All American Desserts

During the week of the 4th of July, we were visited by some very special guests, Leah and Cindy, Nelson's sister and mom (in town from San Diego and Maryville, MO respectively!). And while the heat kept us from enjoying the outdoors for a few days, we didn't let it stop us from tackling a jam-packed day of MIHM activities. Welcome to special guest/4th of July holiday edition of MIHM! 

Thanks to ideas from our new mother-daughter team, we decided to make a peach cobbler to serve for dessert on the 4th. My mom also found a recipe for homemade ice cream, so we planned to serve vanilla ice cream on the side. Here's the recipe to the cobbler. Our variations included our own self-rising flour (after a quick google search on how to do so) and fresh peaches instead of canned peaches (a tasty decision!).

After a field trip to the grocery store, we had all the ingredients needed:

Fresh peaches, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and milk. 

Because there were four of us packed into my small kitchen, we divided the tasks and got to work! Cindy peeled the peaches and then my mom sliced them.

Leah was working on the batter.

And then I added sugar to the peaches and let them boil and then simmer on the stove for 10 minutes.

After melting butter in a 9x13 glass dish, we added the batter first. Then we evenly spooned the peaches on top of the batter. This might seem backwards, but the batter is meant to rise up through the peaches as it bakes.

We placed the cobbler in the oven and baked it for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. After it was fully baked, we let it cool down, and covered it with foil until we were ready to serve and eat. 

While the cobbler was baking, we whipped up an easy recipe for homemade ice cream. For the ice cream, we just had to combine half & half, heavy whipping cream, sugar and vanilla extract together. 

After whisking the ingredients together, we needed to seal and refrigerate the ice cream mixture until we were ready to make it in the Kitchen Aid mixer. 

We planned to spend the day at my parents, relaxing by the pool, snacking in the air conditioned house and lighting fireworks in the street once it was dark. So, our guest bloggers helped me pack up the cobbler, and we brought it over to my parents along with the ice cream mixture. 

After a great BBQ meal, it was time for dessert. We added the liquid ice cream into the special frozen ice cream maker bowl and mixed it on level 2 for 20 minutes. 

Unfortunately (and we aren't sure why) our ice cream never thickened like it was supposed to. While it did get cold and creamy, after about 25 minutes it was more milkshake than ice cream. We didn't let that stop us. We ladled it over the cobbler anyway!

One serving of peach cobbler.

Peach cobbler, vanilla "milkshake" dessert is served! 

Despite the ice cream mishap, the dessert was delectable. The peach cobbler was cooked to perfection with the peaches soft and sweet, and the batter was doughy and delicious. And although the ice cream was milkshake consistency, it was SO tasty. Very vanilla-y and the perfect compliment to the cobbler. 

The Girls Team, our mother-daughter guest team Leah, Cindy, and everyone else all loved the dessert. We all had plenty of ideas about other types of cobblers we could make using different fresh fruits like berries or apples. It was the perfect ending to a great 4th of July spent relaxing with family.

Thanks to our guest team, Leah and Cindy. We hope to host you for MIHM again soon!