EASY Peach Cobbler for One

My brother-in-law purchased these beautiful mini cocottes from Le Crueset for my birthday and I had to find a way to use them. I had a single forlorn looking peach left in my fruit basket and decided I’d try making a cobbler for myself. And only myself! I’d made a regular peach cobbler while I was out in the Hamptons earlier in the summer and the recipe was so easy, I knew I could adjust for one, while also tweaking the cake part to make it more delicious. And the results were indeed magical. This recipe is so easy, a person with minimal baking experience can make it.

The Delicious 5-Ingredient Peach Filling

You start out by preheating your oven to 350° F. Next, slice up your peaches. If you don’t have fresh peaches, use frozen ones! In fact, in the fall and winter, frozen ones are probably better since they are picked and frozen at their best. I like to slice the peach into thin wedges, but you can also cut them up into bite sized chunks.

Afterwards, place the cut peach into a bowl and add a few things to jazz them up:

• Brown sugar: adding brown sugar in lieu of white sugar will give you a thicker, more caramelized filling; however, if you don’t have brown sugar, you can sub in white sugar.
• Corn starch: adding corn starch will also help with thickening the liquids that seep out of your peaches, so that you don’t have a completely wet filling; you can sub in potato starch or arrowroot powder if you don’t have corn starch.
• Lemon juice: adding lemon juice will ensure your peach flavor really pops, while also adding a hint of tartness; sub in orange juice if you don’t have lemon juice.
• Salt: salt will help to draw out the liquids from the peach, while also maximizing flavor.

Mix this all up with your spoon and set it aside for later.

The Cake Topping

You see, everyone has their own preference when it comes to the cake topping of a cobbler. Some people like to ensure that the fruit filling is very visible, thus merely dotting the filling with the cake batter. Me? I like big poofy cake batter on top of my fruit filling. I want my cobbler to be 50% fruit and 50% cake, you know what I mean? Now, if you prefer the former (i.e., more like a 20% cake and 80% fruit), simply double the fruit filling recipe and make two (one for tomorrow–or later today)!

To be honest, I did not come up with this recipe from scratch. I basically just modified the recipe from my Blueberry Muffins which is honestly one of my favorite recipes of all time. It’s so buttery and soft and tender, I could think of nothing better to top my darling little cobbler with.

The batter comes together really quickly. Here are the dry ingredients:

• All purpose flour: feel free to substitute your favorite brand of gluten free flour–this recipe works well with GF flour.
• Powdered sugar: I’ve been using powdered sugar in lieu of regular granulated sugar these days because it makes my batter fluffier and lighter, and much more prone to poofing in the oven. Feel free to sub in granulated sugar if you don’t have powdered sugar.
• Baking powder: baking powder is the main leavening agent for this poofy cobbler, but a word of warning–if you intend to multiply this recipe to make cobbler for more than one, don’t ever go above 2 teaspoons of baking powder unless you want your cake to taste salty.
• Baking soda: baking soda will react with the lemon juice to create a tiny little “poof” as well, but as with baking powder, you don’t want to overdo it.
• Salt: Salt will enhance all the other flavors of this buttery cake topping.
• Ground coriander: I always like adding a hint of something that makes someone say, “what is that?” but in a good way. Ground coriander–just a pinch–will do just that. Feel free to sub in ground cardamom.

Make sure to whisk everything together before you add your wet ingredients. Why? You don’t want clumps of baking powder or baking soda in your cobbler. Trust me. I used to skip the “whisk dry ingredients” step too and once, I bit right into a clump of baking powder and it was horrifying.

The wet ingredients are pretty straight forward, as well:

• Vegan butter (softened): you don’t want to melt it, you just want it softened enough to whisk it into the other ingredients. If you melt it, your batter will be too heavy and your cake will be dense instead of fluffy (still delicious, though!).
• Lemon juice: you need a little acid not only to tenderize your batter, but to react with the baking soda for a little more leavening.
• Plant milk: you need the plant milk to bind all the ingredients together.
• Vanilla extract: this is an incredibly important ingredient, as it will not only enhance the flavor or your cake batter, it will eliminate any strange aftertastes that might linger from the baking powder or soda.

Whisk everything together, making sure there are no dry clumps anywhere. Yes, your batter will be very thick and sticky. If it truly feels like it’s too thick and sticky to work with, add a tablespoon of plant milk until you achieve a workable consistency.

The Assembly

It’s EASY:

• Butter the ramekin (or cocotte)
• Add the peaches
• Top with batter
• Sprinkle with sugar
• Bake in oven for 15 minutes

With regard to the peach filling, you’ll notice that it’s already started releasing some of its juices. Go ahead and make sure every last drop is added to your container.

As to the cake topping, again, this is where your preference comes into play. I like a solid 50-50 ratio between cake and fruit, so, as you can see, I’m using it all up on my one cobbler. But, if you’d rather have more fruit to cake, then double the peach filling recipe and divide the batter into two cobblers.

Why sprinkle the top with a little more sugar? Just to get that lovely caramelization on top, of course! But, honestly, everything already tastes so good, if you want to skip this part, go right ahead!

Bake it in the oven for about 15 minutes. Take it out and dig in immediately if you can’t wait and you’re ok with burning your tongue. If you are a patient person (i.e., not me), let everything cool down for about 10 minutes before sticking your spoon in (you use a spoon, right? Because only a barbarian would use a fork for cobbler).

Quick Tips for Easy Peach Cobbler for One

• Yes, you can multiply this recipe to make one huge cobbler for many, but do not go above 2 teaspoons of baking powder or 1 teaspoon of salt for the cake, unless you want bitter salty cobbler.
• Cut the peaches up into thin slices or bite sized chunks–the last thing you want is huge chunks of peach, as it will be difficult to eat.
• Use softened butter in lieu of melted butter to keep the batter light and fluffy.
• Spoon the batter over the top of your fruit filling completely for a larger cake ratio or simply dot the top with cake batter if you want your fruit filling to peek through.