Nectarines are just about my favorite.
Make them double delight nectarines, and it's no contest.
I like the inclusion of ginger and pistachios in the biscuits.
Raspberries are too flat, tasty by themselves but wasted with the tang of nectarines. Better with blackberries.
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Just read that linked (excellent) Kim Severson article. “Hail Mary for dying fruit” indeed, Amanda Hessser. I try to go for about 80 percent perfect peaches, and throw in a couple squidgey ones to thicken the mix. After reading that Severson piece, though, I now have a new quest: I absolutely must find the perfect Sweet Potato Sonker recipe. I also need some cool weather and enough people to eat my baking attempts. Caloric, sweet comfort food with a high level of nutrition and fiber, what could be better?
I disagree that a nectarine is a peach wearing a different coat. I think of nectarines as being more like the more firm varieties of plum than like hairless peaches. There is a slippery, gel-like quality to nectarines that I think is absent in ripe peaches. For that reason I am more likely to use nectarines in a galette than I am in a cobbler. They can keep their form and texture better in that application.
The other great thing about peaches for cobblers and pies is that the skin — which I leave on — enhances the color, flavor and texture of the cooked fruit. Not true if you leave the skins on nectarines. Nectarine skins floating around in your baked goods are an annoyance. On an open-topped thing like a galette, those skins stay in place and serve a function.
So sez the peach lover.
But I may try this recipe with peaches!
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This looks really good. I've been making really low sugar peach jam (skins on) and then putting it on focaccia sandwiches with mozzarella. Amazing!
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There are many different types of each fruit and the taste difference can be substantial. Another factor is where they were grown as soil and rainfall vs irrigation impacts flavor.
There is a variety of Peach that grows in the Southwesten part of Michigan and Northern Indiana near Lake Michigan that makes the best cobbler- without question. The Red Haven Peach sourced from that area is amazing. Get the ones grown in Berrien County, Michigan - where my childhood home of Three Oaks is located. I have brought them to various peach producing parts of the South and invited locals to taste the result and they were very impressed at the flavor. Not say a Georgia Peach is bad, but these are better.
Another favorite is whatever variety of dwarf Apricot my late Aunt Hazel grew in her Albuquerque home. Every trip to visit saw me leaving with a supply of these wonderful, flavorful apricots that were brought home to make tarts and would doubtless make a great cobbler. They taste much better than any Apricot I have bought anywhere else.
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In my experience, the trouble with peaches is that in the stores or markets they are usually either under-ripe or over-ripe. The former are too hard, the latter taste like a boiled potato. Ripe nectarines is easier to come across. I am neutral to enjoying fruit either fresh or in a cobbler.
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@TX
I have found that this year both peaches and nectarines are reaching the market very very hard. When I buy to ripen them at home they become mushy just as you describe and never achieve their normal ripeness. I’ve had to throw most of my purchases away! And I love nectarine stewed or grilled. Anyone else finding stone fruits unusually mushy this year and why is this?
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@ACB: Ditto on the peaches. I’ve spent quite a bit of money on organic peaches this summer, and have had to toss the all. So infuriating! I may give in and try this recipe with frozen peaches (from WFM), though it’ll feel like heresy!
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@Tuvw Xyz: I have had luck with Jersey peaches, bought hard and ripened on the counter in 3 days; the California nectarines have been out of the park home runs each and every time.
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Why waste good fruit in a cobbler. All that sugar and flour can be used more profitably somewhere else without ruining good fruit!
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@Pat Norris
Why should we restrict our fruit eating to versions you prefer? One can have fresh fruit, and pie too. I am enjoying both immensely right now, with nectarines, peaches, plums, blackberries. Earlier in the summer it was cherries, apricots, raspberries, blueberries. The latter two are still available here, but I froze plenty, the no sugar way. Cherries and apricots, too.
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@Pat Norris: Why waste good flour and sugar on fruit, at all? Instead, make scones. Or sweet biscuits!
@Pat Norris, you just haven’t had the right cobbler (or pie, galette, dumpling, buckle, crisp...).
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