When peaches are in season, it’s hard not to eat the ripe, juicy stone fruit with every meal. I add fresh peaches to yogurt and granola for breakfast, and I love a spicy peach salsa with chicken for dinner. Still, peaches truly shine in dessert recipes. Their sweetness balances the slightly acidic notes in other fruit, including the berries in this peach blueberry cobbler recipe.
This peach and blueberry cobbler recipe starts with a sauce that helps the filling thicken evenly as it bakes. The topping comes together quickly and will puff slightly, almost like a layer of biscuits. Pop a peach blueberry cobbler in the oven while you eat dinner, and it will be ready to serve for dessert.
Peach Blueberry Cobbler Ingredients
- Sugars: Combining granulated sugar and brown sugar puts a little bit of molasses into the filling, but not too much. Using just granulated sugar would create a sweet but less flavorful cobbler, whereas using only brown sugar would darken the fruit and build stronger caramel notes.
- Cornstarch: To act as a thickener, cornstarch needs to be dissolved in cool liquid; it will clump up in hot water. Once the cornstarch dissolves, bring the liquid to a boil and cook it briefly to create a thick, glossy sauce.
- Lemon juice: The acidity balances the sweetness of the sugars and fruit. Plus, lemon juice has a brightness that comes through even after baking, making the peach and blueberry cobbler’s overall flavor more complex.
- Peaches: It’s hard to resist the taste of ripe, juicy peaches, so use them if you have them. Out of season, substitute frozen peaches in this recipe, adding them to the sauce unthawed.
- Blueberries: As with peaches, fresh blueberries will have the best flavor in this dessert but can be replaced by frozen fruit. Avoid blueberry pie filling, which has already been sweetened and thickened.
- Topping: The topping differentiates cobblers from crumbles or crisps. Cobblers are made with a biscuit-like batter covering the fruit base. This topping bakes up puffy and uneven, like a cobblestone street.
Directions
Step 1: Cook the sauce
Preheat the oven to 375°F. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the granulated and brown sugars, cornstarch, water and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and then cook, stirring, until thickened, one to two minutes.
Step 2: Mix in the fruit
Stir the peaches and blueberries into the sauce. Pour the mixture into a 2-quart baking dish and spread it out evenly.
Step 3: Mix the topping
In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in the milk and butter until smooth. Spread the batter over the fruit mixture.
Editor’s Tip: Leave some gaps around the edge of the pan when you spread out the batter. This ensures the topping doesn’t steam and become soggy on the underside; it also gives the fruit space to bubble up and caramelize. Or, you can drop the batter by the spoonful onto the fruit, leaving random spaces. If you’re worried about the cobbler bubbling over, set a sheet pan on the oven rack beneath it.
Step 4: Bake the cobbler
Bake the dessert until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbly, 45 to 50 minutes. Serve the cobbler warm.
Recipe Variations
- Use a cast-iron skillet: For a rustic look and a lightly caramelized bottom, bake this cobbler in a 9-inch or larger cast-iron skillet. For a deeper dessert with a thicker topping, try a 2-quart cast-iron Dutch oven.
- Make a peach cherry cobbler: Cherries and peaches often ripen during the same few weeks in summer, making them an excellent pairing for this cobbler and other gorgeous summer desserts. When substituting cherries for blueberries, pit the fruit before measuring it for the closest conversion. The best types of cherries for this cobbler are sour cherries like morello or Montmorency for a tart dessert or Bing or black cherries to keep the full sweetness.
- Try a peach blueberry crisp: Replace the doughy topping with a crunchy one. Prepare the sauce and fruit layer as directed, then mix together oats, brown sugar, flour, nuts and butter for the topping. Here’s how to make a crisp with any fruit.
How to Store Peach Blueberry Cobbler
You can store blueberry peach cobbler at room temperature for up to three days, though the topping will get softer the longer it sits. Let the cobbler cool completely before covering it with an airtight lid. The leftovers can be eaten at room temperature or warmed in a low-temperature oven before serving.
Peach Blueberry Cobbler Tips
Do you need to peel peaches for cobbler?
Peach skins are edible, so leave them on if you wish. Baking will soften and break down the skins, but you will still notice their texture. Wash each peach thoroughly before cutting it in half, removing the pit and slicing it with the skin on.
If you peel the peaches, choose fully ripened fruit for the best chance of halving and pitting the fruit and then pulling the skin right off. The skin on slightly underripe peaches may need a little coaxing. Blanching the whole fruit in boiling water and immediately submerging it in ice-cold water makes peeling peaches easy.
Can you use frozen fruit for peach and blueberry cobbler?
Frozen fruit works beautifully in cobbler recipes. Berries and peaches are frozen raw, so the tastes and textures will be nearly identical. You don’t even need to defrost the fruit before mixing the filling and baking.
You can buy frozen berries and peaches at any time of the year, but you’ll get more affordable and tastier fruit if you harvest or buy it fresh and freeze it yourself. To freeze peaches, slice them (peeled or not), spread them on a sheet pan and place them in the freezer until firm. Pack the frozen slices in a freezer-safe bag or container and return them to the freezer. You’ll be ahead of the game if you measure out, pack and label 2-cup portions. Use the same tray-then-container technique to freeze blueberries.
How do you serve peach blueberry cobbler?
Blueberry peach cobbler is delicious on its own, but the warm dessert tastes even better under a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Other creamy toppings worth piling on cobbler include bourbon whipped cream or homemade creme fraiche. For a flavor twist, pair the peaches and berries with ginger ice cream, hazelnut gelato or lemon sorbet.
