Nectarine Cobbler with Cinnamon-Swirl Topping
I’m excited to participate in the virtual potluck for Robin Asbell’s new cookbook: Sweet & Easy Vegan: Treats Made with Whole Grains and Natural Sweeteners. For this “potluck” I was able to choose from among several luscious-looking desserts from the book, and I was immediately drawn to the Nectarine Cobbler with Cinnamon-Swirl Topping.
In my house, we’re fans of cobblers, crisps, and other such fruit desserts, but what especially intrigued me about this particular cobbler was the topping that looks like miniature cinnamon buns perched atop the fruit. How cute is that? I also like the addition of cornmeal to the topping, giving it an extra dimension of flavor that complements the cinnamon and the fruit.
I wish I had made this cobbler in August when nectarines were ripe and plentiful. Instead, I had to substitute frozen sliced peaches to make this in October. The good news is that the cobbler was still delicious, even when made with the frozen fruit, so I can only imagine it being even better with fresh nectarines!
Right now, I have my eye on a few autumn desserts that would be especially wonderful this time of year, such as the Pear and Maple Upside-Down Cake, Pumpkin-Cornmeal Scones, and the Miniature Caramel-Apple Tarts. In addition to loads of dessert recipes, the book also has recipes for breakfast treats, quick-breads, and muffins.
COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY: If you’d like a chance to win a copy of Sweet and Easy Vegan, simply leave a comment at the end of this post naming your favorite dessert. That’s it! A winner will be chosen at random on Sunday 10/28 at midnight and announced on this blog on Monday 10/29. Enter now!
In the meantime, here’s the recipe for that yummy cobbler:
Nectarine Cobbler with Cinnamon-Swirl Topping
Serves 8
Cobbler is usually a swath of fruit baked with a buttery biscuit topping, but this one has a twist. Instead of freeform biscuits, little cinnamon rolls float on the sweet sea of nectarines, making it like two desserts in one! Just about any juicy fruit makes a good cobbler, so feel free to experiment. Just note that you may have to increase the baking time if you use apples. This recipe is from Sweet & Easy Vegan by Robin Asbell.
3 lb/1.4 kg nectarines, pitted and sliced
3/4 cup/180 g maple syrup
2 tbsp arrowroot starch or cornstarch
2 tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla extract
Topping
1 cup/130 g whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup/60 g unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup/80 g cornmeal
6 tbsp/75 g granular palm sugar, palm sugar paste, or Sucanat
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup/60 ml canola oil or light olive oil
1/2 cup/120 ml nondairy milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C/gas 7.
In large saucepan, combine the nectarines and maple syrup. In a cup or small bowl, whisk the arrowroot starch, water, and vanilla together to form a slurry. Stir into the nectarine mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then cook, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes, until it begins to thicken. Transfer to an ungreased 12-by-8-in/30.5-by-20-cm glass or ceramic baking dish.
To make the topping: In a large bowl, combine the flours, cornmeal, 2 tbsp of the sugar, and the baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk until well mixed. In a cup or small bowl, whisk the oil and nondairy milk together. Pour into the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Press the mixture together to make a firm dough.
In a small bowl, stir the remaining 4 tbsp/50 g of sugar and the cinnamon together until well mixed.
Transfer the dough to a floured work surface. Shape it into a 10-by-6-in/25-by-15-cm rectangle, gently patting it to an even thickness. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar evenly over the dough. Starting at a long edge, roll up the dough to form a long cylinder. Pinch the seam to seal. Place the roll seam-side down and cut it crosswise into 4 even portions, then cut each portion into in 4 slices to make 16 rolls.
Arrange the rolls on top of the nectarine mixture. Bake for 25 minutes, until the rolls are golden brown and cooked through and the juices are bubbling up around them.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm. Stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, the cobbler will keep for about 1 week.
So….what’s YOUR favorite dessert?
{ 84 comments… add one }
I am not a vegan, but I appreciate the lifestyle so much more then I could ever say!! 🙂 My favorite dessert is cheesecake!
Tiramisu 🙂
Bread pudding!
I think my favorite dessert is one from when I was a kid – growing up in the summer, my mom would buy a watermelon and cut it into slices for us and she would crush (well bang until it was in crumbly pieces) up a Crunchie Bar and mix it into a tub of Cool Whip for us to dip – BEST TREAT EVER!!!! Every time I think of summer I think of this and will always cherish those memories with my Mom <3
cookie sandwiches with icing filling!!!!
I’m looking forward to adding this to my collection of your cookbooks!
Pumpkin Oat Bars. Recipe found at Sweet Potato Chronicles: http://www.sweetpotatochronicles.com/wordpress/2012/10/pumpkin-oat-bars/
I don’t even think I could pick just one dessert that is my favorite. Anything with chocolate and/or caramel or peanut butter is at the top of the list, but I can’t identify a favorite.
My favorite dessert is anything with apples. Apple pie, apple cobbler, apple crisp, baked apples…I could go on!
My favorite has always been freshly baked steamy hot blueberry pie with a little So Delicious vanilla on top.
Thanks for the most awesomely delicious recipe…cheers!
cheesecake
My favorite dessert is fruit with maraschino sauce on top. Yum!
Pumpkin cheesecake!
We’re just making the transition to a vegan diet and are looking for a cheesecake recipe-That’s our favorite.
My favorite dessert is a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting!
Chocolate cake.
Pie! Any kind almost – apple, pumpkin, peanut butter, chocolate mmm
My favorite dessert is warm bread pudding with creamy bourbon sauce.
I suppose it would depend on what season it is. During the Fall I love apple pie, warm right out of the oven with a little vanilla ice cream on it or soy whip, scrumptious. Warmer months I’m a cupcake gal, chocolate chocolate cupcakes.
Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake!
My favorite dessert is brownies, with peanut butter swirled in… NOW I WANT SOME.
My favorite dessert is pretty much whatever dessert is right in front of me…especially if someone else made it.
key lime pie! 🙂
My favorite dessert is carrot cake mmm!
My favorite dessert recipe is quite a simple one, but so delicious: Thai Bananas in Coconut Milk (Kluai Buat Chi)..yummie!
My favorite dessert is apple nachos
I just discovered your website and your recipes. While not a vegan by conviction, I follow as close to a vegan diet as possible to take stress off my kidneys.
My favorite dessert is cherry cobbler.
Mine is trifle with homemade pound cake, vegan custard and lots of fruit topped off with cashew cream.
Pumpkin pie and fruit tarts
Concord grape pie
My dessert of choice is ice cream. 🙂
Uhh… favorite dessert? Pretty much all of them. But if I had to choose, it would be strawberry rhubarb pie. Mm!
I love homemade vegan ice cream.
Vegan Brownies!
I know it’s totally passe now, but I still love cupcakes!
Apple pie! And tis the season!
So hard to choose just one, but…brownies. yum!
Courtney
There’s nothing like a just-baked molasses-ginger cookie (veganized, of course) with a cold glass of almond milk!
I LOVE apple pie. Plain and simple. YUM
That cobbler looks wondeful! I love apple pie the best. And also brownies.
Don ‘t really have a favorite but I bet I could find one in this cookbook!
hhhmmmm hard decision. Since going vegan I have eliminated my fav cheesecake and have not attempted a vegan one. Sooo, it would have to be any fruit cobbler. Or maybe a pudding made with almond milk.
Heading to the kitchen now to create one of those choices—-probably the pudding
Would love a vegan dessert cookbook as I did give away most of my standard cookbooks and only have a few vegan books at this time.
Vegan Cowvin cookies from Sticky Fingers bakery — an oatmeal cookie sandwich with vanilla frosting. Yum!! 🙂
my favorite dessert is strawberry shortcake….mmmmmm…..
Apple and nut butter
My favorite dessert is vegan brownies and ice cream 🙂
I love… everything sweet… but I’ve never had a real cinnamon roll, right out of the oven. Just the thought of it… that’s probably my favorite xD
I have a major sweet tooth. My favorite dessert right now is the apple crisp in my fridge. I love fruit-based desserts with lots of sugar and anything with cinnamon!
Thank you for another great cookbook giveaway, Robin!!! I’d love to win this one, I have a big sweet tooth! 😀
My favorite desserts are my ‘cheezcake bites’ as well as sticky cinnamon buns! 🙂
Chocolate cake!
Homemade vanilla ice cream (frozen bananas run through the juicer) with some peanut butter swirled in.
Since my wife and I became vegans on June 17, 2012, we haven’t had scones. The above mentioned, ” Pumpkin-Cornmeal Scones” sounds wonderful. – Tom
Typically anything chocolate; the richer the better. Brownies, cake, etc. Susan V’s pudding cake is pretty far up there. Moosewood’s vegan chocolate cake as well.
I’m tired on favorite desserts. Tiramisu and pumpkin cheesecake.
I meant tied. I am tired but that is another matter..
Favorite dessert? It’s gotta be warm chocolate chips cookies right out of the oven. Mmmmm
Anything chocolate!
Coconut Cream Pie . . . mmmmm
favorite dessert, definitely something with apples in it like apple pie or apple cobbler. i can pick two favorites, right?!
It is very hard for me to pick a favorite dessert, but I’m going to say…pecan pie. 🙂
Pie. All flavors, all styles, all the time!
Thanks so much for offering the giveaway – this new book looks great.
I always have a hard time picking favorites, but I’ll have to say that I’m always happy with anything chocolatey!
My favorite dessert is pineapple upside down cake… made with fresh, in-season pineapple!
My favorite dessert — especially this time of year — is apple crisp. Give me hot apple crisp with some vanilla coconut milk ice cream on top and I am thoroughly satisfied.
My fave dessert is vegan apple pie!
Half-baked chocolate chip cookie with ice cream on top!! Thanks for the giveaway!! 🙂
Tough decision, but I’ll say chocolate cake.
My favorite dessert is tiramisu!
Chocolate cream pie with strawberries…or any cookie
my all time favorite dessert is apple pie!
Chocolate chip pumpkin bread. Mmmm!!!
Since it’s fall, I will say vegan pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. It changes seasonally. 🙂
Oh my, so hard to choose! I think brownie sundae is something I’ve been craving awhile so I’ll go with that. Would love this book!
This fall, it’s Mary McDougall’s pear-cranberry crumble.
Oh, I was thinking my fav was cookies but then I thought “cobbler, I DO love a good cobbler.” I guess I like crisp more than cobbler, with a crunchy-chewy oatmeal topping. Yum! peaches, apples, berries, I like them all!
Always apple crisp with the crumbly oat topping! It’s the best thing about autumn.
This time of year an apple crisp or fresh pumpkin sound great!
Apple dumplings! Yum!
My mom makes this amazing chocolate cake with strawberry, banana, and raspberry preserve filling and home-made whipped cream topping. It may be nostalgia talking, but I have never been able to find another dessert that can top this!
Anything chocolate!
Apple anything will always win me over- I make a wicked apple crisp tht has some meyer’s rum in it..
Chocolate cake with frosting and ice cream.
The nectarine cobbler sounds incredible!
My favorite is CAKE – any kind!
My favorite dessert is my mom’s coffee cake! It is super easy to make and soooooo delicious!