This story is part of On Repeat, a series in which we ask top chefs, cookbook authors, and other famous foodies about the dishes they just can’t quit.
When we asked Southern food maven and author of the Substack Between the Layers what dish she makes On Repeat, she pointed us to her long-treasured take on peach pie, Ella’s peach pie/cobbler. “My mother got the recipe from her good friend Ella Beesley—they played bridge together,” says Byrn, whose 16th cookbook, Baking in the American South, is out in September. “We’ve always liked it because it’s very forgiving.”
Why I love it
“I love it because it’s versatile. You can use pretty much any soft fruit, and the crust can be homemade, refrigerated, or frozen—it’s really up to you. You can use peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, any of the berries. And a combination is beautiful, and it tastes nice, especially if your peaches are not the best peaches or if they’re not as sweet as you’d like them to be. By throwing in a handful of raspberries or blueberries, you really pick up the flavor and you add all that color.
“This pie is going to be very juicy when it comes out of the oven. If you’re set on pie, then you need to let it rest for a good hour when it comes out—the flour or cornstarch in the filling will thicken up the juices, and it’s going to slice more nicely. But if you love cobbler, you don’t have to wait an hour. It comes out of the oven and you just start dishing it into bowls and serve it with ice cream.”
What I’ve changed
“My mother first made pie crust with vegetable shortening. Traditionally, people did it with shortening quite a lot. Really, for recipes like this pie, it’s perfect. Even if you aren’t vegan and you are accustomed to a buttery pie crust, I feel like you don’t always need the butter, because whatever is going inside the pie has so much flavor.
“And you can use plant butter. I have tried Country Crock—they have the avocado and the original, and I’ve used both of those in baking. The consistency is looser than regular butter, so I’d cut it into little cubes and freeze it first—make sure it’s really cold—so when you’re blending everything together with your hands or a food processor, those cold cubes are going to make a flakier pie crust.”
What else I’m into right now
Hyper-local produce. I have a massive vegetable garden, so we don’t buy a lot of veg in the summer. But if we do, I buy local and organic.
Leftovers. We are careful in our empty-nesting house to not waste food. I repurpose leftovers into soups and pasta sauces. Or we freeze leftovers to reheat later in the month. We eat mostly at home to reduce restaurant meals and all the plasticware that comes with takeout.
Good ol’ Ball jars. I store most foods in the fridge in glass containers. I am a longtime fan of Ball jars to organize dry ingredients in the pantry, store my own jams, and freeze soup.