Important Pages:

Peach Melba Special

Subject: Peach Melba Surprise (cobbler)
From: Nicki
Date: 3/24/2019, 5:08 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

On 3/24/2019 2:41 PM, Nicki wrote:

This is from one of those small photo/recipe books you found at the check-out stand 
in the 60’s and 70’s.  With Pillsbury Bake-Off winners, Desserts, etc.  Inside was 
a recipe for what I think was called Peach Melba Surprise.  But it could have been 
Cobbler instead of Surprise

It had frozen or canned peaches and raspberries (I think). There was cinnamon and 
definitely a little ginger in the fruit spices. It was topped by a shortbread biscuit 
drop crust sprinkled with granulated sugar.

I made this a lot in the late ‘60’s or 70’s.  I have lost the book and cannot find 
anything on the web like it.

Can you please help?

Thank  you,

Nicki

Hi Nicki,

The recipes found in those little supermarket check-out recipe booklets can be quite problematic. It's rare to find the recipes in them copied or scanned on the Internet.  It's rare to find the individual booklets for sale on the web, although I've seen boxes of old recipes from estate sales that included them. Even when someone posts a recipe from one of them on a blog or message board, they rarely give the source of the recipe.

I searched for any recipe with the name "Peach Melba Surprise" or "Peach Melba Cobbler," but nothing that I found matched your description.

However, Pillsbury has issued several full-sized cookbooks containing the winning recipes and top entries in their "Bake Offs".  I think that your recipe may be the "Peach Melba Special" that was included in  "Pillsbury’s Bake Off Dessert Cook Book, The Pillsbury Company, USA, 1968, 2nd printing, 1971." (You can purchase this cookbook at several used book sites on the web, including Ebay.)

See the quote from here about the recipe found in that cookbook: cooking.pfeist
"Peach Melba Special looks good: peaches and red raspberries with ginger topped with batter and baked."

Searching for "Peach Melba Special," I did find a recipe with that name at: Desserts.pdf

However, it does not mention "Pillsbury Bake Off", and it does not mention a biscuit topping, nor does it have cinnamon, but it does have ginger.  I posted it below. It does not give an oven temperature or cooking time.

Finally, I found a recipe called "Peach Melba Cobbler" that the author says she "adapted this from Peach Melba Special, from Pillsbury’s Dessert Cookbook from the 1970s." and "The ginger makes this special. I prefer to use the Biscuit Topping version-II with this recipe."  See the recipe at: Cats Kitchen
It would appear to fit your description, although it does not have cinnamon.

Phaed

http://bucyruswumc.com/PDF/Desserts.pdf

Peach Melba Special

Filling:
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp finely chopped preserved or ground ginger
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 pkgs (10 oz) frozen peaches, drain and reserve syrup
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen red raspberries, drain and reserve syrup
Sugar
Topping:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup water

Filling: In a sauce pan, combine sugar, cornstarch, ginger, butter and reserved
syrups. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Stir in fruit;
pour into 8" baking dish, pour spoonfuls of topping onto fruit mixture. Sprinkle
with sugar. Bake with oven meal. Serve warm, plain or with ice cream.

Topping: In mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in
butter until particles are fine. Add water; stir just until blended.