"Real" Peach Cobbler

We get missionary visits at home pretty regularly.  It's been that way for years.  It's especially nice right now while Mark is out on his mission.  Just hoping that someone in PI is being nice and welcoming to our little brother the same way we are for the elders here. 

For the past seven months, we've been lucky enough to have Elder Brignone over several different times including Thanksgiving dinner.  He's cracked jokes with us and let us (mostly me) give him a hard time over a few things from time to time.  He always has his bag of tootsie rolls on hand for the kids to devour while he's there.  A pretty cool missionary.  Strict, by the book and very blunt, but still cool. 

One weekend I happened to be making a peach cobbler for a few people and called the missionaries over to pick one up.  It was the peach cobbler recipe that my mom had learned from her gma and we've been making it for as long as I can remember.  It's so simple and soooo good! I gave the elders a whole cobbler and sent them on their way. 

The next time they visited Brignone joked "hey the peach CAKE you gave us was delicious".  Oh he SO knows me! LOL Clowning is a regular thing in our home and I knew he was opening the floodgates.  ;-) "Did you say peach CAKE?" I asked.  He proceeded to tell me that the dough on the peach cobbler was so thick that there's no way we could say it was a cobbler.  The cobbler his mom makes (also with a biscuit dough) is an ACTUAL cobbler and not a cake. 

I know the rule.  We ALL know the rule.  NO ONE can make ANYTHING as good as your mom.  EVEN if it does taste REALLY good, you never say it's better than moms.  NEVER.  ;-) So I gave it to him, can't compete with a moms recipe.  But since then, it's been a running joke.  So much so, that I finally told him I wanted to try this "real" cobbler that he was raving about. 

So I sent his mom Kerstin an email along with a picture of her son in our home and asked her for the recipe.  She was SO nice and gave us what is also her gmas recipe. One that they have been making for years in their family.  Don't you just love that? Needless to say, the Brignones Peach Blueberry Cobbler was good.  Like REALLY good! It has more fruit than the one we make, but I think that's because the cobbler we make has changed over time to accommodate the taste buds of our Tongan side.  You know, more of the sweet bread and less of the fruit that traditional peach cobblers have.  Whatever the case, we have a keeper! Elder Brignone was able to taste test the cobbler I made from his mothers recipe and gave it the seal of approval.

I'm so glad that we were able to meet Elder Brignone and get to know him.  Not just for the great peach cobbler but also for the great example of what a good missionary is. 

The Brignone Peach Blueberry Cobbler

Sweet Biscuit Topping :
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 tea salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4-1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
additional milk and sugar, optional

Mix flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt together.  Cut in 1/2 cup butter until crumbly and (like cornmeal).  In a small bowl, mix eggs and 1/4 cup milk until well blended.  Stir milk/egg mixture into flour mixture until blended together.  Add additional milk a little at a time, only if needed to make a stiff dough. On a lightly floured surface roll out dough to 1/2 thick. Fold in half and roll again to 1/2 inch thick. Using 2 inch cookie/biscuit cutter cut out shapes (circles, ovals, hearts, or diamonds all work well).  Set aside to place on top of hot fruit mixture.

Fruit Mixture:
3- 15 oz (6 cups) cans sliced peaches (no sugar added, or canned in fruit juice)
2 cups blueberries (1 pint), fresh or frozen
4 Tablespoons cornstarch

Preheat oven to 425F. Drain the peaches and reserve juice from 2 cans of fruit (approximately 1 cup).  Put peaches in a 3 qt saucepan with 1/2 cup reserved juice (about the same amount as in 1 can of the peaches) Mix cornstarch into remaining 1/2 cup peach juice.  Stir into peaches in the pan. Bring to boiling over medium heat (stir occasionally so it doesn't stick). Cook 1-2 minutes or until juice is clear. Remove from heat and add blueberries (if using frozen blueberries leave on warm burner for a few minutes until mixture is hot again).  Pour into 13x9 (2 1/2 quart) pan. Top with sweet biscuits (directions below). Brush biscuits lightly with milk just to moisten (if desired) and sprinkle biscuits with 2 teaspoons of sugar. Bake at 425F for 10-20 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown and fruit mixture is bubbling around edges.