Peach Cobbler Bourbon Slush

Peaches and Bourbon - original watercolor painting by the Cocktail Artist
During the summer the farm market serves as a wonderful inspiration for our art and our cocktails. Right now peaches are coming into season here. Peaches can be either clingstones or freestones, depending on whether or not the fruit sticks to the stone. This is not obvious until you bring them home and try to cut them up, and (in the case of clingstone peaches) create a huge mess. There was no mistaking that the peaches we just bought are clingstones since our attempt to make nice slices for a cobbler resulted in a bunch of (visually unappealing) peach blobs. Well, we're not about to let this fresh fruit go to waste. A Bellini would be the obvious way to use the peach pulp in a cocktail (and certainly not a bad way to go), but we thought we would try for a cocktail version of peach cobbler.

We came across a recipe for a Peach, Ginger and Bourbon frozen cocktail in Bon Appetit magazine a couple of years ago. We need to give them credit as the inspiration for our recipe, but we've made quite a few changes. When we make peach cobbler we use cardamon, brown sugar, and ginger - so those are the flavors we've added to this cocktail. They also work really well with bourbon, and here we used a wonderful Virginia Bourbon from A. Smith Bowman Distillery that a friend gave us as a gift. Perhaps this bourbon is a bit "too good" for a cocktail with so many other ingredients, but we do want to taste the liquor in our cocktails, and this one comes through beautifully. You could always make a "mocktail" version of this recipe by eliminating the bourbon (maybe we'll have to try that sometime) or use any other bourbon you like.

This recipe makes two large (12 ounce) drinks or three regular (8 ounce) cocktails. There are a number of steps involved in creating the cocktail, but most of it can be done ahead (and in the end it's completely worth it!).


Peach Cobbler Bourbon Slush

8 ounces (by weight) frozen fresh peach slices (about 2 cups)
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
6 ounces bourbon
1 1/2 ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 ounces brown sugar simple syrup (see recipe below)
2 dashes cardamon bitters
1 cup (or less) ice cubes

Cut and peel fresh peaches and place them on a jellyroll pan lined with parchment paper. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for several hours. In order to get the freshest taste from the peaches, prepare and freeze them only a few hours before you plan to make the cocktail.

Blend all ingredients in a blender, and pour into Collins glasses or mason jars. Garnish with a peach or a lemon wedge.

Recipe makes 2 - 12 ounce cocktails or 3 - 8 ounce.

Fresh peaches from the farm market and Virginia whiskey - the inspiration for our cocktail and original art

Brown Sugar Simple Syrup

Put one cup light brown sugar and one cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a low boil, remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Funnel syrup into a bottle and refrigerate. Syrup keeps for 2 to 3 weeks refrigerated.

A preliminary sketch for the watercolor painting





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