Well, it has been a while since I posted something new. I have not been cooking as much as I have been under the weather for an extended time, but I am finally getting better. So back in the kitchen I went! I am preparing to return to my ketogenic diet so through the month of December I have been emptying our larder of all things carby. I discovered I have a lot of fruit in my freezer. Fruit is good healthy food but it is excessively high in carbohydrates since it is loaded with lovely fruit sugars. Fruit is no bueno for keto. I made a fantastic pineapple casserole last week with my hoarded bag of fresh pineapple. This week I had a rather large bag of frozen Georgia Peaches from last Summer, sounds like a peach cobbler needed to happen. I also had one small can of sweetened condensed milk left in the pantry, and the idea of peaches and cream hit me. I went with my idea and it turned out fantastic!!
While I did not lose any more weight this year, I did maintain all my losses from 2016 when I shaved a third of myself via several diet plans ranging from juice fasting, vegan, vegetarian, fat free (horrible idea) and finally the last six months on a ketogenic diet. I left the keto diet because I contracted a virus that required antibiotics and steroids and the steroids sent me spinning. So I spent this year working out, toning and maintaining. I am ready now to shave off another third! So I am working feverishly to get all the carby foods that have found their way in, out of our house. It has actually been a fun month of cooking all the things we love and using up our pantry ingredients so I can refresh them at the end of this month – that should be a fun shopping trip!
But I digress, let us get onto the business of making this take on peach cobbler. I set my bag of peaches in a bowl to thaw in the fridge over night and then set everything out that I wanted to put in this cobbler. I discovered we were somehow completely out of butter. Impossible! You cannot make a cobbler without butter. To complicate matters, it was Christmas Day, no one but convenience stores were open and all they sell is margarine, no thank you! Heavy Whipping Cream to the rescue! I threw the carton of Heavy Whipping Cream into my Ninja processor with a tablespoon of pink Himalayan salt and VIOLA! Sweet creamy salted butter! I used a cup (16 tablespoons) in my crumble topping.
I strained the juice from the peaches into a large mixing bowl and placed the peaches into my baking dish while I stirred up a slurry. The slurry is the sauce that will bind the peaches into the cobbler. Start with the juice and stir in the can of sweetened condensed milk, then thoroughly stir in 1 tablespoon of Arrowroot for thickening and a ½ cup of gluten free flour. Season the slurry with a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla and a teaspoon of nutmeg. Peaches love nutmeg like apples love cinnamon! Pour the blended slurry evenly over the peaches. I do not add any sugar to the cobbler slurry because of the sweetened condensed milk and natural sweetness of the peach juice.
The crumble is really the best part of any cobbler or crisp. I prefer using gluten free ingredients because of my own sensitivities, so I use rolled oats and a gluten free flour baking mix. Regular all purpose flour would work just as well. I melted a cup of that luxurious butter and stirred in a half cup of my flour along with 2 full cups of rolled oats. Oats really give the crumble a great texture. I stir the butter into the oats and flour and add brown sugar, vanilla, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Once the crumble is mixed and resembles a sort of batter, I spread dollops of it over the top of the peaches. Now it is ready to bake. The lasagna dish I used is very full, so I place the dish on a sheet pan into my preheated oven, because I already know it will boil over a bit. Nobody has time for that clean up!
After about 40 minutes in a 400º oven the cobbler comes out all golden brown and crispy delicious! Allow it some time to cool and set up before serving, as it is like lava when it first leaves the oven. I served ours after dinner with some rich Blue Bell® Home Style Vanilla ice cream. The topping was the perfect crisp and the filling had this lovely sweet caramel flavor, a perfect farewell to carbs!!
- 2 pounds Sliced Peaches
- 1 C Reserved peach juice
- 1 small can Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract, divided in half
- 2 tsp Nutmeg, divided in half
- 1 C Gluten Free flour mix, divided in half
- 1 T Arrowroot
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 2 C Oats
- 1 C Butter, melted
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 C Brown Sugar
- Thaw the peaches and strain the liquid, reserving the juice.
- Place the thawed peach slices in a 13×9 glass baking dish
- Make a slurry by mixing the condensed milk with the reserved peach juice and ½ cup of gluten free flour and arrowroot seasoned with a pinch of salt, 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp Nutmeg.
- Pour slurry over the peaches evenly.
- Prepare the crumble by mixing the remaining ½ cup of gluten free flour with oats, salt, brown sugar, vanilla and butter.
- Spread crumble evenly over the top of the peaches.
- Place the peaches on a baking sheet, because they will boil over some and bake in a 400º oven for 40 minutes. Allow to set up for 15-20 minutes before serving.
- Serve with French Vanilla ice cream!!
Enjoy!