How To Avoid Adding Too Much Sugar To Peach Cobbler
Peach lovers rejoice, for there's a dessert that combines sweetened peaches with biscuit dough that looks "cobbled" in appearance (via Culture Trip). The peach cobbler goes way back to the 19th century, when fresh fruit was hard to come by in the western regions of the United States. As settlers traveled toward these parts, they staved off hunger and their sweet tooth by mixing dough with dried or canned fruit, then using an open flame to cook their cobbled creation. This was often consumed for breakfast and/or for dinner before staking its claim in the dessert world.
Nowadays, the peach cobbler is highly popular in southern regions of the United States and pays homage to how settlers made it back in the day. A standard recipe is also easy to follow, as peaches are combined with acidity and sugar, placed in a baking dish, then topped with irregular pieces of biscuit dough, per MasterClass. The dessert is then baked and topped with another layer of sweetness, often ice cream or whipped cream.
The problem is, peach cobbler is prone to becoming cloyingly sweet, which inevitably results in grumbling stomachs and happy garbage cans. Here's how to avoid adding too much sugar to a peach cobbler.
Stick to a half cup or less
According to Southern Living, a peach's natural sweetness is enough to flavor the entirety of a peach cobbler, so not much sugar is needed. It's best to restrict sugar amounts to a half cup or less, but this also depends on how ripe the peach is, per MasterClass. If the peaches are ripened, use about a quarter cup of sugar. For tart peaches that don't taste very sweet, up to three-quarters cup may be needed. And if you're incorporating other fruits, like blackberries or raspberries, you may have to adjust the sugar content due to their tartness levels.
Don't be shy about using lemon juice either, as it helps to cut through the sugar, according to The Union. The juice of two lemons will do the trick for three pounds of fresh peaches or two pounds of frozen peaches, but if you're counting the peaches individually, then one lemon for every four or five peaches works too.
It's best to use the half cup of sugar rule as a general guideline when making a peach cobbler, as you can adjust this amount depending on several factors, including how ripe the peaches are, whether they're fresh, frozen, or canned, and whether you'll be adding other fruits to the mix.