Perfect Peach (Fruit) Cobbler from Scratch
For a 12 inch dutch oven
4 Cups unbleached flour (I like a mixture of whole wheat and unbleached flour)2 Cups brown sugar (white sugar for sweeter)
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 Tablespoon + Cinnamon (or your favorite spice to taste that matches the fruit you use.)
2 pinches of salt (about 1/4 teaspoon)
2 1/2 Cups Milk
2 Eggs, beaten
1/4 cube of butter (swappable for apple sauce but changes the final texture a little...not much)
2 -15 ounce Cans of fruit drained but save the juice (peaches or pears or a mix work great)
1 1/2 Cup juice from the fruit
Preheat the dutch oven over 12 hot coals. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir in milk and eggs to the dry ingredients. Mix just until all is moistened and set aside. Melt the butter in the dutch oven. Gently pour in the fruit and juice. Be careful to avoid splattering hot liquids all over yourself. Add a light coating of cinnamon (or other spice) and sugar over the fruit. Evenly pour the batter over the fruit. Put the lid on placing on top 16 coals. Rotate over bottom coals and also the lid (without lifting it) about every 15 minutes for about 50 minutes or until center of the cake is just springy to gentle touch. There will probably be a thick syrupy ring on the edges from the juices below (that is the best part) don't let that fool you into over cooking it.
Recipe History
This recipe was originally an old family recipe of my college roommate Mike and meant for an ordinary pan in a traditional oven. However, I have continuously tinkered with it and after 8 years perfected and made it my own. My kids love this for Saturday morning breakfast and it that has become our family tradition.
Modifications for use in a conventional oven and additional notes.
For those wishing to do this in a conventional oven, I have done this many, many times in an oven using a 12 inch cast iron pan (without lid) or 9 by 13 inch glass dish. The cast iron pan is the same as a dutch oven just lidless and with a more convenient handle for the oven. Cut the recipe in half unless you have a really deep pan...significantly more than 4 inches deep. Since it will be lidless it needs a bit more liquid, so use a total of 1 cup of fruit juice for the halved recipe. Bake at 375 and it will take only about 25 minutes or until springy as above.
The brown sugar makes the cake not so sweet and changes the color a lot. If you want it sweeter use regular granulated sugar. The fruit and juice you use will make or break this recipe. Try to avoid fruits that have been canned in "heavy syrups". I have found naturally sweetened juices are the best tasting. For example, peaches that have been canned in a pear juice syrup are great although harder to find. Even better though are home picked and canned fruits (use 1 quart of fruit for the dutch oven recipe). For more fiber try unbleached flour mixed with whole wheat flour at about a 3 to 1 ratio. I have also tried dark rye flour that has even more fiber, it works well but expect a different flavor (it is still really good though). When you try and take this when camping, take all the dry ingredients in a sealed container that is big enough so the wet ingredients may be added. Actual cooking times will vary depending on how well the fruit is drained, how hot the charcoal and on so many other factors.
If you use other spices you will have to experiment on how much to use. Be careful on how much you use, especially if this is for someone else. I have eaten a lot of overpowering cobbler in my tinkering. Nutmeg works well with pears and sometimes peaches depending on your tastes but do NOT over do it on the amount. Cloves or All Spice are nice too if you use them sparingly. Ginger is excellent. I have never tried Anise but it is pleasing to my imagination.
I did recently attempt this for a group in which some can not have any milk nor lactose at all. I used regular soy milk in place of the milk and apple sauce in place of the butter. I tried the soy milk by itself and did not care for the flavor (or color) but in the recipe I did not notice any difference. That is probably due to the strong brown sugar and cinnamon flavors in the recipe. Apparently the soy milk I used was not entirely milk free and some in the group had reactions to it. So use the lactose/milk free soy milk or try rice milk.