Everyone needs a back-pocket dessert recipe that they can put together in a flash without a trip to the grocery store. Consider this easy peach cobbler recipe a contender. It’s a homey, simple dessert that suspends sweet peaches in a tender cake.
Summer is prime time for cobblers, crumbles, crisps and buckles made with stone fruit. While some cobblers have a craggy, biscuit-like topping, this version yields a tender crumb and a soft, cakey texture.
A perk to the recipe is that it begins with melted butter, so there’s no need to have your butter at a precise temperature for pastry-making. It’s one of the easiest peach dessert recipes, especially when you don’t feel like messing with pie dough. Eat easy peach cobbler in season or stash the recipe for a winter day when picking peaches is as easy as choosing a can from the pantry.
Easy Peach Cobbler Ingredients
- Butter: Use salted or unsalted butter here, whatever your preference.
- Canned sliced peaches: We call for sliced peaches here, but if you’ve got peach halves, you can use them too. Just cut each half into three to four slices. You can either use peaches canned in juice or syrup. See the Tips section below for how to use fresh or frozen peaches in this recipe.
- Sugar: For this cobbler, use some granulated sugar in the cake batter, then sprinkle the rest on top of the batter and peaches once combined.
- Dry ingredients: The cake is an easy mixture of sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.
- Milk: Milk is the only liquid needed to pull the cake batter together. We typically use 2% in our recipes, but if all you have is whole milk, that’s fine! Nonfat milk may be too thin to use for this batter. You could also try using a dairy-free milk alternative.
- Whipped cream: Use homemade whipped cream, the canned option, or swap in dessert topping or ice cream.
Directions
Step 1: Preheat the oven and prep the baking dish
Preheat your oven to 400°F. Pour the melted butter into a shallow 2-quart baking dish and set aside.
Editor’s Tip: You can also melt the butter directly in the baking dish in the oven and save a step.
Step 2: Prep the peaches
Drain the canned peaches, reserving 1/4 cup juice. In a saucepan, bring the peaches and the reserved juice to a boil.
Step 3: Make the batter
Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine 1 cup sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the milk and mix until well combined.
Editor’s Tip: Mixing this batter is so easy that you need only a wooden spoon or spatula.
Step 4: Build and bake the cobbler
Pour the batter over the melted butter in the baking dish. Spoon the hot peach mixture over the batter and sprinkle everything with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Bake until bubbly and golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm and, if desired, top with whipped cream.
Recipe Variations
- Substitute other fruits: This pantry-friendly easy peach cobbler recipe can be a template for any other cobbler. Swap in any 15-1/4-ounce can of berries, apricots, tart or sweet cherries, or even pineapple chunks or mango slices. Depending on the type of fruit and whether canned in juice or syrup, the finished cobbler could be sweeter, so you may want to adjust the quantity of sugar slightly to allow for the change.
- Try it with spice: If you’d like, add up to 1/4 teaspoon pie spice or ground ginger, nutmeg, aniseed or cinnamon to the flour mixture. You can also flavor the batter with 1/2 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract.
- Make brown butter: Before prepping your batter, make brown butter to caramelize the milk solids and give your cobbler an extra nutty flavor (as in these brown butter chocolate chip cookies). Brown butter goes beautifully with peaches!
- Use a skillet: To give this easy peach cobbler recipe a rustic look, use a 9-inch cast-iron skillet or another oven-safe frying pan instead of a baking dish. Melt the butter in the skillet on the stovetop and proceed with the recipe as written.
- Take a shortcut: Other readers have successfully used a canned peach pie filling instead of the boiled peaches in this recipe. Apple or blueberry pie filling would be just as tasty.
How to Store Easy Peach Cobbler
This easy peach cobbler is sweet and moist, so storing leftovers in the refrigerator is essential. It will last up to five days. Reheat the entire thing covered with aluminum foil in a 300° oven until warm. Reheat individual servings in the microwave in 30-second bursts or in heat-safe ramekins in an air fryer (this option makes the top nice and crisp).
Can you freeze easy peach cobbler?
Once the cobbler has cooled to room temperature, you can freeze the whole cobbler or individually portioned, well-wrapped leftovers. If the cobbler is in a microwave-safe container, you can defrost it in the microwave using the defrost setting. Plan to use it up within six weeks to avoid freezer burn.
Easy Peach Cobbler Tips
Can you use fresh or frozen peaches for easy peach cobbler?
You can use fresh or frozen peaches for this easy peach cobbler recipe. The beauty of this recipe is that you can make it year-round. Bringing fresh or frozen peaches to a boil on the stovetop is especially important because it softens them slightly before they’re combined with the batter. If using fresh or frozen peaches, substitute 1/4 cup water for the canned juice, and feel free to splash in a little vanilla extract or orange juice to flavor the liquid slightly.
As for the the exterior of fresh peaches, you can eat peach skin, but if you’re sensitive to the fuzzy texture, blanch the peaches ahead of time and peel them. Simply boil a pot of water, and fill a large bowl with water and ice. Drop the peaches into the boiling water and let them blanch for about one minute. Immediately transfer the peaches into the ice water bath, then peel off the skins.
What can you serve with an easy peach cobbler?
With easy peach cobbler, serve an equally easy topping like homemade whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream. Go with traditional vanilla ice cream, or think outside the box with butter pecan ice cream or another homemade ice cream.
