Pfirsichkuchen - German Cast Iron Peach Cobbler

Gooey Peachy Goodness

So after living in Germany for over half a decade, one of the dishes that kept popping up and over was pfirsichkuchen , which is a German peach ‘cake’, which is semi-bready and cooked with fresh peaches on top. This dish ubiquidtious at holiday gatherings, and often served during someone’s birthday.

Now in general German desserts are not very sweet at all, so this is one place where I am semi-adapting the recipe by adding enough sugar to satisfy my American sweet tooth, but on the other hand, this is likely to be a fraction of what you may find in a Peach cobbler. We don’t want to overwhelm the natural sweetness of the peaches. 

Being that I grew up in the South, my version came out as a hybrid peach cake, which is a cross between pfirsichkuchen and traditional American peach cobbler. The result of this cross pollination was a success and it was enjoyed by all who tried it (especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream served over it!)

Detailed Instructions:

Prepping the Peaches

So for this recipe the first thing we are going to need is 6 ripe peaches. We can start by cutting them in half, removing the stone, and peeling them, either with a knife or peeler. We are then going to then cut the peaches into equal sized slices, roughly the size of what you may find in a can of peaches. 

Once we have sliced up all six peaches, we are going to add some sugar and salt. In our case, we are going to add about ⅓ of a cup of sugar and a few shakes of salt. We can additionally add the slightest hints of spices, such as cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg, but these are optional. We then want to mix making sure each peach is coated in sugar and salt. 

Now the cool thing is that the sugar and salt on these peaches will draw out some of the juices from the peaches, which we will use to cook to the peaches in coming up in a few minutes after we finish working on the other components of this dish.

Making the Batter

Now speaking of other components, we need to make a simple batter for our dessert, which is as simple as can be. We need equal parts all purpose flour and milk. In my specific case I am using about 1.5 cups of each, but feel free to adapt this to fit your pan size. Add a small shake of salt to the flour whisk it up and add the milk. Then give the two a good mix and set this to the side for now.

While we were working on the batter, some of the liquid in the peaches should have been drawn out, as can be seen here. We are going to then heat them up and make syrup using their own juices. For this we can heat up a pan on medium high and dump in our peaches. I am going to add in about half a cup of water to make this more syruppy, but if you want to go closer to the authentic German recipe, feel free to use a little less.  Keep heating the fruit until the peaches start to get a *little* soft and the sugar has completely dissolved into the water.

Putting it all together

For the next step we are going to need to prep the pan we are going to bake this in.  We here are going to need a medium sized cast iron pan, preferably deeper than shallow.  If you only have access to a smaller cast iron pan, you could make this with 4 peaches instead of six, and conversely add more if you have a bigger pan. To do this we need to heat up and melt one stick of butter over medium heat. Once heated we can add in our batter, which should slightly crisp up the batter, preventing it from rising through the peaches as it cooks. 

Now lastly we need to add our peaches in. We are going to gently set them on top of the batter butter mixture. Lastly I added some lemon juice to bring the taste a little closer to peach cobbler, but if you want to go through the authentic pfirsichkuchen route, you could abstain from adding it.

Once we are done, we are going to add the whole thing into a preheated oven set to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 176 Celsius. From here it’s smooth sailing, after approximately 60 minutes in the oven, the dish should be ready, so we can pull it out.

Now in my opinion this stuff came out awesome. I served mine with some cold ice cream, which turned out to be a great descion. I hope you enjoyed this quick recipe, and if you are new here, please subscribe for more recipes, and comment with what you would like to see next.

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Condensed Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 6 ripe peaches

• 1/3 cup [70 grams] sugar

• 1 shake of salt

• Spices of your choice (cinnamon, cloves, etc.)

• 1.5 cups [350 mL] of milk

• 1.5 cups [350 mL] of flour

• 1 stick [115 grams] of butter for the pan

Instructions:

1. Peel and cut the peaches into sixths, removing the stone.

2. Add sugar, salt and spices to the peaches, ensuring each piece is coated. Set off to the side and allow juices to extract (roughly 15-20 minutes).

3. Mix flour and milk and some salt to form the batter. Set off to the side. Preheat the oven to 350 F (176C).

4. Transfer peaches into a pan and heat over medium-low heat cooking the peaches in their own juices. Cook until the peaches become slightly tender.

5. Heat up a cast iron pan over medium heat, toss butter into the pan, and once melted pour the batter into the pan. Allow the batter to ever so slightly cook in the pan.

6. Place the peaches into the uncooked batter side and pour the juices over. Place the entire pan into the preheated oven.

7. Allow the cake to cook for 1 hour, at which point it can be removed. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then serve warm.

Enjoy!