Peach or Fruit Cobbler

This is a recipe my mother gave me; she was given it by an unknown friend. I'll have to ask her who it was.

I generally make it with peaches, though I've used fresh berries, and even canned cherries. It's best with peaches. I use peaches I've frozen. I buy local fresh peaches (from California, sorry mom) at the Farmers' Market, let them ripen, dip them in boiling water just long enough to loosen the skin, peal them, slice them, and mix them with sugar and absorbic acid (to keep them from darkening), then freeze flat in gallon size ziploc freezer bags. Peach cobbler in January through March is a lovely treat, and the frozen peaches have a wonderful flavor.

Cobbler Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 cups Flour
• 3/4 Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 Cups Milk
• 1 Stick (1/2 cup) Butter, melted
• 6 cups fruit

For Syrup:

• 1 Cup Water
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 3 Tablespoons Butter

Mix dry ingredients; stir in melted butter and milk until smooth. Spread batter on bottom of a buttered 9 x 13 inch pan. Add and arrange fruit (reserving any fruit juice).

Combine water (substitute any fruit juice you reserved for water), sugar (I adjust the sugar based on the sweetness/sugar of the fruit), 3 Tablespoons of butter, and boil (you want a thick syrup). Pour the syrup over the fruit. Bake at about 400 F. for about an hour; you want the batter to be cooked, the fruit to be slightly crisp on the edges, and cooked all the way through. It can take a lot of cooking, especially if you use a deep dish rather than a flat pan. Serve warm with ice cream, or a little heavy cream.