Cranberry Peach Cobbler

The second book is taking shape. I've recorded three chapters: Mrs. Crawford (the seamstress who stopped eating), Thomas (the widower and the nutmeg), and Gladys (the rival, the friend, the cobbler). Each one is a portrait of a person told through the food that connects us. Each one is about the table, not the stove. Each one answers the question: who sits down, and what does the sitting mean?

I interviewed Gladys this week. We sat in her living room — the first time I've been inside Gladys's house in years, because our friendship happens at church and at the boil and over the phone, not in living rooms. Her house is exactly what you'd expect: immaculate, floral, smelling faintly of peach cobbler, which is either the ambient scent of her kitchen or a hallucination brought on by decades of rivalry.

I asked her about the cobbler. I asked her when it started. She said, "1983. You brought a cobbler to the church picnic and I tasted it and I thought: that's good, but mine is better. And I've been trying to prove it for forty years." I said, "And have you proved it?" She said, "Not yet. But I'm not done." That's going in the book. That's the chapter, right there. Forty years of trying to be better than your best friend's cobbler. That's not a rivalry. That's a love story told in peaches.

She also said something I didn't expect. She said, "Dot, you saved me when Earl died." I said, "I didn't do anything." She said, "You kept cooking. You kept coming to church. You kept bringing cobbler. If you had stopped, I would have stopped, because what's the point of being second-best if the first-best quits?" I held her hand. Gladys Johnson held my hand in her floral living room and told me that my survival saved her, and I thought: the table is bigger than I knew. The table holds people I didn't know were sitting there.

Now go on and feed somebody.

After I left Gladys’s house, I sat in my car for a long time before I started the engine. Forty years. She’d been sitting at my table for forty years and I hadn’t known it. When I got home I made a cobbler — not to best her, not this time, but just to have something warm to do with my hands and something sweet to set on the counter as a kind of thank-you to the world. I added cranberries because I had them, and because the tartness felt right alongside all that sweetness, the way Gladys herself does. This is the cobbler that came out of that afternoon, and I hope it finds somebody who needs it.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 8

Ingredients

4 cups fresh or frozen sliced peaches (thawed if frozen)
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour the melted butter into a 9×13-inch baking dish and swirl to coat the bottom.
Prepare the fruit filling. In a large bowl, combine the peaches and cranberries with 1/2 cup of the sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir gently until the fruit is well coated, then set aside to macerate for 5 minutes.
Make the batter. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Stir in the milk until a smooth, pourable batter forms.
Assemble the cobbler. Pour the batter over the melted butter in the baking dish — do not stir. Spoon the fruit filling and any accumulated juices evenly over the top of the batter. Again, do not stir; the batter will rise up around the fruit as it bakes.
Bake. Bake uncovered for 40–45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the batter (not the fruit) comes out clean.
Rest and serve. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Spoon into bowls warm, with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream if you’re feeling generous — and you should be.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cranberry Peach Cobbler — The Table Is Bigger Than You Know