Love entertaining, but get stressed out about how you're going to manage feeding everyone, let alone what to serve for dessert? Well, in this post I'll give you a bit of help with a crowd pleasing easy to make dessert. One you can pop in the oven while sitting down for dinner, and then have it cooled and ready for dessert time! I'm talking about a Peach Cobbler (I know, a lot of you are saying, isn't that a summer dessert?), but I'm here to tell you that it's a great year-round dessert. In fact, this is going to be our dessert for the family on Christmas this year. With all the warm spice notes of the faux cinnamon blend and salted caramel syrup (yes, you heard right, salted caramel) it makes its transition from bright summer flavors to a rich fall/winter dessert seamlessly. Since this dessert will be made in the wintertime, I'll be using canned peaches in peach juice (the heavy syrup ones are nothing but corn syrup), instead of cutting up fresh peaches. This is also part of the flavor difference between when it's a summer dessert or winter one. Some of the ingredients for the recipe might seem a bit odd when reading, like salted caramel syrup or peach juice (not from the canned peaches). The salted caramel syrup we use is from Torani's and is dairy free! I have posted a picture of the exact one we use, and if you can't find the salted caramel one, then you can substitute for either the regular caramel or the French vanilla syrups from them (although there will be a slight flavor difference with them). The peach juice is from Trader Joe's, and yes you can find it year-round there. I believe it's called Country Peach juice, but it used to be called Dixie Peach. It literally tastes like you just bit into a ripe juicy peach. It's a staple in our house, as it's great just ice cold from the fridge with breakfast too. When using it in desserts, it really tends to ramp up the peach flavor of whatever I'm making at the time (since peach can get overpowered so easily, as it's a light & delicate flavor).
This dessert is also "accidently vegan" as we say in our house, as I didn't write it that way, it just happened. Which is great because there are several vegans in our extended family and I love to be able to make one dessert for everyone, instead of multiples to go with everyone's diets. This is another reason that I call this dessert a crowd pleaser, as it feeds all kinds of diet needs. You can also change up the fruit in it for apples, blueberries, plums, apricots, and more! You will just need to adjust which flavor syrup and juice you use with them. Apple juice is a great substitute for the peach juice, as it pairs well with most fruits. You can substitute the flavored syrup for French vanilla, since vanilla goes with every dessert. The Salted Caramel Peach sauce I mention in the recipe is optional, though in our family it isn't optional (if you know what I mean). You can sauté the peaches and make the caramel sauce a head of time, then throw it all together right before putting it in the oven to save time. If there is any dessert left, a piece of it warmed up with your morning coffee is delightful. I have a feeling that a few of you might just try out this recipe this holiday season.
Kim
