Whole Wheat Peach Cobbler

This is a tiny, tiny cobbler - that's just a tablespoon (slightly heaped) of whipped cream nearly smothering the cobbler.

I've been busy doing English level tests by telephone over the past week. That means that I have more time than usual in which I am shackled to the computer. And during one 2-hour session, half of the students didn't feel they needed to trouble themselves to call. This not only resulted in my time being compensated at 1/5 the maximum possible rate (as I'm paid much less if they don't call and complete the test than if they do), but in a lot more time to surf the internet.

When I ran out of things to read, I turned to the usual suspects in the food porn areas to entertain my wandering mind. I don't recall where I found the picture which sent me to this recipe, but I was intrigued by the recipe and wanted to give it a try. Of course, peaches are not in season at present, but I had a can of peaches in heavy syrup aging under my cabinet so I decided to finally put it to use.

Because I used canned peaches in syrup, I didn't bother with the part of the recipe which involved cooking the peaches with cornstarch, sweetener, juice and cinnamon. Other than that, I stuck pretty closely to the original recipe.

Whole Wheat Peach Cobbler:

• 1 can peach halves (4 halves) in syrup
• 2-3 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• cinnamon (to taste)
• 2 packets Splenda sweetener (or 3-4 tsp. sugar)
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp. 50% fat margarine (reduced calorie)
• 1/4 cup low-fat (or skim) milk
• *whipped cream (for serving)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F./190 degrees C.

Drain and rinse the peach halves and dice them. Toss the peaches with the juice, cinnamon and sweetener (or sugar). Spray 4 muffin tins (I used aluminum) with cooking spray and divide the peach mixture evenly between the tins, gently pressing down with a spoon to even things out.

In a clean bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut the margarine in with a fork until evenly crumbled. Add the milk and mix just until a dough forms. Divide the dough into four parts and gently form rough disks of dough with your hands and pat one on top of each cup with peaches. Bake for about 20-25 until the "cobbler" is lightly browned. Run a butter knife around the edges to loosen the cobbler and overturn onto plates to serve (mine came out very easily). Serve topped with a tablespoon of whipped cream.

This was good, but certainly would have been better with fresh peaches. The "cobbler" part turned out surprisingly well for something that was whole wheat and low-fat. It lent a good texture and hearty flavor and went well with the sweet peaches. I'm going to try this again with blueberries, though I'll have to use the method described in the original recipe to make a thicker sauce with the berries as they won't come with the same syrup as the canned peaches.

This was better fresh from the oven than the next day, but it was still good the next day. I recommend giving it 20 seconds in the microwave to warm it up a bit if you're having it the second day. I stored mine in the refrigerator and a few seconds in the microwave seemed to liven it up a bit. I ate this for breakfast, and I figure it's little different from having whole wheat toast with butter and jam from a nutritional standpoint.

*I make my own whipped cream by buying whipping cream or non-dairy "whip" (which is probably a liquid form of Cool Whip) and whipping it up with Splenda and vanilla using my hand mixer. This results in a sugar-free topping. If I lived in the U.S., I'd just buy a tub of sugar-free Cool Whip.

by Shari (Orchid64)