If he's using ugly words like hate to describe your cooking, he does not deserve any cobbler. Perhaps a cow pie instead.

Jess

Sally, has your husband told you what he expects when he eats a cobbler? More like a biscuit topping?, pie crust topping?, obviously not like a cakey topping.

Yeah, because "technically" a biscuit like topping would be a cobbler, but a pie crust like topping would be a "pan dowdy." I had this distinction explained to me when I bought a very groovy Aug. 2005 issue of Martha Stewart Living Magazine that described cobblers, crumbles, buckles, slumps and crisps--all yummy fruit based desserts. Maybe you can find a recipe because you are looking for cobbler. Use a pan dowdy recipe. The most common "pan dowdy" is apple. It's basically a pie with no bottom crust and you make the dish "dowdy" by breaking up the top crust and mixing it in with the fruit. According to Martha: "It's pastry top is broken with a spoon halfway through the cooking so the collapsed bits soak up the juices and soften.

Here's her apple recipe which could be adapted to peaches I think (I dunno for sure, as I've never made either)

Apple Raisin Pandowdy (I wouldn't use raisins with peaches, I'd use dried cherries or just peaches alone)

3 lbs mixed apples (mixed varieties, does not apply to peaches)
1 cup golden raisins (With peaches I'd use dried cherries if I could get 'em)
1/4 cup plus 2 TBLSP packed dark brown sugar
2 TBLSP all purpose flour plus more for the work surface
1 TBLSP resh lemon juice
Pinch ground cardamom (feel free to leave out or add spices to your husband's taste)
Pinch ground allspice
Pinch salt
2 TBLSP unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Toasted Pecan dough (recipe follows)
Heavy cream for brushing
Sanding sugar for sprinkling (I use turbinado sugar for this or however you spell it, the raw sugar stuff)

Preheat oven to 375
Toss together first 8 ing. (up to the butter but not incuding it).
Transfer to a 9 inch deep dish pie plate (could probably use cake pan or cast iron skillet).
Dot with butter and set aside.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Roll out an 11 inch round that is about 1/8 inch thick. (OK here I get the willies because I am pie crust challenged but whatever Martha says. 1/4, 1/8, they are both fractions, lol!)
Carefully place the dough on top of the fruit mixture. Fold edge under itself, crimping if desired. Chill in the freezer until firm, about 15 min.
Brush dough with cream, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until crust is set and beginning to brown, about 45 min. Remove from oven, gently push some of the crust into the filling unsing a spoon. Bake until crust is golden brown and crisp and the fruit juices are bubblin, 25-35 min. more. If crust is browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil around the edges. Let cool on a wire rack 1 hour before serving.

Toasted pecan Dough

1/4 cup pecans, toasted and ground
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3-4 TBLSP ice water.

OK I'm assuming you know how to make pie dough so I'm not putting the directions in here because I'm kinda rushed. I could come back to this later in the week. Or look online for pie dough directions. Or do what I would do, put the chopped, not ground toasted pecans directly into the dowdy and buy some Pillsbury already made pie crust and use that.

I'll just bet your southern guy would prefer a cobbler with a biscuit topping.
Basic biscuits
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 T sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
6 tablespoons chilled Shortening...I like a mix of half butter and half crisco
2/3 cup milk with 1/2 teaspoon vanilla mixed in
Mix flour, salt, sugar and baking pwd.
Cut the fats into the flour.
Add milk and stir enough just to b lend,
Knead 2 or 3 times and gently pat out onto a board....
Most times ( for shortcake) you would cut into rounds....but for this I just cut into squares and plop ontop of the casserole dish or prepared fruit.
Peel the peachesk, slice and add "some sugar" mixed with "some" flour....you know how big your dish is and how sweet and how juicy your fruit is...for nice ripe peaches I add 1 cup sugar, mixed with 3 T flour per 6 cups of fruit...
Cover with foil and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes, until the juices start to rum...
Add the biscuit pieces and return to the oven for another 20 to 25 minutes.
I just took a rhubarb crisp out of the oven....and I am drooling for peaches!! LOL!
Linda C

Sally, where I live in Texas a cobbler is considered to be a pie crust top with sweetened fruit on the bottom, with a scoop of ice cream on top of that (optional, but good.)

Like LindaC mentions, here a cobbler is a fruit filling with a biscuit type dough on top. If it's made with a pastry type crust, it's a pie, no matter the shape, LOL.

I'd be glad to post a recipe, but I don't think mine is what you are looking for either, I'd probably end up making peach pie!

Annie

How do you make the cobbler he "HATES"?

Maybe we can help you stay away from that kind...LOL

To me cobbler is...hot sweetened thickend fruit filling in a deep dish, with drop biscuits on top then baked until the biscuits are done..

But I have seen a woven pie crust over the top of a deep dish of fruit filling.

I'm with "old Annie". If he doesn't like peach cobbler (does it really matter what the top is like?) -- make a peach pie. Personally, I'm going for that peach pandowdy, but here's my really easy cobbler recipe and my hubby dubby has never said he hated it.

Preheat oven to 350 --(You can melt the butter in the pan in the oven while preparing the ingredients if you like).

3/4 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp BP
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 cups fresh sliced peaches
1 cup sugar (or less, to taste)

Sift flour, salt and BP. Mix with 3/4 cup sugar; slowly stir in milk to make a batter. Melt butter in 8 x 8 x 2 pan. Pour batter over melted butter - Do Not Stir. Mix peaches with sugar, the carefully spoon them over batter. Bake 1 hour at 350.

NOTE: I've substituted and mixed other fresh (or thawed frozen) fruits with success. I often use less sugar mixed with the fruit and often use raw sugar. I use various size baking dishes; sometimes individual dishes for freezing. Just keep a watch on the oven. When it's browned and the fruit is tender -- it's done.
I really hope your hubby doesn't hate it.
Annie1971

Southern Peach Cobbler almost always refers to cooked sweetened peaches with a biscuit like crust. I've never seen it any other way and it is frequently served at meat and threes.

Meat and threes?

OK, we went to Peach Festival this last week-end in Cobden Illinois,(waaayyyy down in Southern Illinois) and so of course we had what the peach festival declared 'Peach Cobbler'. I have to say, it was the best 'cobbler' I ever had and my husband told me that this was what he remembered having as a child. What I make has either a biscuit or cake like topping.
The one he wants had a topping similar to a pie crust but a little thicker and very flaky, I guess I'll just try to wing it and make a thicker pie crust with a little sugar, I just thought someone from the southern states might know what I'm talking about.

Trixietx What you are descibing is what I am looking for.
Do you have a recipe?

Here's a link to a NY Times article on pie crusts that "might" solve your problem. It's basically a one-crust pie - top crust only. You'll never recreate whatever it is he thinks he remembers, so you'll have to create something new that both of you like.

Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stone Fruit Patchwork Bake

okay just asked hubby he's from NC and he said a "woven" crust, with big holes so the fruit came up. Where as I grew up with drop biscuits like topping, but my mom was from UpState NY and her mom was from Virginia.

I've heard very few people use the word "pandowdy" but I did have something called either deep dish apple pie or apple cobbler and it had a pie crust made with lard as a topping but no bottom, just fruit. I had it at my friend's mom's house in Erie PA. It was with fresh apples and was fresh out of the oven. It tasted heavanly and that was one of the few times I've been able to "get" what the big deal was about lard crusts being the flakiest kind. Yummo. She made it in a rectangular metal baking pan, about 13 x 15.

I hadn't thought of it before reading the above comments, but here in Southern IL, if it's round it's called pie and if it's baked in a rectangular pan it's called cobbler and each are made with pie crust. :)

I always make it with drop biscuit so the fruit can bubble up...I still think he wants a flaky drop biscuit crust.

A meat and three is a restaurant that primarily serves a wide variety of home cooked foods - the quality and authenticness of the home cooking varies- and the most popular item is choosing one meat and 3 sides for a set price, usually desserts are included in the list and fruit cobblers are most common for those.
These restaurants are almost always family owned and are everywhere here. Some only do breakfast and lunch.
Most are dives but even some of those have really good food.
In our area, quite a few are Greek owned and their food is usually the best but they all have about the same food.

Dh and I usually choose balanced meals but always get a kick out of those who order things like fried pork chop w/gravy, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, biscuits and french fries as their plate.
We might order baked chicken, greens, mashed potato and cornbread.

Thanks everyone for the help, I'll get on it today as we all know peaches go down fast.

Mammie, I'll bet you're right. By the way, beautiful country you have down there.

Sally

OK to heck with this summer torte cake thing, now I want to try to make me some peach cobbler/pandowdy with a pie crust mix I have languishing on my shelves. Or Martha's topping recipe or one of my own concoction maybe trying some lard. As a lot of people here know, I am deathly afraid of pie dough, lol! But every once and a while I'm willing to step into dangerous waters. You get the fruit to bubble up by hacking big holes in the crust (a la pandowdy) or making it into a lattice. My friend's mom just slapped the crust on the fruit mix in the pan and cut some big slashes in it.

Pie dough, biscuit dough or crisp crumble, I love 'em all. I have also always wanted to try a "slump" which is a soupy fruit mix with a dumpling on top. The only reason I haven't done that one is I don't see how single me could eat up a whole recipe and it doesn't seem like it would keep very well. I've never gotten it together to serve it at a party.

L, Grandma used to make "black berry dumplings", basically a sweet dumpling dropped into a pan of simmering sweetened blackberries. I loved the stuff, and I think it really was a "slump".

So, Sally, what are you going to make? (grin) I'm not pastry challenged, but I like filling far more than I like crust, so I'd love a deep dish fruit filling with crust only on the top.

Annie

Sally, I am betting your husband remembers a "short biscuit" crust.
Try using double the amount of shortening/butter in the recipe I posted above, and only enough milk to make it come together.
Knead a couple of times, cover and let it rest for 10 minutes and either pat out or roll 1/4 inch thick and top the partly cooked peaches with it.

I am also pastry challenged, but I'm going for it, what the heck, if it goes south, I'll just eat the peaches! So I think I'll do as Linda suggests in a square pan.

I'll let you know how it turns out! Right now, I'm in the middle of making Annie's Salsa! Busy day!

Oh man do I wish I had me some blackberry slump/dumplings right about now! I'm going to post one more recipe here that I ADORE, called "Take Along Blackberry Cobbler" from a Midwest Magazine issue years ago I think on picnic foods. It also has a very "short" dough. You don't have to make it now, but you might want to make it later. I also once made Martha's blackberry shortbread for a party, that was yum too. Boy do I love SUMMER!

Take Along Blackberry Cobbler (could maybe use other fruit but I've never tried it.) This is probably not what your husband remembers from his youth but it is very yummy.

Preheat oven to 350.

Dissolve 1 cup water + 3/4 cup sugar. Boil water and sugar together until sugar dissolve and makes a heavy syrup. Don't overboil and get caramel! Set this aside.

Melt 1/4 cup butter or margarine, put in the bottom of a pan. I'm not sure what kind of a pan I used. The recipe I copied says you can use a pie plate, but it would have to be a big one. I just use my rectangular pyrex baking dish, that is 9 x 15 or something like that. I have a little smaller one too that is 7 x 11 or something like that. Depends on how thick you want it.

Flour Mixture
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup butter or margarine

Cut butter into flour mixture. Add 1/2 cup milk to make dough. Knead dough 8-10 times on lightly floured surface. Roll out into 10x8 rectangle (a rectangle of dough). Sprinkle with 2 cups berries and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Mash berries slightly because you are going to have to roll this dough rectangle up with the berries inside and they can't be too too lumpy. This is usually only a problem if you use frozen berries. Roll up the dough into a log shape with the berries inside. Cut out 1/4 inch round slices and CAREFULLY place in the prepared pie plate or baking dish with the dough/fruit swirl visible. This is the trickiest part so have the plate ready and near the dough. But it's the key to the snazzy appearance of the cobbler. Pour the reserved syrup over the cobbler.

Bake at 350 for 45 min. Then spirnkle with 1 TBLSP of sanding sugar (or regular) then bake 15 min. more. (1 hour total). Test to see that the dough isn't doughy in the middle before you take it out.

YUMMO! Makes 8 servings. And is indeed a great takealong dish for a picnic. Exceptional with ice cream.

Here is a recipe with both a top and bottom pie crust, but they call it a "cobbler". Maybe because it is baked in a square pan not a pie pan?
Clare

Here is a link that might be useful: Aretha Franklin's Peach Cobbler

Sally, this is the recipe I use for pie crust and cobbler crust. It is easy and always turns out good.

Never Fail Flaky pie crust
2 c. flour , 1 T. milk
1 t. salt , 1/4 c. boiling water
3/4 c. crisco (I use butter flavor crisco)
Blend flour, salt and crisco together with pastry blender. Add milk and water and roll in ball. Divide in half and roll out between two sheets of wax paper and ease into two pie pans. If making cobbler I freeze one ball in the freezer until needed and roll the other out to put on the top of the fruit.
For the cobbler, peal and slice 4 c. ripe peaches
add
3/4 c. sugar and 2 T. flour
Put in 8X8 pan and cover with crust.
Bake at 350 for 45 min. You can weave top in strips or top with whole crust. I usually sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar. You can put a crust on the bottom and one on the top if you want.
If you like the fruit mixture thicker add a little more flour.
Hope this helps and sorry I have been so slow responding. I have been at the dentist today!

Thanks Trixie, I'm going to make your recipe tomorrow morning. I'll take a picture if it turns out! I think this is exactly what he wants.
Sally

Well here it is, just out of the oven, but I had to sample a little. It is REALLY good and I'm sure this is what he wants. Thanks everyone. this one happens to be trixietx, I try Linda's in a few days.

Your cobbler really looks good. I prefer the pie crust topping but like them all. I have peach pie left downstairs right now in my kitchen.

Sue

My mother used to make the BEST cobblers, I was 10 when she died so I don't really remember much about them except they were wonderful. I've tried the biscuit topping which seems logical, but doesn't taste quite right. She also made the absolute best biscuits in the world :) This looks right though, although I swear it seems like she had a bottom crust. But then, I just went back & read trixietx's instructions & see hers can have a bottom crust. Gotta try it, but I have a pear cobbler on my to try list next.

Sally, I hope your DH likes it. To us, that is cobbler and yours looks great!

Trixie, He's eating it as we speak and he says it's great. He loves it. Thank you so much for the recipe it's a keeper.
Sally

has "meat and threes" been defined yet?

Trixie : Can you make me one ?

Did anyone mention , Peach Upside Down Cake ???
Lou

Michael, Bumblebeez did:

Here's a take from her post above...

A meat and three is a restaurant that primarily serves a wide variety of home cooked foods - the quality and authenticness of the home cooking varies- and the most popular item is choosing one meat and 3 sides for a set price, usually desserts are included in the list and fruit cobblers are most common for those.
These restaurants are almost always family owned and are everywhere here. Some only do breakfast and lunch.
Most are dives but even some of those have really good food.
In our area, quite a few are Greek owned and their food is usually the best but they all have about the same food.