Outdoor Cooking USA - Day 2, Georgia

       There is nothing like a homemade dutch-oven cobbler made with fresh hand-picked Georgia Peaches. Today, over 40 different varieties of peaches are grown statewide. Each year, Georgia produces over 130 million pounds of peaches. History shares that it was the Franciscan monks who introduced peaches to St. Simons and Cumberland islands along Georgia's coast in 1571. By the mid-1700s peaches and plums were cultivated by the Cherokee Indians. Raphael Moses, a planter and Confederate officer from Columbus, was said to be among the first settlers to market peaches within Georgia's boarders in 1851 and he is the one credited with being the first to ship and sell peaches successfully outside of the Southern States. His unique method of shipping peaches in champagne baskets, rather than in pulverized charcoal, helped to preserve the flavor of the fruit and contributed to his success.

Peach Cobbler

Ingredients:
Dutch oven (any size, the bigger the group the larger the dutch oven)
15-20 Charcoal coals
Tin or aluminum foil (for easy clean-up) or you can rub the inside of the dutch-oven with oil
1 Pint can of sliced peaches
1 Box of Yellow or vanilla Cake Mix
2 Sticks of butter
1/4 Cup sugar
1 Tbsp Cinnamon


         Light a small pile of charcoal, about 15-20 coals. Cover inside of dutch oven with tinfoil or grease the inside really really good. Wait until the coals become hot and grayish-white.
        Next mix the cobbler by Pouring one large can of your favorite fruit (e.g. peach...) into the dutch oven. If you are using fresh fruit you will need to add 1 cup of water or fruit juice like peach, apple or white grape juice. You can make this cobbler out of any canned or fresh fruits. Pie fillings are a little harder to work with, simple because they do not have enough liquid base.
Mix together a box of  Cake Mix, sugar and cinnamon,  and pour over the peaches. Add two sticks of butter, cut into small pieces
        Place dutch oven over coals, saving 7 or 8 to put on top. Cooking should take around 30 Minutes to 1 Hour depending on number of coals used. The cobbler is done when the cake mix has bubbled to the top and starts to become crusty. Take off coals and let cool for 15 Minutes with oven top off. Serve with homemade Ice Cream. And for easy clean up... Carefully remove empty tin foil from dutch oven and wipe out all excess sugars.