Bacon dessert alert! I’m thinking more and more about this cookbook nonsense and realizing that if I’m going to do it I need to pull the damn trigger. I also took a trip to the south last month, surrounded by generations of classic cooks who treat the church and/or family cookbook on par with the Sunday sermon. So, time to create some bacon centered dishes. And what better way than to stay true to my roots? First up: Peach Cobbler. The cobbler itself is based on my Granny’s recipe (great-granny if you must know) but adjusted so the sweet of the cobbler and savory of the bacon pair beautifully.
Um, a word of caution, this one is not remotely healthy as it’s made of butter and bacon. But it is really really tasty, so there’s that…
Peach Cobbler w/ Bacon Oatmeal Crust
–1/2 stick unsalted butter
–6 cups sliced peaches (I used fresh but you are okay with frozen)
–1 egg
–1 cup all purpose flour
–1 cup sugar
–1 tsp vanilla
–1 cup milk
–1 tsp cinnamon
–1/2 cup whole oats (like the kind you find in the bulk foods section)
–3 slices bacon
–1/2 stick cold unsalted butter
Put 1/2 stick of butter into a glass baking dish. Pop it into the oven at 350 degrees to melt the butter. Once the butter is melted, layer the fruit into the dish.
In a separate bowl, combine the egg, flour, sugar, vanilla, milk, and cinnamon. Whisk completely to remove any flour lumps. Pour the batter over the fruit and cook at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
While the cobbler cooks, use your trusty cast iron skillet to fry up the bacon slices until they are golden brown. I cut mine with kitchen scissors before cooking so that I would have pieces of even sizes and allow more maximum surface area crisping.
Add the oatmeal to a new mixing bowl. Using two butter knives, cut in the remaining 1/2 stick of butter to create a coarse meal. Add the bacon pieces to the mix and continue to combine as needed.
Remove the cobbler from the oven and add the bacon-oatmeal crust to the top of the cobbler, covering the surface as evenly as possible so that the top of cobbler has crust on it. Return to the oven set the oven to broil. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn but allow the butter to melt and the crust to cool. Remove and allow to cool some before slicing and serving. If you need a serving suggestion, cobbler, my Great-Granny always said, was made for ice cream.
Dammit Jim, I’m not a doctor…
Time: 80 minutes
Serves: Enough
Calories: You don’t want to know
