Caramel Vodka Peach Cobbler

I have a confession to make. I don't like baking very much. It's an ironic thing for me to not like baking, because some of my earliest food memories involve me helping my mom make her awesome pound cake for Thanksgiving, and eating the batter left in the bowl [mmmm cake batter].  Christmas time means red velvet cake, and since my grandmother's Alzheimer's diagnosis several years ago, Odichi and I have been charged with making this labor intensive cake, Georgia style, with three layers and pecans and coconut in the icing. So it's not like I don't know how to bake, I just don't like to bake. Baking requires precision, focus, and patience, three qualities that I famously lack, and don't really have any desire to add to my personality repertoire, in spite of the fact that they would probably make me a better person [as if I need to improve on thiiiiiis].

However, I will occasionally disregard my disdain for baking when I think it's worth it. And two weeks ago, I came across a blueberry cobbler recipe on Keeley's My Life on a Plate blog that made me remember that I love cobbler. Cobbly Cobbler Cobbler. Here it goes down. Down in my belly. Mmm Mmmm Mmm. It was also an oddly cool and grey day in August, which meant I could turn on my oven. I was sold! Me being me, I went straight to Whole Check Foods after work to buy blueberries, and left with peaches instead.  I decided on peaches because I prefer peach cobbler to any other fruit and I'm a diabolical booze hound genius and realized that peaches would make the best medium in which to incorporate my beloved caramel vodka. I also heavily debated between Häagen-Dazs dulce de leche or plain vanilla ice cream. Vanilla won, only because they had the single itty bitty ones in vanilla, and I wasn't in the mood to spend $5 on half of pint of ice cream that day.  Next time, I'm going all caramel though, budget be damned!

Ingredients (adapted from Keeley)

Filling:
7 large peaches, peeled and roughly chopped
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup Caramel Vodka (you know I didn't actually measure it)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/3 freshly grated cinnamon stick*
Pinch of salt

Topping:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoon. baking powder
1/2 freshly ground cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract** (I omitted b/c I didn't have any)


Preheat an oven to 375ºF. Lightly grease a pie/baking dish***

Toss the peaches with the vodka, sugar, flour, lemon zest and salt until blended. Pour into the prepared baking dish. In a bowl, mix dry flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, butter and vanilla until well blended. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and, using a rubber spatula, fold gently until the flour is moistened and the mixture forms a soft dough. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto the filling, spacing them evenly; the dough won't completely cover the filling.

Bake until the filling is bubbling, the topping is browned and a toothpick inserted into the topping comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes, depending on the deepness of your pie dish. Serve warm with ice cream, and eat your heart out. I sure did.

While I thoroughly enjoyed eating more than half of this cobbler by myself [and then rightly gave the rest to my sister], next time around, I'm going to make some changes, mainly in the crust. I like the biscuit like topping, but what I really wanted was a pie-like thick and flaky crust. So now to find the perfect pie crust recipe. For the filling, I'll let the peaches soak in the vodka for a full day, and add some corn starch to thicken the filling. Mmmm peachy...

*I bought a huge bag of whole cinnamon sticks at my local Indian market for $3. I went nuts in that store that day!

**I have yet to buy my Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract b/c it's like $15. But one day soon...

***I forgot to grease my baking dish. I suck at following instructions. smh