Peach cobbler

My grandma's birthday was over the weekend and so my uncle -- one of her sons -- had a cookout at his house to "celebrate." I put celebrate in quotation marks because she insisted we did not do anything special for her birthday. Anyway, I decided to make a dessert for the occasion and I knew we were having cake so I thought I'd pull out my CROCK-POT cookbook my friend got me for Christmas and see what was in there I could make. I settled on peach cobbler.

          

Review: This recipe was pretty simple to make. Because it was a party I doubled the ingredients but if you are just making it for yourself and your household family it will make enough as it is written. The only thing I would suggest changing about the recipe is letting it cook in the CROCK-POT for three hours instead of the two it suggests. The only reason I say that is because some of the peaches were warm while others were still cold when I started serving it after two hours of cooking. Part of it might have been because I didn't thaw the peaches as much as they could have been, but I think another part was because I just didn't cook it long enough. I will say, though, that once you cook it, it does taste nice cold the next day. The crumbles that are typically on top of a peach cobbler also didn't turn out quite like I had hoped or expected but I think it's because I started mixing the "cobbler" ingredients with an upright blender when I think it would have been best to use a hand-held blender. I switched to a hand-held about halfway through the mixing, but I think by then I had already made the cobbler too much of a semi-clumpy powder instead of a thicker crumble. All-in-all, though, it was quite tasty and a great dessert for a warm spring or summer day.

Recipe:

• 2 packages (16 ounces each) frozen peaches, thawed and drained
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces (I used stick butter so that made the measuring and cutting easier)
• Whipped cream (optional)

After following the directions on the bags of peaches to thaw them, combine the peaches, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Transfer to a CROCK-POT slow cooker (I just put all the ingredients in the CROCK-POT and mixed it in there so I wouldn't have to get an extra dish dirty). For the topping, combine the flour, remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over the peach mixture. Cover and cook on HIGH for 2 hours. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

TIP: To make the cleanup easier when cooking sticky or sugary foods, spray the inside of the CROCK-POT slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray before adding the ingredients.