By Sarah Condley

Sun columnist

The Peach Truck was in town so I stopped by and picked up a box of freestone peaches. While standing in line, I looked through the cookbook they have published, “The Peach Truck Cookbook.”

When I got to the check-out, I just had to buy one of those cookbooks, not only because it was full of ideas regarding what to do with the peaches, but I also love reading cookbooks.

I took the peaches home and laid them out on the counter just like the salesman said to do. After a couple of days, the pretty little things smelled great. I’d been reading the cookbook over the last couple of days and knew the first recipe I was going to try was the skillet peach blueberry cobbler. Not only did I have all of those peaches, but our blueberry bushes were covered.

Skillet Peach Blueberry Cobbler

INGREDIENTS

— 1 cup all-purpose flour

— 1 cup granulated sugar

— 2 teaspoons baking powder

— 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

— 1 cup whole milk

— 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

— 1 teaspoon lemon zest

— 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

— 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

— 1 cup blueberries

— 1-1/2 cups sliced peaches (about 2 medium)

— 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

— Vanilla ice cream, for serving

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place a 10-inch cast-iron skillet in the oven while it heats.

Whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.

Whisk together the milk, vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice in another bowl. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Place the butter in the hot cast-iron skillet in the oven and heat until the butter melts.

Carefully add the batter to the skillet. Scatter the blueberries and peaches over the top. Sprinkle with the turbinado sugar. Bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm or at room temperature, with ice cream.

I read the recipe and realized I didn’t have vanilla bean paste and I only had skim milk. That didn’t stop me. I used a mixture of whipping cream and skim milk, along with pure vanilla extract instead.

I turned on the oven, placed an iron skillet in it to heat and began gathering ingredients. I whisked the dry ingredients together and set them aside while I combined the wet ingredients.

Then I peeled peaches, enough for this dessert plus extra for us to eat. I had to stop a couple of times while slicing the peaches to wash my hands because I just could not resist tasting the peaches.

The blueberries were picked, rinsed and dried. I’d put the butter in the heated skillet and it was melted.

I opened the oven, slid the rack out and poured the batter straight into the pan. I sprinkled the blueberries over the batter, then added the peach slices to the top. I sprinkled the whole thing with turbinado sugar. If you don’t have turbinado (raw) sugar, you could use granulated and this recipe would do fine.

I gently slid the rack and skillet back into the oven. After 50 minutes, the cobbler wasn’t as brown as I like and I let it go for about five more minutes.

The cobbler came out of the oven and it didn’t look like the picture in the cookbook. The cookbook photo showed the fruit nestled on the top of the dish, mine had sunk into the batter – or maybe the batter just rose and covered the fruit. Either way, all I could see was dough, which was a little disappointing.

After letting it cool a bit, I scooped some out for Brad and me to try. I put ice cream on mine.

We both liked this dessert. Brad liked it because it wasn’t overly sweet. It was dessert and not chocolate, so what wasn’t to love for me? The fruit tasted amazing, and I wanted to fill my bowl again, but I didn’t.

I’m not sure I could say enough good things about this dessert. It was simple and it was delicious.

Substituting vanilla extract for the vanilla bean paste, and the whipping cream and skim milk for whole milk didn’t seem to hurt a thing.

I did share some of this cobbler with two of my coworkers Michala and Teagan who thought it was great. The only bad thing about it was there wasn’t more in their individual containers.

You guessed it – this recipe definitely falls into the Nailed It category. There is no way I can leave it out of my self-made cookbook. I don’t care what it looked like, it tasted great.

There were lots of peaches left in my box so I’ve canned some for my granddaughter Abigail, I’ve frozen some and I’m getting ready to make The Peach Truck Signature Peach Jam. Yum, yum, yum.

If you bought peaches I hope you are enjoying yours as much as we have enjoyed ours.

Sarah Condley is an amateur baker and chef who is compiling a cookbook of her favorite recipes.