Southern Peach Cobbler (2024)

Just peachy.

This Southern peach cobbler recipe is a total winner: easy, tender drop biscuit topping over a fresh peach filling made even easier because you don’t have to peel the fresh peaches! You’ll enjoy this old-fashioned peach cobbler all summer long.

Meet This Southern Peach Cobbler Recipe

For my money, no region of the country does homey, rustic, and deeply, deeply satisfying like the American South. From simple tomato sandwiches to this southern peach cobbler recipe, these foods take the best of seasonal, good-quality ingredients and make them into something even more special, without much fuss.

This peach cobbler recipe comes from the old southern tradition, going back to early British-American colonial food traditions that combined (“cobbled”) together what was available for a simple dessert.

With juicy, ripe Georgia and South Carolina peaches, plus a tender biscuit topping, this recipe makes an incredible summer dessert or breakfast bake. Start your oven. Let’s jump in.

Do You Have to Peel Peaches for Cobbler?

Absolutely not! You do not have to peel peaches for baked peach cobblers and pie. Leave those peaches unpeeled. Keeping those beautiful skins on gives the cooked cobbler a gorgeous, deep peachy-pink hue and even more depth of flavor. Plus, unlike other cobbler or pie fruit with tougher skins, like apples, peach skins melt away into the cobbler filling.

Unlike many peach pie or cobbler recipes, I do not peel the peaches. Ever. The unpeeled peaches, coupled with an easy drop biscuit crust, makes this just about the easiest peach cobbler recipe ever. Peach cobbler is my favorite dessert of summer, and maybe all year.

What’s the Difference Between Cobbler and Pie?

Without getting too deep into food history and regional nuances, generally speaking, fruit cobbler is a more rustic baked dessert with a biscuit or batter topping.

Pie consists of a fruit filling encased in a flaky dough and baked.We could also get into fruit crisps — which have a streusel topping — and buckles, betties, slumps, crumbles, and pandowdies, but let us save all that for another time.

One practical difference? Cobblers are easier. I say this as an avowed pie lover who has apple pie for my birthday instead of cake.

Pie dough involves rolling, chilling, rolling some more, draping, cutting, and creasing. But a cobbler requires only a simple biscuit dough loosely dropped on top of the fruit, and baked.

This unpeeled peach cobbler tastes every bit as satisfying as pie, but requires less effort and gives off cute “country picnic” vibes.

Ingredients and Steps

This peach cobbler recipe uses the following ingredients for the peach filling:

• In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and egg. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder until fully combined and aerated.
• Add the butter and work through with your fingers or a pastry blender until everything is combined into a combination of flour and pea-sized, buttery crumbles.
• Add the milk and egg mixture, and stir with your fingers and knead very lightly until just combined into a sticky, shaggy mass.

Southern Peach Cobbler Recipe: Notes and Tips

This cobbler is very easy, but you can make it even easier by using the right techniques and tips. In essence, you will cut the fresh peaches, toss them with flour, ground cinnamon, sugar, and lemon juice, and bake them in a baking dish for about 20 minutes. Then, add the biscuit topping, sprinkle with sugar, and finish baking in the oven.

Read on for more cobbler tips and notes.

How to cut peaches like a pro

If you look at a peach, you’ll see that it actually has two hemispheres. To cut a peach, slice along the hemisphere, all the way to the pit, as you would an avocado. Then twist open, remove the pit, and cut into wedges.

• As previously stated, do not peel the peaches. Get that beautiful peachy-pink color and added peach flavor.
• That said, you can peel the peaches if you want to. I get that some people want that classic golden-yellow peach pie color. In which case, to peel a peach for baking, score an X in the bottom of the peaches with a paring knife, then blanch them in boiling water for a minute. Drain, and peel when cool enough to handle.
• The cobbler topping should be sticky and loose, not a tight ball. If the dough achieves tight ball status, it is overmixed and will be a little tough.

How long to bake the peach cobbler

Bake this southern peach cobbler for about 50 minutes total. First, you will par-bake the peaches in the oven before adding the biscuit topping — don’t forget to sprinkle the top with sugar.

The filling should be bubbly, and the topping golden brown. Make sure you let the cobbler cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it. Easier said than done, granted, but this allows the juices to congeal, and the flavor tastes better when it is not scalding hot.

Using frozen or canned peaches

What could be more special than hacking summer in the middle of winter? Slicing and freezing peaches for later in the year is a great way to indulge in the feeling of warmer months. This cobbler can definitely be made with fresh frozen peaches. No need to defrost first!

While I do recommend frozen or fresh peaches, I do not generally recommend using canned peaches for this easy Southern peach cobbler recipe. I find the texture and flavor to be too “off” from that of fresh or frozen peaches. Further, canned peaches are often packed in sweet syrup, which will mess with the recipe proportions for the cobbler filling.

How to serve this cobbler

Keep it simple. Serve each person a big spoonful of cobbler, then add a scoop of vanilla ice cream or dollop of fresh whipped cream.

This easy peach cobbler recipe is easy to love. You’ll also like these American-inspired desserts:

• Caramel Apple Pie With Butter Crust
• Old-Fashioned Blueberry Hand Pies
• Rustic Blueberry Cobbler
• Peach Pound Cake