Peach cobbler + Mr. Clooney

One of my all time favorite cookbooks is "Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes" – it’s beautiful and packed with great layer cake recipes; I’ve tried several cakes so far and they were delicious. Therefore, when I saw that Alisa Huntsman was the mind behind this book I bought it immediately – and I have not regretted doing so.
Being a crumble addict – I do love fruit desserts – I thought I should give cobblers a chance, too, and decided to start with peaches since they’re in season. The juicy, warm filling combined with the soft biscuits make for a perfect dessert – I think that my beloved crumbles have found some serious competition. :)

Speaking of competition, as much as I want Gary Oldman to take the award home next month I believe that George Clooney will win; I watched "The Descendants" a couple of days ago and not only the movie is excellent but Clooney is absolutely perfect in it – I adore him as an actor and seriously doubted that his stunning performance in "Up in the Air" could be matched – apparently, I was wrong. :)

Peach cobbler
from the gorgeous and delicious Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe: Simple Southern Pies, Puddings, Cakes, and Cobblers from Nashville's Landmark Restaurant

Fruit filling:
2/3 cup (133g) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
4 cups sliced ripe peaches – 1,125 to 1,350g (2 ½ to 3 pounds) fresh peaches

Sweet cream dumplings:
¾ cup (105g) unbleached all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons (28g) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
½ cup (120ml) heavy cream
demerara sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Lightly butter a 1- to 1 ½ quart (liter) ovenproof baking dish and place it on a sturdy baking sheet.
In a mixing bowl, stir the granulated sugar, flour, lemon zest, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Add the peaches and toss gently to coat them with the sugar and spices. Scrape the peach mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Make the sweet cream dumplings: in a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and rub the ingredients together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Pour in the cream and mix lightly with a fork to form a soft dough (I needed to add 2 tablespoons of flour to the dough). Transfer it to a lightly floured surface and pat into a 1.25cm (½in) thick disk. Using a 5cm (2in) round cutter cut into individual biscuits, reworking the scraps once to make more biscuits. Arrange the biscuits on top of the peaches and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until biscuits are golden and fruit is bubbly. Let the cobbler cool for 20 minutes before serving.
Serve with cream or vanilla ice cream.

Serves 4 – I made an individual portion using a 1 ½ cup (360ml) capacity baking dish, ¼ of the fruit filling recipe and ½ of the sweet cream dumplings recipe