Peach Sonker

This recipe was submitted by Peggy Hartley of Boone, NC

Ingredients: Pastry

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar or Splenda®
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1?2 teaspoon salt
  • 1?2 cup shortening
  • 1?2 cup cold milk

Ingredients: Filling

  • 4 to 5 cups fresh sliced NC peaches
  • 1 cup sugar or Splenda®
  • 1?2 cup evaporated milk
  • 2 tablespoons corn starch
  • 1?4 teaspoon salt
  • 1?2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, cut into small pieces

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually add milk, mixing with fork, and shape into ball. Roll out the pastry into a rectangle. Cut strips to fit around the sides of a two-quart (7 x 11-inch) ovenproof dish. Set aside.

Put the peaches in a pan or microwave to heat them. When peaches are hot, drain most of the liquid off. Stir in sugar. Mix corn starch, salt, cinnamon, and milk in a separate bowl until smooth. Stir into peaches. Cut some strips of the pastry, keeping enough to make a lattice top for the cobbler. Spoon mixture into pastry; poke pieces of pastry throughout the peach mixture. Pastry should form dumplings through the pie, but not so much that there is too much pastry and not enough fruit. Cut butter into little pieces and place on topof fruit. Cut remaining dough into 1?2-inch wide strips. Place strips on peach filling to form lattice and trim dough on sides. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes on low rack at 425o until pastry is golden brown and peach filling bubbles up.

Note: If pastry browns too quickly, cover with foil. Filling needs to boil to cook dumpling pieces.

Peggy Hartley’s Peach Sonker comes from her grandmother. "I have looked at hundreds of cobbler recipes over the years," Peggy says, “and no other recipe has milk in the filling.I think that’s the secret to Granny’s sonker.”

Peggy grew up in Elkin and learned to cook from her mother and grandmothers, and notes that though she has tried to write down the recipes they loved, it is still hard to capture the true magic of their cooking.

Source: Our State Peach Recipe Collection 2011

We'd love to publish your favorite fresh peach recipe, too.

* Original sources are given as reference only. This website is not responsible for the content of externals links, and cannot guarantee the particular page hasn't been moved or removed.
Brought to you by the NC Peach Growers Society