A Recipe Perfect the 4th of July or the Middle of Summer

FOURth of JULY

At least here in Virginia, this dessert celebrates the fruits that are ripe and wonderful right now. This is something of a cross between a shortcake and a cobbler and bakes up nice, easy and delicious.

First, find six to eight fragrant, juicy, ripe peaches.

Then scout out about a quart of blackberries. The mosquito bites will be worth it, really they will.

Here the beauties are loaded into a proper berry carton. The local farmer's market is a great source if you haven't found your own personal picking patch.

This time I used the rind and juice of a lime, but lemon works too.

Without further ado here is the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Zest and juice the lime (or lemon).

Next peel and slice the peaches. I do this by giving the peaches a short (about 2 minute) dip in boiling water, after which the peaches are placed in cold water in the sink. This loosens the skins nicely and makes peeling easier.

Put the peeled peaches,lime juice and zest, 1 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt into a nonreactive metal pan. Cook it on the stove until the mixture starts to boil and get thick, stirring often as the mixture heats up.

Put this cooked mixture in a 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Spread the blackberries atop the peaches.

Put the dough atop this. The dough is made like this:
Combine 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons room temperature butter
1 cup plain yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Following this recipe, I always find the dough just a little too stiff and end up stirring in more milk. I am guessing that I stir in about 1/4 cup additional milk.

I drop the dough in dollops and lightly spread it with a spatula.

Bake it about 30 - 35 minutes until the topping is lightly browned.

Slice it, flip it over and serve with a dollop of whip cream and garnish with one of the biggest, prettiest blackberries.

This recipe is adapted from the Smith and Hawken Gardeners' Community Cookbook. It has many recipes that I have used time and again.

Yum!
Carina