Saturday’s Basket – Peach Cobbler with Lavender Cream

Saunders Brother’s Orchard showed at the Market on Saturday and brought with them a plethora of gorgeous peaches in two varieties.  I choose a small bushel of about 8-10 white peaches for the blushing-pink flesh and juicy, sweet flavor.  For the topper, I headed back home for fresh lavender from the garden.  Everyone has their own recipe for cobbler but here’s how mine came together:

Peach Cobbler

4 cups of fresh peaches, peeled and cut

2 cups sugar, divided

1/2 cup sugar

8 tbsp butter

1.5 cups gluten-free all purpose flour (or regular self rising flour)

2 tsp baking powder (omit if using regular all purpose flour)

1/4 tsp salt (omit if using regular all purpose flour)

1.5 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine the peaches, 1/2 the sugar and water in a skillet and bring to a slow boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes and then set aside to cool.

While the oven warms, cube butter and place in a extra-large oven proof skillet or casserole.  Place in oven to melt butter.  Whisk together remaining sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and milk.  Once butter has melted, add batter to the casserole slowly and evenly.  Next,gently add the peaches and arrange as desired, pour remaining syrup into the dish.  Bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly all over.

Lavender Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream, divided

3 springs lavender

1 tsp powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Steep lavender in  1/2 cup heavy whipping cream over low heat for about 5 minutes or until fragrant, stirring occasionally to prevent film. Remove from heat and transfer to freezer to cool completely. Next add remainder of the whipping cream to a large mixing bowl and being to incorporate air with hand mixer.  Strain lavender from remaining whipping cream and add to the other, fold in sugar and vanilla and continue to incorporate until smooth.

One (or two) heaping scoops of cobbler onto a dessert plate and a few tablespoons of chilled lavender cream on top and you have one fantastic, fresh, summer treat!

Saturday’s Basket is written by a Forest Hill resident and is a weekly review of South of the James Market purchases and the recipes she creates with her market finds. View these and more recipes at Pantry2Plate, a food blog with stories of cooking as best as she knows how.