Easy Southern Peach Cobbler

This Southern peach cobbler recipe is just peachy: juicy, sweet peaches kissed with cinnamon, topped with a tender biscuit topping, baked until golden brown. This is much easier than other recipes because you don’t even have to peel the peaches. This cobbler bakes in under an hour, and is perfect served warm with vanilla ice cream. A tried and true Southern standout. 

No region of the country does homey, rustic, and deeply-satisfying food like the American South. From simple tomato sandwiches to this Southern peach cobbler recipe, these foods take the best of seasonal, good-quality ingredients and make them into something even more special, without much fuss.

I became familiar with a biscuit-topped cobbler while living in North Carolina. Southern cobblers generally avoid a cake topping, favoring a rustic, less-sweet biscuit topping or pie crust on top (such as Edna Lewis’s cobblers).

Why You’ll Love This Authentic Southern Peach Cobbler Recipe

First, the essentials you need to know:

• What It Is: Traditional Southern Drop-Biscuit Cobbler
• Prep Time: 20 mins | Bake Time: 50 mins | Total Time: 1 hr 10 mins
• Servings: 8 (one 9-inch cobbler)

This peach cobbler recipe comes from the old Southern tradition, going back to early British-American colonial food traditions that combined or “cobbled” together what was available for a simple dessert. It is:

• Easier to prepare than most peach cobblers: 1) A quick, drop-biscuit crust means no fuss of pie dough rolling or chiling; 2) you don’t even have to peel the peaches; 3) you can even mix the peach filling right in the pie pan.
• Perfect balance of flavors: The peaches are tossed in cinnamon sugar for just the right sweetness, balanced by the mild savory-sweet biscuit topping.
• Tested to perfection: I have made and tested this recipe multiple times, and used my professional pastry chef recipe analysis to do side-by-side tests of ingredient ratios and bake times. This is the best result.

With juicy, ripe peaches (from Georgia or South Carolina if you can find them), plus a tender biscuit topping, this recipe makes an incredible summer dessert or breakfast bake — especially when served warm, topped with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Start your oven. Let’s jump in.

This creamy Banana Pudding recipe, topped with fluffy meringue, is another homey Southern-inspired dessert recipe that is perfect for summer.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Exact quantities are available in the recipe card, below. For the peach filling, you will need:

• Fresh peaches: choose ripe peaches; they should be slightly soft and bruise-free, and not mushy
• Sugar: to sweeten the filling; I use white sugar, but you could use up to 50% light-brown sugar for an earthier, more caramel-note sweetness
• Ground cinnamon: this adds a nice aroma and enhances the flavors
• Lemon juice: a squeeze of fresh lemon juice (always use fresh) brightens the peach flavor
• All-purpose flour: to thicken the filling

For the biscuit topping, you will need:

• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Sugar (you can substitute half as light brown sugar if you’d like)
• Salt
• Butter (you’ll need 6 tbsp; less than one stick)
• Egg
• Milk

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Preheat the oven. Grease or butter a 9-inch pie plate or baking dish, and preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 2: Prepare the peaches and filling. Slice each of the fresh peaches around its equator. Remove the pit and cut the peaches into thick wedges. Add to a large mixing bowl, along with the sugar, cinnamon, flour, and lemon juice. Stir the mixture to combine, and set aside.

Step 3: Par-bake the filling. Pour the peach cobbler filling from the bowl into the pie shell and bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Pull the peaches from the oven.

Step 3: Make the biscuit topping. While the peaches bake, use the same mixing bowl to whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder until fully combined and aerated. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. Set aside.

Add the butter to the flour mixture and work it through with your fingers or a pastry blender until everything is combined into pea-sized, buttery crumbles. Add the milk and egg mixture, and stir with your fingers and knead very lightly until just combined into a sticky, shaggy mass.

Step 5: Add the biscuit and continue baking. Drop large pieces of biscuit all over the top of the peaches. Sprinkle with sugar. Return the whole thing to the oven and bake for an additional 30 to 40 minutes, until everything is a bubbling golden brown.

Step 5: Serve. Cool the cobbler for at least 20 minutes, until not hot to the touch. Serve warm, plain or with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

Once fully cooled, this cobbler will keep, loosely covered in the refrigerator, for up to three days, and freezes well. To reheat, place in a 350-degree F oven until warmed through.

Baker’s Note: You Do Not Have to Peel Peaches for Cobbler (or Pie)

You do not have to peel peaches for baked peach cobblers and pie. Leave those peaches unpeeled. Keeping those beautiful skins on gives the cooked cobbler a gorgeous, deep peachy-pink hue and even more depth of flavor. Plus, unlike other cobbler or pie fruit with tougher skins, like apples, peach skins melt away into the cobbler filling.

Unlike many peach pie or cobbler recipes, I do not peel the peaches. Ever. The unpeeled peaches, coupled with an easy drop biscuit crust, makes this just about the easiest peach cobbler recipe ever. Peach cobbler is my favorite dessert of summer, and maybe all year.

F.A.Q.s and Expert Tips

This easy peach cobbler recipe is easy to love. You’ll also like these American-inspired desserts:

• Caramel Apple Pie With Butter Crust
• Old-Fashioned Blueberry Hand Pies
• Rustic Blueberry Cobbler
• Peach Pound Cake

Join the Unpeeled Kitchen Community!

Have you tried this unpeeled Southern peach cobbler recipe? Leave a 5-star rating and review in the recipe card below—I love hearing how your summer bakes turn out! For more professional pastry tips, step-by-step guides, and seasonal recipes, subscribe to the weekly Unpeeled Journal newsletter.