There is nothing better than fresh fruit in the summer. And, while I used to think I didn’t like peaches, it turns out, I just hadn’t had them at peak ripeness – or peak preparation method, for that matter. A peach fresh from the summer harvest simply “hits different” (as the kids say) than mid-winter, store-bought (and certainly different than canned in syrup) and I can now say, I have grown to strongly like them. When mixed with other seasonal fruits…and sugar….and crumbly crust, one can’t really go wrong. As my fiancé’s favorite dessert is apple-crumble, I set out to create a peach crumble to see if I could “summer-ize” the classic dessert. Swap in grilling for the cooking method (vs. typical oven baking) and I think I nailed it – the fact it got consumed in one sitting, is also pretty proof positive of success. Enjoy!
Grilled Peach & Blueberry Cobbler
Prep Time: 50 min
Makes: 6-8 servings
Ingredients- Filling
- 4-5 MEDIUM PEACHES, WASHED AND SLICED, PITS REMOVED
- 4 CUPS (1 QUART) BLUEBERRIES, WASHED
- ½ CUP SUGAR
- ¼ CUP FLOUR
- ½ TSP SALT
- ½ LEMON JUICED (APPROX. 2 TBS)
- ½ TSP VANILLA
Ingredients- Topping
- 1 CUP FLOUR
- 1 CUP QUICK-COOKING OATS
- ¼ CUP SUGAR
- ½ TSP EACH: SALT, CINNAMON, NUTMEG
- 12 TBS (1.5 STICKS) BUTTER
- ICE CREAM OR WHIPPED CREAM FOR SERVING, OPTIONAL
Directions
- Make the filling: in a large bowl, gently stir together cut peaches and blueberries with the sugar, flour, salt, lemon juice, and vanilla. It’s more like a folding than stirring motion as to not break up too much of the fruit. Transfer to a 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Set aside.
- Pre-heat the grill to medium-high. For instance, I have a 6 burner grill, I turned on the 4 burners on the left side of the grill and kept 2 on the right turned off. My temp was reading about 450 degrees most of the time
- Make the topping: in a large bowl (make sure it is dry if using the same one you made the fruit filling in), mix together the flour, oats, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Having kept the butter in the refrigerator until now, to keep it as cold as possible, remove butter and cut it into chunks about ½ tbs in size. Add butter chunks into the dry ingredients and mix in with your hands, creating pea-sized crumbles of the butter covered in the dry flour mixture. Sprinkle the entire topping mixture over fruit filling
- Place cast iron pan on heated grill, with top closed for approx. 30 minutes. You will know when the blueberries start bubbling and the topping has gone from a pale color to a bubbly, golden brown across the entire top of the crumble
- Remove from grill and let slightly cool approx. 20 mins, serve warm, topped with ice cream or whipped cream if desired
Notes
- You really can use any summer stone fruit for this recipe, so plums, apricots, nectarines, even cherries. You could omit the blueberries or swamp them for blackberries, strawberries, and again, cherries. Play around with flavor combinations and use the same topping to create your own version
- I don’t peel my peaches, I find the cooking makes them soft enough without needing to add the extra step of peeling
- The temperature of your grill will vary as you open and close the lid. You can move the pan around based on if you want it over direct or indirect heat based on if the crumble is cooking evenly as you check on it periodically (1-2 times throughout the cooking period)
- The cast iron pan will be VERY HOT upon removing from the grill. Be prepared with potholders and a surface to place it on equipped with a trivet or heatproof
