.

I like to add some fruit on top to make it pretty and professional when it's the full recipe. :)

-If using canned fruit, do not drain juice.

If using fresh fruit, mix 4 cups of fruit with 1 cup sugar and 1-1/2 cups water in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir often to dissolve sugar. Drain ¼-½ of the syrup off fruit.

-Preheat oven to 350°F.

-Place 1-½ sticks butter in a shallow 3-quart baking dish and place in the oven until the butter melts. Combine the 2 cups self-rising flour and 3/4 cup sugar. To keep mixture from lumping, make an indention or crater in the flour-sugar mixture and slowly pour the milk into this, stirring thoroughly. This is your “cobbler” batter.

-Remove hot baking dish from the oven. Slowly pour in the “cobbler” batter in the baking dish. Do not mix butter and “cobbler” batter together. The batter will mix with the butter and rise as it cooks.

-Spoon fruit on top of butter-batter mixture. Spoon syrup over top of “cobbler.” Do not mix the batter and fruit together.

-Bake for 30 to 45 minutes until golden brown. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream or whipped topping.

NOTE: If you do not have self-rising flour, you can easily convert all-purpose flour for your needs. Take 1 cup all-purpose flour minus 2 tsp. flour and add 1-½ tsp. baking powder and ½ tsp salt per cup of flour used. (This recipe would require 2 cups all-purpose flour minus 4 tsp. flour and 1 Tbsp. baking powder and 1 tsp. salt. I measure in the baking powder and salt first, then fill up the measuring cup with flour.)

NOTE: Be sure to scrub, peel, slice, dice, etc. the fruit based on what kind it is before stewing it. You can also use combinations of fruits, such as 1 cup blueberries and 1 cup raspberries. The amounts do not have to be equal one another, so you can mix 1-½ cups apples with ½ pears. Try to add up to 4 cups. (If you do not have exactly 4 cups of fruit, don’t panic. ;) The recipe WILL turn out. In the fall and winter, I throw in some raisins, dried cranberries, etc. with the fruit I’m using—peaches or apples work well—to make it an even 4 cups and to have a much more autumnal or wintry flavor.

In early 2010, I made a cherry cobbler with canned cherries, BUT I forgot to convert my all-purpose flour to self-rising. Thus the cobbler sunk to the bottom and the fruit rose to the top! However, it was ruby-red pretty. :)

Also, this one and the next two cobblers were half of the recipe.

I love how the blackberries look as they are stewing. The berries look like jewels.

This must have been the earliest blackberry cobbler of 2010 because it's in one of our dishes rather than my mother-in-law's.

This is the first blackberry cobbler I made at Zach's parents' house when we stayed with them last summer.

And this beauty was from the Fourth of July weekend last year!!

I hope you have had a wonderful holiday weekend. We spent it in Hot Springs poolside with family and friends over grilled BBQ chicken and my cobbler. While I love these things, I can't wait for cooler weather!