Peach Cobbler Cookin'

Fresh ripe peaches, so good!

Today I was supposed to clean my room after I went to work for a couple of hours. It is a horrendous mess. Guess what I did instead. If you guessed "baked peach cobbler" then you are correct. =) We have a large bowl of fresh peaches that need to be used so that they don't turn to mush.

I adapted the following recipe from one I found on allrecipes.com.

1/2 cup coconut sugar
1 Tbs cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 cups fresh peaches - peeled, pitted, sliced (around 5 to 6 peaches)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup gluten free flour mixture - I used 1/4 cup tapioca flour, 1/4 cup coconut flour, and 1/2 cup almond flour
1 1/2 Tbs coconut sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbs organic non-hydrogenated shortening
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Peach filling: In large saucepan combine 1/2 cup coconut sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Stir in peaches and lemon juice, tossing until peaches are evenly coated.

Cook filling over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Boil 1 minute. Pour mixture into an ungreased 2 quart casserole dish. Keep mixture hot in oven while you make topping. 

Topping: In a medium bowl combine flours, 1 1/2 tablespoon coconut sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix thoroughly, then cut in shortening until mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add coconut milk and stir until mixture is evenly moistened. 

Remove peach filling from oven and drop dough onto peaches in 6 equal-size spoonfuls. (I also sprinkled cinnamon and coconut sugar over top of the dough).

Return cobbler to oven and bake 25 to 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

Before and After

The changes I made to the original recipe were replacing the refined white sugar with coconut sugar and using coconut milk instead of dairy milk. The gluten free flour mix I used was 1/4 cup tapioca flour, 1/4 cup coconut flour, and 1/2 cup almond flour.

My only complaint with this recipe was that the cobbler topping browned on top but did not bake all the way through. Technically it was okay because there are no eggs in the batter, but since the peaches are so soft I would have liked a more fully cooked, partially crispy, crust. But some of my family members actually said that they preferred the undercooked softness of the topping, so maybe there's no no way to win. 

GF Banket (attempt 1)

Today I headed out to the Grand Rapids farmers market with my Dad and little siblings after grabbing a tasty bite at Marie Catrib's. While there I spotted a vendor selling banket, a wonderfully delicious pastry that a family friend always made for us. It is SOOO GOOD. banket is a tube like pastry that has an outer crust and is filled with an almond paste on the inside (see pic below). Since I, along with my family, am gluten free I had to resist. However, when I got home I still had a craving. My solution = make gluten free banket using a gluten free recipe I find online. Good idea, problem was there were NO recipes for gluten free banket yet I still wanted it really bad. My next solution = make my own by following and modifying a normal banket recipe. I have never done a recipe modification (so obviously I really wanted some). Ohh and through my online searching I found out the banket is a Dutch pastry, West Michigan has a fairly large Dutch population so that might explain why I have had it.

There were a few bumps along the process and I had to think on my feet and trust my instincts but overall the banket turned out pretty darn good. I am not fully happy with the recipe and I intend to change it the next time I make it. In this recipe there are two whole sticks of butter, not something I like. Also, in the filling I used about a cup of coconut sugar, and while it is a low glycemic sweetener we usually never have to use more than 1/2 cup for recipes.

Yes, sweet success! As you can see one has already been eaten =)

The crust turned out crumbly and falls apart a little bit. I have included a picture so you can see the final product. I won't be posting the recipe until I experiment a little bit more and get a recipe that it more to my liking (if you really want to recipe I made today just leave a comment). I was just so very excited about my first recipe modification (and the fact that it worked) that I had to post =).