Peach cobbler is an American dessert with a thick crust and peach filling. It was invented by settlers who adapted their favorite recipes to local fruits and primitive cooking equipment. The dish was initially served as a main course but became a dessert in the late 19th century. The world’s largest peach cobbler is made at the Georgia Peach Festival and requires 75 gallons of peaches, 90 pounds of butter, 32 gallons of milk, 150 pounds of flour, and 150 pounds of sugar.
A peach cobbler is an American deep dish dessert with a thick crust and a peach filling. Most peach cobbler recipes call for a cookie crust and a crumb or drop cookie topping.
The peach cobbler was invented by the first American settlers. When immigrants came to America, they brought with them their favorite recipes, such as fruitcakes and English steamed puddings. Early attempts to adapt the popular sweets to the primitive cooking equipment available in the new land and to use local fruits led to the creation of the cobbler.
Since they didn’t have brick ovens, colonial cooks cooked fruit cobblers in pots over an open fire. First they made a fruit filling and put it in the pot. Then they added a dough peel over the filling and covered the pot with a lid. As the cobblers cooked, the filling moistened and created its own juice and sauce, while the pastry puffed and dried.
The new cobbler recipes required only a fraction of the flour needed for a loaf of bread and allowed cooks to use fruits that were readily available. The various cobblers could feed large numbers of people, and the dishes were nutritious and sustainable. The first settlers loved these juicy fruit dishes so much that they were initially served as a main course for dinner and for breakfast. It wasn’t until the late 19th century, when a greater variety of foods and ingredients became available, that cobblers became primarily a dessert dish.
The “world’s largest peach cobbler” can be seen and tasted at the annual Georgia Peach Festival. This massive dish is 11 by five feet (about three by two meters) and eight inches (about 20 centimeters) deep. The recipe calls for 75 gallons (285 liters) of local peaches, 90 pounds of real butter, 32 gallons (about 122 liters) of whole milk, 150 pounds of wheat flour, and 150 pounds of sugar.
This giant peach cobbler is so huge it has to be baked in a custom designed brick oven, and clean floor boards from school buses are used for baking pans. The cooking process takes five hours to get started and begins with dividing the ingredients into five workstations manned by eight people. All ingredients are mixed in large clean trash cans and mixed with boat scoops. Festival-goers bring their own containers and can take home as much peach cobbler as they can handle.
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