vegan series part 2: peach cobbler!

During the summer, my town hosts a Farmer’s Market every Thursday that is my absolute favorite thing to explore. There you can find organic, locally grown produce, homemade desserts, and a few of the best food trucks that Columbus has to offer. I’m a regular at the JC’s sweet tea stand, Branstool Orchards’ stand, and Pitabilities food truck, but I also love to branch out and try samples of different types of salsa or flavors of macaroons at some unique stands. However, the most successful purchase is always the carton of fresh peaches from Branstool Orchards! They come in the carton already ripe, sweet, and ready to eat!

For many of the weeks this summer, my family and I were able to finish a 1/2 carton of these peaches with no problem, but for some reason this week, we had too many uneaten peaches that would’ve gone bad if I had not taken some action; so, I decided to make some peach cobbler out of them! I was going to make cobbler the normal way, but since my mom has become vegan, I decided to add it to make it vegan so she could enjoy it as well! 🙂

I started by slicing about 3-4 peaches and lining them up as such on a small 8×8 pan. Next, I sprinkled 1/2 cup of sugar over top the peaches (I know, it seems like a lot, but the sugar allows the peaches to caramelize well) and then drizzled a mixture of 1 teaspoon water and 1 teaspoon cornstarch overtop.

Then, I began making the crumble topping for the cobbler.

Now, here’s where the “vegan part” comes in. Typically I try not to use artificial substitutes for dairy/meat when making things vegan (like “vegan bacon” or “vegan cheese” or in this case, “vegan butter”) because they tend to have too many chemicals which try to mimmic the taste of dairy/meat. I instead prefer to use natural substitutes such as olive oil for butter due to reduce the intake of unnatural chemicals in the body when going vegan. However in this case, vegan butter had to be used for textural purposes: in order to keep crumble stuck together and thick.

The other ingredients added in the food processor to make the crumble were: 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup oats, 1/4 cup vegan butter, 1/4 cup flour, 1/3 cup walnuts/pecans, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or nutmeg).

I blended those all together until they were about this consistency and crumbly in my hands!

I sprinkled all of the crumble topping overtop the macerated peaches and then put it in the oven at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes (until golden brown and peach starts bubbling up to top of the pan).

Voila! This vegan peach cobbler is the perfect summer treat, especially if you pair it alongside some vanilla bean ice cream!