Gordon Ramsay’s peach cobbler is warm and bubbling, made with ripe peaches, a buttery scone topping and a hint of vanilla, ready in about 45 minutes. The peaches are roasted in butter first, so the filling sets thick and golden instead of watery.
Gordon hasn’t published a peach cobbler, so I built this from two of his own recipes. The topping is his scone-cobbler method from Great British Pub Food, where he says the scones “absorb some of the sauce from below, but remain light and fluffy on top.” The peach treatment is his, from the deep-dish fruit pie where he pan-roasts the fruit first to deepen the flavour.
The step that makes it is roasting the peaches before they go in. Raw peaches flood the dish and leave you with soup under a soggy lid. A few minutes in hot butter drives off the water and concentrates the flavour, so the cobbler comes out thick and jammy.
Gordon Ramsay Peach Cobbler
Course: DessertCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy6
servings15
minutes30
minutes390
kcalBuilt from Gordon Ramsay’s recipes: the light scone topping from his Great British Pub Food cobbler and the butter-roasted fruit method from his deep-dish pie. Ripe peaches under a golden, fluffy crust. Serves 6, best warm with vanilla ice cream.
Ingredients
- For the peach filling:
8 ripe peaches, cut into thick wedges (skin on)
30g butter
50g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp cornflour
- For the scone topping:
250g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp fine salt
50g cold butter, diced
40g caster sugar
About 150ml whole milk, plus extra to glaze
1 tbsp demerara sugar, to finish
Directions
- Roast the peaches: Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan, 400F). Melt the butter in a wide pan over high heat. Add the peaches and caster sugar and roast 5 minutes until just softened and golden at the edges. Stir in the vanilla, five-spice and lemon juice, then the cornflour. Tip into a buttered baking dish.
- Rub the topping: Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Rub in the cold butter with your fingers until it looks like fine breadcrumbs, then stir through the caster sugar.
- Make the dough: Make a well, pour in most of the milk and mix lightly to a soft dough, adding the last splash only if needed. Don’t overwork it.
- Top the fruit: Drop rough spoonfuls of dough over the hot peaches, leaving gaps so the fruit bubbles up between them. Brush the dough with milk and scatter over the demerara sugar.
- Bake: Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until the topping is risen and golden and the filling bubbles at the edges.
- Serve: Rest 5 minutes, then serve warm. It’s best straight away, with vanilla ice cream or cream.
FAQs
Why roast the peaches before baking?
Raw peaches release a lot of water in the oven, which is the single reason most cobblers turn out soupy under a soggy topping. Roasting them in hot butter first drives that water off and concentrates the flavour.
It’s Gordon’s method from his deep-dish fruit pie, where he pan-roasts the fruit in butter and sugar to deepen it before it ever goes in the dish. The cornflour then catches the last of the juices so the filling sets thick and jammy, not runny.
How do I keep the topping light and not stodgy?
Two things. Rub the cold butter into the flour until it’s fine crumbs, and stop mixing the moment the dough comes together. Overworked dough turns tough and heavy, the most common cobbler fault.
Gordon’s scone topping is built to stay light: he notes the scones “absorb some of the sauce from below, but remain light and fluffy on top.” Leaving gaps between the spoonfuls matters too, it lets steam escape and the fruit bubble up, instead of sealing the top into one dense lid.
Should I peel the peaches?
No need. Gordon leaves the skin on the peaches in his fruit pie, and it holds the cobbler together and adds colour. The skins soften right down in the heat and you won’t notice them in the finished dish.
If your peaches are underripe and firm, give them an extra minute or two in the butter. Tinned peaches work out of season, just drain them well and skip the sugar, since they’re already sweet.
Does peach cobbler store well?
Be honest with yourself here: it’s a same-day pudding. The topping is at its best fresh from the oven, and once it sits on the warm fruit it slowly softens. Gordon makes the same point about his cobbler, the scones go soggy if left sitting on the filling.
You can keep leftovers covered in the fridge for two days, but reheat in a hot oven, not the microwave, to bring back some crispness. The filling itself can be made a day ahead and topped fresh before baking.
What should I serve with it?
Warm, with something cold and creamy. Vanilla ice cream is the classic, the heat against the cold is the whole point, or pouring cream if you’d rather. A spoonful of crème fraîche cuts the sweetness nicely.
If you like this style of fruit pudding, his rhubarb crumble and apple crumble use a crunchy topping instead, and his apple pie seals the same kind of spiced fruit inside pastry.
