Peach Cobbler Pie

Name: Peach Cobbler Pie
Prep time: 1 h 15 min
Cook time: 1 h 8 min
Total time: 2 h 23 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Southern
Ingredients: 1½ cups (190 g) all-purpose flour, spooned into the cup and leveled, plus extra for rolling; 1 tablespoon (12 g) granulated sugar; ½ teaspoon (3 g) fine salt; 8 tablespoons (113 g) unsalted butter, cold, cut into ½-inch (1 cm) cubes; 4 tablespoons (60 ml) ice water, plus up to 2 more tablespoons (30 ml) if needed, ice cubes removed; 6 cups (900 g) ripe but firm peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced ½ inch (1 cm) thick (about 6 large whole peaches); ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, packed; ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar; 3 tablespoons (24 g) cornstarch; 1 teaspoon (2½ g) ground cinnamon; ¼ teaspoon (½ g) ground nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon (1½ g) fine salt; 1 tablespoon (15 ml) fresh lemon juice; 1 teaspoon (5 ml) pure vanilla extract; 1 tablespoon (14 g) unsalted butter, cut into small bits; 1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour, spooned into the cup and leveled; ¼ cup (50 g) light brown sugar, packed; 1½ teaspoons (6 g) baking powder; ¼ teaspoon (1½ g) fine salt; ½ teaspoon (1¼ g) ground cinnamon; 4 tablespoons (57 g) unsalted butter, cold, cut into ½-inch (1 cm) cubes; ½ cup (120 ml) buttermilk, cold; 1 tablespoon (15 ml) whole milk or heavy cream; 1 tablespoon (12 g) turbinado or coarse sugar

From the MyKitchenBank Kitchen

A flaky all-butter crust holds juicy cinnamon-brown sugar peaches, crowned with golden buttermilk biscuit dollops. It has the crisp bottom of a pie and the tender, craggy top of a cobbler, so you get both in every slice.

Prep: 1 hr 15 min
Cook: 1 hr 8 min
Wait: 3 hr 20 min
Total: 5 hr 43 min
Makes: 1 deep-dish 9-inch (23 cm) pie (8 slices)

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Ingredients

8 servings

For the crust
1½ cups (190 g) all-purpose flour, spooned into the cup and leveled, plus extra for rolling
1 tablespoon (12 g) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon (3 g) fine salt
8 tablespoons (113 g) unsalted butter, cold, cut into ½-inch (1 cm) cubes
4 tablespoons (60 ml) ice water, plus up to 2 more tablespoons (30 ml) if needed, ice cubes removed
For the filling
6 cups (900 g) ripe but firm peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced ½ inch (1 cm) thick (about 6 large whole peaches)
½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, packed
¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
3 tablespoons (24 g) cornstarch
1 teaspoon (2.5 g) ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon (0.5 g) ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon (1.5 g) fine salt
1 tablespoon (15 ml) fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon (5 ml) pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon (14 g) unsalted butter, cut into small bits
For the cobbler topping
1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour, spooned into the cup and leveled
¼ cup (50 g) light brown sugar, packed
1½ teaspoons (6 g) baking powder
¼ teaspoon (1.5 g) fine salt
½ teaspoon (1.3 g) ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons (57 g) unsalted butter, cold, cut into ½-inch (1 cm) cubes
½ cup (120 ml) buttermilk, cold
To finish
1 tablespoon (15 ml) whole milk or heavy cream
1 tablespoon (12 g) turbinado or coarse sugar

Equipment (10)

9-inch (23 cm) deep-dish pie plate, at least 1½ inches (4 cm) deep
Rimmed baking sheet
Large mixing bowls (2)
Pastry cutter or food processor
Rolling pin
Parchment paper and pie weights or dried beans (about 2 cups)
Paring knife or vegetable peeler
Small pot and a bowl of ice water (only if blanching peaches)
Pastry brush
Aluminum foil

Steps

Before you start

Cut the butter for the crust and the topping into cubes and keep it in the fridge until you use it. Cold butter is what makes both layers flaky and tender.
Plan on about 5½ hours from start to finish. The dough chills for 1 hour, and the finished pie needs 2 hours to cool so the filling can set. You can make the dough a day ahead.
Use ripe but still firm peaches, about 6 large (roughly 1.2 kg / 2½ lb whole). Very soft peaches turn to mush, and underripe ones stay bland.
Use a deep-dish pie plate at least 1½ inches (4 cm) deep, and have a rimmed baking sheet ready to catch drips.

1
Make the dough
- In a large bowl, whisk the crust flour, crust sugar and crust salt.
- Add the cold crust butter cubes.
- Use a pastry cutter, or your fingertips, to cut and press the butter into the flour until it looks like coarse crumbs with some pea-sized and some almond-sized pieces of butter.
- Drizzle in 4 tablespoons (60 ml) ice water.
- Toss with a fork until shaggy clumps form.
- Squeeze a handful.
- If it holds together, it's ready.
- If it's crumbly, add more ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, up to 2 tablespoons (30 ml) more.
- Pat into a 1-inch (2.5 cm) thick disc and wrap tightly in plastic.
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Ready when: Dough holds together when squeezed, with visible flecks of butter and no dry, floury patches.
Tip: Don't knead the dough. Visible butter flecks are what make flaky layers.
2
Chill the dough
- Refrigerate the wrapped dough for at least 1 hour, or up to 2 days.
- This lets the flour hydrate fully and the butter firm up, so the dough rolls without tearing or shrinking.
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Ready when: Dough feels firm but gives slightly when pressed.
Tip: If chilled longer than 1 hour, let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before rolling.
3
Roll and line pan
- On a lightly floured counter, roll the dough into a 13-inch (33 cm) round about ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick, rotating a quarter turn after every roll and dusting with a little flour to prevent sticking.
- Drape it over the pie plate and gently press it into the bottom and corners without stretching it.
- Trim the overhang to ¾ inch (2 cm), tuck it under to sit on the rim, and crimp the edge.
- Prick the bottom all over with a fork.
- Freeze the lined plate for 20 minutes.
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Ready when: Crust is rolled evenly and feels firm and cold to the touch after freezing.
Tip: Stretched dough shrinks back in the oven, so ease it into the plate rather than pulling it.
4
Par-bake the crustOven 400°F / 205°C
- Place a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat to 400°F (200°C).
- Set the frozen crust on the rimmed baking sheet.
- Line it with parchment, pressing it into the corners and up the sides, and fill with pie weights or dried beans to the top.
- Bake for 18 minutes.
- Lift out the parchment and weights.
- Bake 5 more minutes, until the bottom looks dry and pale golden.
- Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 375°F (190°C).
- Keep the crust on the baking sheet.
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Ready when: Edges are light golden and the bottom looks dry and matte, not shiny or raw.
Tip: If the bottom puffs when you remove the weights, gently press it down with the back of a spoon.
5
Prepare the peaches
- While the crust bakes, peel the peaches.
- If the skins don't come off easily with a peeler, score a small X in the bottom of each peach, blanch in boiling water for 30–60 seconds, then move to ice water and slip the skins off.
- Pit and cut into ½-inch (1 cm) slices to get about 6 cups (900 g).
- In a large bowl, whisk the filling brown sugar, filling granulated sugar, cornstarch, filling cinnamon, nutmeg and filling salt.
- Add the peaches, lemon juice and vanilla, and toss gently until every slice is coated and no dry cornstarch remains.
- Leave to sit while you make the topping.
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Ready when: Peaches look glossy with a syrupy coating and no streaks of dry cornstarch.
Tip: Do not leave the peaches to sit longer than 30 minutes, or they release too much liquid.
6
Mix biscuit topping
- In a second large bowl, whisk the topping flour, topping brown sugar, baking powder, topping salt and topping cinnamon, breaking up any brown sugar lumps.
- Add the cold topping butter cubes and rub them in with your fingertips, flattening the pieces, until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs with some pea-sized bits of butter.
- Pour in the cold buttermilk and stir with a spatula just until a thick, sticky, shaggy dough forms, about 10 strokes.
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Ready when: Dough is thick and sticky, with a few dry streaks still visible.
Tip: Overmixing makes tough biscuits, so stop as soon as no large dry pockets of flour remain.
7
Fill and top
- Stir the peaches once more, then pour them and all their syrup into the warm crust, mounding slightly in the center.
- Scatter the dot butter over the peaches.
- Use two spoons to drop about 8 heaping spoonfuls of biscuit dough (each about 3 tablespoons) over the fruit, leaving gaps so steam can escape and some peaches show through.
- Brush the biscuit tops, and the crust edge, lightly with the milk.
- Sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the biscuits and crust edge.
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Ready when: Peaches are mounded evenly, with about 8 dough mounds spaced out and gaps between them.
Tip: Do not spread the dough into a solid layer, as it needs gaps to bake through and let steam out.
8
Bake the pieOven 375°F / 190°C
- Place the pie, still on its baking sheet, on the lower-middle rack of the 375°F (190°C) oven.
- Bake for 45 minutes total.
- After about 25 minutes, check the crust edge.
- If it's already deep golden brown, cover the rim loosely with strips of aluminum foil.
- The pie is done when the biscuit topping is deep golden brown and cooked through, and the peach juices are thick and bubbling slowly through the gaps, not just at the edges.
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Ready when: Biscuits are deep golden brown, and thick syrupy juices bubble in the center of the pie.
Tip: If the filling isn't bubbling in the center, the cornstarch hasn't thickened yet, so bake 5 more minutes and check again.
9
Cool before slicing
- Transfer the pie on its baking sheet to a wire rack.
- Cool for at least 2 hours, until just warm or at room temperature, so the juices can thicken and set.
- Slice with a sharp knife and serve on its own, or with vanilla ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream.
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Ready when: Pie is barely warm to the touch and the juices no longer bubble or look loose when you gently nudge the plate.
Tip: Slicing too early makes the filling runny, even though the pie is fully baked.

Good to know

Tips

Par-baking the bottom crust is the key to avoiding a soggy base under juicy peaches. Don't skip it.
Set the pie on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any bubbling juices and make it easy to move.
Don't mix the peaches with the sugars until the crust is nearly done, since the sugar draws out juice.
Taste a peach before baking. If it is very sweet, reduce the granulated sugar in the filling by 1 tablespoon.

Make ahead

Make the dough up to 2 days ahead and refrigerate, or freeze it wrapped for up to 1 month and thaw overnight in the fridge. The crust can be rolled, lined in the pan, wrapped and frozen for up to 1 month, then par-baked straight from frozen. For best texture, assemble and bake the pie on the day you serve it.

Storage & reheating

Room temperature: loosely covered, up to 1 day. Refrigerator: covered, up to 4 days. Freezer: not recommended for the baked pie, since the biscuits soften when thawed. To reheat, warm slices on a baking sheet at 325°F (160°C) for 12–15 minutes, until heated through and the biscuit tops are crisp again.

Substitutions

ripe but firm peaches → frozen sliced peaches, about 900 g (6 cups). Use them straight from frozen without thawing, toss with the cornstarch mixture, and add 5–10 minutes to the bake time.
buttermilk → ½ cup (120 ml) whole milk mixed with 1½ teaspoons lemon juice. Let the mixture stand 5 minutes until slightly thickened, then use it cold.
cornstarch → 4 tablespoons (32 g) instant tapioca starch or 4 tablespoons (32 g) all-purpose flour. Tapioca gives a glossier filling, while flour is slightly cloudier.
unsalted butter → 1 refrigerated store-bought pie crust. Skip steps 1–2 and fit the crust into the plate, then continue with step 3's freezing and step 4's par-baking.