Easy Fresh Peach Cobbler

This easy fresh peach cobbler recipe features warm spiced fresh peaches with a fluffy, crisp biscuit topping with turbinado sugar on top. No peeling required! The fresh peach filling can be cooked and then baked all in one cast iron skillet, or you can use a casserole pan. This classic summer dessert does not get any easier; all you need is a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

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If you love peach desserts, check out my simple almond peach galette (so much easier than pie), no-churn peach ice cream, peach and raspberry crumble bars, and stone fruit crisp (aka a peach crisp, but add in any other summer fruit you like).

Recipe History and Development

A simple peach cobbler is the essence of summer for me.  My mom made this recipe multiple times each peach season growing up, and just the smell of it brings me back to long pool days and walks in the park and dinner out on the porch.  

Peach cobbler is one of my favorite peach recipes and may just be my favorite summer dessert of all time.  The original recipe is from an old Betty Crocker cookbook, and I loved it so much that when I went away to college, my mom made and froze the peach filling in the late summer so we could have fresh peach cobbler when I came home for fall break.  She’s the best mom there is.

I’ve now baked and tweaked the recipe countless times myself, and streamlined the method. I stopped peeling the peaches (completely unnecessary) and reduced the sugar. I started using an oven-safe skillet to both cook the filling on the stovetop and then bake it with the biscuits, rather than using separate pans. I added turbinado sugar on top of the biscuits so they’d bake up crunchy and caramelized.

What I didn’t change: vanilla ice cream on top. Always and forever!

Why you’ll love this easy peach cobbler

• Simple, fresh peach flavor. The sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, and hint of warm cinnamon spice cooks down with the sweet peaches to form the most amazing thick, sticky sauce in almost no time, and it only gets better once you have it in the oven.  
• No peeling peaches required. Need I say more? They do not alter the final product one bit. You can still peel them if you really want to though.
• Far less sugar than most recipes. Some peach cobbler recipes use a cup of sugar in the topping alone. A cup!! In my opinion, peaches are so naturally sweet that they barely need any embellishment (plus you’re putting ice cream on top) – so there is a grand total of 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons (74 grams) of sugar in this recipe.
• Streamlined, one-skillet method. Look at a standard old-fashioned peach cobbler recipe and they’ll have you first boil and peel the peaches, then cook them in a saucepan, then transfer them to a baking dish, meaning you’ve dirtied 3 different pans. My new method (remember: no peeling) mixes, cooks, and bakes the entire recipe in one oven-safe skillet. Of course, if you’d rather separately cook and then bake the filling, no problem!
• Easy stir-together crispy biscuit topping. No mixer needed. It’s a very forgiving biscuit dough, almost like a soft dumpling in texture. Top it with turbinado sugar before baking and they turn into crispy, crunchy biscuits on the outside, super soft and fluffy on the inside, and heavenly combined with the sweet peach juices.
• Use fresh, overripe, or frozen peaches. This is a great recipe to use up any borderline too-ripe peaches you may have sitting around.  Maybe you were a little too ambitious at the farmer’s market and bought a huge quart of peaches, only to have them all ripen immediately and leave you scrambling to use them.  I wouldn’t speak from experience or anything.

Ingredients

You’ll love how just a few simple ingredients make a delicious fruit cobbler:

• Fresh ripe peaches, unpeeled (about 4-5 medium peaches; you can use frozen sliced peaches if you prefer)
• Lemon juice
• Granulated sugar
• Cinnamon
• Cornstarch or arrowroot starch
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Unsalted butter
• Milk of choice (dairy or non-dairy)

How to make homemade fresh peach cobbler

This recipe involves two parts: the peach filling and the fluffy biscuits on top of the peaches.

Cook the peach filling

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Cut each peach in half, twisting to remove the pit.  Cut into slices and place in a 12-inch oven-safe skillet if you have one, or a medium saucepan.
2. Add 1/4 cup sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and lemon juice to the skillet or saucepan with the peaches and heat over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a gentle boil, about 5 minutes.  
3. Once it comes to a boil, keep it there and stir for 1 minute until it is thickened and syrupy.  If not using a skillet, pour mixture into an ungreased 2 quart casserole pan.

Make the biscuit topping and bake the cobbler

1. In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients.  Cut in the cold butter using a fork, pastry blender, or your fingers (my preferred method), until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.  There may be some bigger butter pieces (pea-sized) – that’s fine.  Stir in the wet ingredients (milk) until you have a combined dough.
2. Drop dough by even spoonfuls onto the hot peach mixture.  Brush the tops of dough with the melted butter, then sprinkle remaining 1 tablespoon sugar over the dough.
3. Bake 25-30 minutes, until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbling.  Serve cobbler warm with ice cream!

Storage – can you freeze homemade peach cobbler?

Yes, peach cobbler filling freezes very well! Freezing instructions: The peach filling can be cooked in advance, and then covered tightly or stored in an airtight container and frozen once cooled.  When ready to bake, defrost overnight in the fridge, then top with biscuit topping and bake, adding 5-10 minutes to the baking time.

Baked cobbler keeps well in the refrigerator for 4-5 days (though it never lasts that long around here).  Reheat individual servings in the microwave.  

Additions and Substitutions

• Peaches: if you don’t have fresh juicy peaches, you can use 3 cups of frozen sliced peaches instead. You may need to cook the filling a few minutes longer until it is bubbling (in order to activate the cornstarch and thicken the filling). I do not recommend using canned peaches as they will disintegrate in this cobbler.
• Gluten-free: use an equal weight (125 grams, 1 cup) of an all-purpose gluten-free flour mix with xanthan gum for best results.
• Butter: you could use vegan butter or room temperature coconut oil instead.

The last requirement, of course, is to add vanilla ice cream on top.  I don’t feel like I should have to say it, but in the interest of thoroughness, I will.  The ice cream really is not optional here.  Sweet cold cream combined with the soft, warm biscuit and cinnamon spiced peaches: this is the best part.

Honestly, what on earth is better than this?

Summer forever, that’s what.

More peach recipes

• Peach Raspberry Oatmeal Crumble Bars
• No-Churn Homemade Peach Ice Cream
• Almond Peach Galette
• Stone Fruit Crisp (includes peaches, cherries, plums, nectarines – any summer stone fruit works!)
• Baked Peach Crumb Donuts

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Note: this recipe was originally published in August 2017. In August 2021, I republished the recipe and updated the photos and method to make it more streamlined. You can cook and bake the whole recipe in a cast iron skillet (my preferred method) or follow the original method and bake in a casserole dish. Instructions for both are in the recipe. I hope you enjoy!