THE LADY & SONS' PEACH COBBLER

This year DIL Lori asked me to bring dessert to our Family Christmas Dinner. I asked for any suggestions but she didn't answer me. A few nights before we were getting together for our Christmas, we attended the Children's Christmas Program at their church and I asked our son Patrick if he had any preferences. He didn't surprise me when the first thing he suggested was apple pie. He always wants dessert with apples. But then he said, "or peach cobbler". That one did surprise me. I went back to the table that we were sitting at and told Lori's mother and a long-time friend of Lori's who was also going to attend the dinner part and told them what Patrick had said. Bruce said, "Well, why not both?" So both it was.

For the apple pie I made my Iron Skillet Apple Pie. I have many peach cobbler recipes I have made and shared here with you, but I thought I would look for a new one. Thinking of my cookbooks, I knew I wanted to check out my Paula Deen's cookbooks feeling surely she would have one. Didn't have to go but through one though when I found one. 

When we were in Savannah several years ago, we ate at The Lady & Sons' Restaurant and even enjoyed the Peach Cobbler. In their cookbook The Lady & Sons' Just Desserts she says this Peach Cobbler was an instant hit on the first day they offered it at the restaurant. You can order it at lunch and dinnertime. The recipe calls for 2 cups of sliced peaches and my bag of frozen sliced peaches contained 3 cups of peaches. I wanted to have plenty of peaches so I just increased some of the ingredients. I will give my amounts when different in parenthesis with the ingredients. I also used stevia to reduce some of the sugar calories.

Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.

THE LADY & SONS' PEACH COBBLER

1/2       cup (1 stick) butter
1          cup sugar (I used 1 cup stevia)
3/4       cup self-rising flour
3/4       cup milk
2          cups fresh or frozen sliced peaches (I used a 16 - ounce bag which was 3 cups frozen sliced peaches.)
1          cup sugar (I used 1 cup stevia + 1/2 cup sugar)
1          cup water (I used 1-1/2 cups water)
cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a saucepan, mix sliced peaches with stevia/sugar and water.

Bring to a boil,

reduce heat, and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Place butter in oven in a 2 quart baking dish

to melt.

Stir sugar (or stevia) and flour together and mix well with a whisk.

Slowly add milk and continue to stir to prevent the batter from lumping.

Being careful not to burn yourself, remove hot baking dish containing melted butter from oven; pour batter directly over butter in baking dish (DO NOT STIR).

Spoon fruit

on top of batter,

then pour the syrup on top (DO NOT STIR).

(I used a big spoon.)

Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. (I baked mine the full 45 minutes.)









Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream. (The most important part of this dish is not stirring the mixture.)

Here are some pictures of our MO grandchildren from the Christmas program. Tyler was one of the Wise Men and Madison was Mary.

Santa and Mrs. Claus also showed up after the program...

These two pictures were taken after the Christmas Eve service...

JANICE'S PUMPKIN BREAD

For Christmas, Friend Janice gave us a loaf of Pumpkin Bread. She told me it was an old recipe that she hadn't made in years. For some reason she decided to make it this year. I am so glad she did since she made us a recipient of one of the loaves this year.

This bread is so moist and light tasting. I'm sure you have eaten pumpkin bread that was heavy and dry. Trust me this recipe is not one of those. The recipe makes two large loaves or 7 mini loaves...an excellent recipe to make for gifts around Christmas.

Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.

PUMPKIN'S BREAD (Janice's)

3        cups sugar
1        cup salad oil
4        eggs, beaten
1        can (16 ounces) pumpkin
2/3     cup water
3-1/2  cups flour
2        teaspoons soda
1        teaspoon salt
1        teaspoon baking powder
1        teaspoon nutmeg
1        teaspoon allspice
1        teaspoon cinnamon
1/2     teaspoon cloves
1/8     teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9 x 5 - inch loaf pans or seven mini loaf pans.

Cream sugar and oil together.

Add the eggs and pumpkin; mix well.

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients alternating with the water.

Pour into pans and bake for 1-1/2 hours for large loaf pans or 25 minutes for mini loaf pans.

Let stand 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks. Loaves may be frozen.

APPLE RAISIN BARS

Here is another one of the delicious treats that Friend Anita brought to share with the congregation recently at church on Saturday night. The Saturday night worship is more casual and someone brings cookies and bars to be enjoyed with coffee before the worship begins.

These Apple Raisin Bars were almost gone but I did manage to get one to take home and enjoy after the handbell choir finished playing our songs.

Click here for a printable version of just this recipe.

APPLE RAISIN BARS

2       cups flour
2       teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2    teaspoon salt
2       cups packed light brown sugar
2       eggs
1/2    cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1       teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups diced Golden Delicious apple
3/4    cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13 - inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed. blend together the sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla for 3 minutes or until smooth.

Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mixture; mix for 2 minutes or until just incorporated. Stir in diced apples and raisins and spread into prepared pan.

Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting into bars and serving. Anita sifted some powdered sugar on them. (Always makes a nice presentation.)

CREAM CHEESE SPIRALS

I wanted to do something a little special for the volunteers at the thrift shop (HPC Platte County), but something that wouldn't be too hard to do. Wednesday night our grandchildren here (Madison and Tyler) are having their Christmas program at church and I offered to take a couple of dozen of cookies for afterwards when they have cookies and hot chocolate for everyone. I thought I would do a special cookie for that. While looking for another cookbook, I found this Cookies irresistible biscuits, brownies, and bars cookbook by Hilaire Walden. I may have found a recipe to make for Wednesday (want to check a few more cookbooks first), but I definitely found a recipe to try for the volunteers at the Hillcrest.

It was a little "involved" but not too bad. I had to wait for the oven to become available since my husband was baking some fish to add to a gumbo he was making for himself. That meant instead of the dough chilling for 30 minutes, it was probably in the refrigerator for an hour.

I had plenty of the "filling" mix, so for the second pan instead of sprinkling the spirals with sugar, I just sprinkled some more of the filling. It made a prettier and tastier spiral. I would definitely suggest doing that. I also couldn't roll the dough out to an 11 inch circle but it was close. It worked fine though.

Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.

CREAM CHEESE SPIRALS

1     cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
1     8 - oz package cream cheese, room temperature
2     teaspoons sugar
2     cups flour
1     egg white 
1     tablespoon water
1     cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2  cup light brown sugar
1     teaspoon ground cinnamon

With an electric mixer, cream the butter, cream cheese, and the sugar until soft. 

Sift the flour over the bowl of butter mixture. 

Mix

(I did use the mixer, I was just scraping the sides of the bowl) to form a dough.

Gather into a ball and

divide in half.

Flatten each piece and

wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap. Chill for at least 30 minutes. (I didn't lay them on top of each other in the refrigerator.)

Make the filling by combining the nuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Set aside.












Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease two cookie sheets.

Roll out each half of dough thinly in a circle about 11 inches in diameter.

Round edges with a knife.

Beat egg white with water.

Brush the surface of circle with the egg white mixture.

Sprinkle the dough evenly with half (didn't use that much) of the filling.

Using a pizza cutter cut the dough in fourths and then cut each fourth in half and then each half in half again...

16 triangles.

Carefully remove one of the triangles and

starting at the wide end of the triangle, roll the wedge tightly toward the point. (As you remove the triangle to edge of work area to roll, if some of the filling falls off, just add a little more on the wedge.)

Place on cookie sheet.

Brush spirals with more of the egg white mixture and then

sprinkle some of the filling over top.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. I did bake mine the full 20 minutes.

Remove to wire rack to cool. Store in a covered container.