Make this easy peach cobbler recipe in the slow cooker for a better version of the classic peach cobbler dump cake, using fresh peaches and homemade yellow cake mix.
When I think back to the days before we ate real food, there were a lot of “classics,” like Little Debbie Fudge Brownies and Hot Pockets.
Recreating those classics and making them with real food (Black Bean Brownies and Homemade Pizza Pockets, respectively) brings immense satisfaction.
I want my kids to enjoy some of my favorite foods growing up, and that’s why I recreated the classic peach cobbler dump cake into a real food slow cooker peach cobbler!
SLOW COOKER PEACH COBBLER RECIPE
I picked up some “seconds” peaches from a local farmers market and set out to re-create this dessert.
This new slow cooker peach cobbler tastes just like the original old fashioned peach cobbler recipe, complete with the nooks and crannies of uncooked cake mix and caramelized peaches.
My kids tasted this and immediately asked for seconds. My daughter said to me, “Mom? Can I have this for breakfast?”
That’s the sign that we’ve made a winner!
I found a way to remake each individual component of the classic peach cobbler with cake mix in a way that fits with our real food lifestyle.
- This simple peach cobbler recipe uses fresh peaches in their own juices instead of canned peaches in heavy syrup
- And it uses Homemade Yellow Cake Mix instead of boxed cake mix.
- Plus, we’re making it in the slow cooker, so the kitchen stays cool in the summer!
INGREDIENTS FOR EASY PEACH COBBLER RECIPE
Even with all the homemade components, this is still such an easy peach cobbler recipe! Here’s what you need:
- Ripe Juicy Peaches. These will get chopped and sprinkled with sugar to help them release their natural juices (you don’t need to peel them first). Each peach gives you about 1 cup of diced peaches.
- Sugar. For both sprinkling the peaches and as part of the cobbler topping. You can use white sugar, coconut sugar, or whatever type works for you.
- Lemon Juice. This helps keep the fruit from oxidizing and turning brown while it sits overnight.
- All-Purpose Flour. The main component in the homemade cake mix that we’re using for the topping. Gluten-free flour works too!
- Baking Powder. To keep the cobbler light and fluffy.
- Salt. Salt enhances the other flavors.
- Cinnamon. Cinnamon brings out the sweetness of the peaches. You can add additional spices like nutmeg or ginger if you like, but they’re not necessary.
- Cold Butter. Cubed butter gets added to the top of everything and melts into the yummy cobbler layer of the dessert.
PEACH COBBLER USING CANNED PEACHES VS. FRESH
Macerated Peaches with Juice. The processed version of this peach cobbler dump cake uses canned peaches, which come canned in syrup. Since we don’t have that syrup, we’re going to create our own by letting the fruit and sugar sit overnight. This natural peach juice makes the best slow cooker peach cobbler you’ve ever had!
Frozen Peaches. You can use frozen sweet peaches for this slow cooker peach cobbler recipe if that is what you have on hand. Just be sure that you allow the peaches to thaw before you make the cobbler. They’ll release some of their juices naturally as they thaw.
Peach Cobbler Using Canned Peaches. You can also use canned sliced peaches for peach cobbler. Look for those in 100% juice rather than heavy syrup. You’ll need 2 cans for this peach cobbler recipe.
HOW TO MAKE PEACH COBBLER IN THE SLOW COOKER
Step 1. Quarter the peaches. Slice each quarter into thirds and then cut the slices in half. You should end up with about 24 small pieces from each peach.
Step 2. Place the peaches in a medium-sized bowl. Add ¼ cup of sugar and lemon juice and stir well. Place the bowl in the fridge and allow it to sit overnight, stirring occasionally. This process releases the natural juices from the peaches.
Step 3. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
Step 4. When you are ready to make the cobbler, drain the juices from the peaches into another bowl and set aside.
Step 5. Layer the peaches and the dry mix evenly on the bottom of the slow cooker.
Step 6. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Drizzle the peach juices on top of the dry mix. Place the cubed butter evenly on top of everything.
Step 7. Cook on low for 2 hours and serve warm.
I made this recipe in my 6-quart slow cooker, and the thickness of the peaches and the dough was just right. You could make this in a 4-quart slow cooker, but I don’t recommend using a smaller slow cooker unless you cut the recipe in half.
Store leftover peach cobbler in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. It never lasts that long at my house!
QUICK PEACH COBBLER RECIPE IN THE INSTANT POT
Layer the ingredients in the same way that you would for a slow cooker. Don’t forget the peach juices. They’ll serve as your liquid in the Instant Pot (remember that the Instant Pot needs at least a cup of liquid inside to come to pressure).
Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes, followed by a natural pressure release for 10 minutes before venting and opening the cover. Allow your peach cobbler to set for 5 minutes to cool before serving.
MACRO-FRIENDLY PEACH COBBLER
Real life includes treats, and you can fit them into a balanced day. I do have a few tips to make that work for you, whatever your food goals look like in this season.
Enjoy fruit desserts. Because fruit is naturally sweet, you won’t need as much (or any) added sugars.
Make real-food versions of your favorites, like this homemade peach cobbler recipe. When you make it from scratch, you control the ingredients and how much of each you use. This peach cobbler isn’t overly sweet and offers the right ratio of cobbler to fresh fruit. Plus, it only has ¾ cup of sugar TOTAL (and you can even lower that depending on your tastes).
Accurately track your portion. Peach cobbler is super yummy, and it’s easy to stand over the slow cooker with a spoon and just dig in. While that might be tempting, scoop out your portion into a bowl so you know how much you’re actually eating.
Keep your goals on track for the day as a whole. If you’re going to include a treat, also include plenty of produce and lean protein, and adjust your meals so that your macros for the day make sense.
COBBLER RECIPES PEACH FAQS
What do I serve slow cooker peach cobbler with?
I think this recipe would be absolutely delicious served warm with my Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream!
What is the difference between a peach cobbler and a crumble?
A cobbler has more of a biscuit or cake dough as the topping, while a crumble has a fruit layer topped with a streusel mixture of flour, sugar, and butter. This slow cooker peach dessert is a cobbler.
Can I make cobbler recipes peach or apple? What about blueberry?
Yes, you can switch the fruit in this recipe. Make apple cobbler by slicing and macerating apples using the same method to release their juices. For a blueberry version, check out my Slow Cooker Blueberry Cobbler.
MORE EASY SUMMER DESSERTS WITH FRUIT
- Slow Cooker Blueberry Cobbler
- Crock Pot Poached Pears
- Strawberry Pretzel Salad
- Healthy Fruit Pizza
- Strawberry Poke Cake
- Cheesecake Baked Apples
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Slow Cooker Peach Cobbler
Make this easy peach cobbler recipe in the slow cooker for a better version of the classic peach cobbler dump cake, using fresh peaches and homemade yellow cake mix.
- Prep Time: 8 hours
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Total Time: 10 hours
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 4 ripe peaches (use 5 if they’re on the smaller side, or if you like the cobbler extra peachy) (700g)
- ¼ cup sugar (50g)
- 1 tsp lemon juice (5g)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (125g)
- ½ cup sugar (100g)
- 1 ¾ tsp baking powder (7g)
- ½ tsp salt (3g)
- ½ tsp cinnamon (1g)
- 4 Tbsp cold butter, cubed (56g)
Instructions
- Quarter the peaches. Slice each quarter into thirds and then cut the slices in half. Per whole peach, you should have 12 slices of peaches, halved.
- Place the peaches in a medium sized bowl. Add ¼ cup sugar and lemon juice and stir well. Place the bowl in the fridge and allow to sit overnight, stirring occasionally. This process releases the natural juices from the peaches.
- Meanwhile, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
- When you are ready to make the cobbler, drain the juices from the peaches into another bowl and set aside.
- Layer the peaches evenly on the bottom of a slow cooker. Layer the dry mix evenly on top of the peaches.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon. Drizzle the peach juices on top of the dry mix. Place the cubed butter evenly on top of everything.
- Cook on low for 2 hours and serve warm.
Notes
- I made this recipe in my 6-quart slow cooker, and the thickness of the peaches and the dough was just right. You could make this in a 4-quart slow cooker, but I don’t recommend using a smaller slow cooker unless you cut the recipe in half.
- Store leftover peach cobbler in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. It never lasts that long at my house!
Is it 1/4 cup sugar or 3/4 cup?
Per the instructions, you need 1/4 cup sugar to macerate the peaches overnight. Then you need 3/4 cup for the cobbler.
Ooooh! Sounds amazing! How many people does this serve? I’m planning on making it with the gluten free flour. Thanks so much for a great recipe for summertime!
Well, I could eat this all by myself, but it really should serve min 6-8 as a dessert portion. 🙂
Ok. Thanks. Another question for you: do you think it would be ok to double this recipe and would amount of cooking time and temp be the same?
You’re welcome! I haven’t doubled this before, but my guess is that the cooking time and temp would be about the same. You MAY need additional cooking time, but watch carefully because the sugars will caramelize and burn if it’s cooking for too long.
About how many cups of peaches would you say 12 peaches makes? My girlfriend brought me about 2-3 cups frozen in ziploc bags and I have everything else to make this.
I’d say one average peach is just over one cup, diced.
I had some completely out of season, texture challenged, flavorless peaches that someone thoughtfully bought me as a last hurrah of summer. In October. =) I needed to find a way to make them edible. I tried your recipe, and even using the most unremarkable peaches, it was absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing!
Oh happy day Sam! I’m so glad you found a use for those peaches. 🙂
Dumb question maybe….How well would apples work in this recipe? I’ve got about 60 of them sitting on my counter from an orchard trip.
Not dumb at all! I think apples would be pretty good!
If I use fresh apples, should I still mix them with sugar and lemon juice and let them sit overnight?
Yes, this is to pull the juices from the fruit. The “processed” version includes using canned peaches, which come canned in syrup. Since we don’t have that syrup, we create our own by letting the fruit + sugar sit overnight.
This looks so good and I grew up with “dump cakes” so I appreciate the real food version. I got to this recipe via a link on the yellow cake mix recipe. It looks like the “cake mix” ingredients here are about half of your yellow cake mix (which I have 3 jars of in my pantry). I’m thinking I’ll just shake up a jar (to combine ingredients) and use half in place if the four, sugar, baking powder & salt?
You got it Tess! The homemade yellow cake was actually created FOR this dump cake, so you can definitely use it in place of the items you mentioned. Just add cinnamon, peaches and butter and you’re good to go!
Can you use almond flour?
I never come back and comment but this was delicious! I think I’ll experiment with more than one layer of peaches and mix because I need there to be more. 😃 The only bad thing is that I’ll probably finish it off very quickly because it is so yummy!
I have a question about the directions. After you layer everything and place the cubed butter evenly on top of the juices, it says “and mix”. Do you really mix it? Seems like it wouldn’t matter how you put things in if you were going to mix it in the end anyway.
Sorry if it’s a dumb question. I’ve never made anything like this and didn’t want to screw it up.
Thanks!
Hi Lisa! It’s actually, “place butter on top of peaches and mix,” not “… on top of peaches, and mix.” So the “mix” is what’s in the slow cooker; it’s not a direction TO mix. Sorry for the confusion!
This is similar to what my family called “Lazy Man’s Pie” when I was growing up, and still my own family’s favorite. In a nutshell, you melt butter in a pan in the oven, mix 1 cup each of flour, sugar and milk to make a batter, pour it over the melted butter, top with a drained can of peaches, then bake. I’ve thought about using fresh peaches a few times, but wasn’t sure how to re-create the juicy quality of the canned peaches. I LOVE the idea of macerating them–why didn’t I think of that sooner? And your method is not only simpler, it uses less sugar AND it can be done in the slow cooker!! Definitely giving this a try!!
Lori, that also sounds delicious! How much butter and what size of canned peaches? How long do you bake and at what temperature? Thank you!
Tiffany! I made this dessert last night with bated breath. 🙂 We have several peach trees on our property and so over the years I’ve cooked and perfected my family’s favorite peach cobbler that happens to have lots and lots of sugar! I wondered if I could get away with trying a new recipe with less sugar, plus the crockpot was so tempting (it was 108 outside yesterday). Well, it was a hit! My family devoured it and my kitchen stayed cool(er). 🙂 How exciting to have a recipe very similar to our original favorite but a little more healthy. I have a feeling I will be sending the kids out to pick more peaches very soon for another cobbler. Thank you!!!
Oh my – you’re SO welcome Heather! I’m honored that you compared my recipe to your family favorite peach cobbler (those are big shoes to fill!), and even more excited that they loved it! Cheers to peaches!!
This sounds amazing. Can you take the yellow cake mix part of the recipe and actually make it into a cake? If so, what would you add and how much? Thanks!!
Yes! I just shared that recipe a couple days ago: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/2016/06/homemade-yellow-cake-mix/
I love fruit desserts, but don’t like turning on the oven in the summer, so I’m definitely going to give this a try. Don’t be alarmed, but I may top it with a little vanilla ice cream.. 🙂
Ooh – can I come over and join you! 🙂 A la mode sounds wonderful!