My neighbor asked me for my peach cobbler recipe and I told her I'd write it up. That was three weeks ago. I am writing it now, and I am running into a problem.

I keep having to cross things out.

Eloise's Peach Cobbler

For the fruit: 4-5 peaches, sliced ~~1/4 cup sugar~~ ~~Toss with sugar and let sit for 15 minutes~~

Actually wait. I should say here that I also add a small amount of brown sugar. About a tablespoon. Because the brown sugar caramelizes and adds a depth that plain white sugar doesn't, and once you've had peaches macerated with brown sugar you can't go back. So:

3 tablespoons white sugar, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, toss together, let sit 30 minutes (not 15, I lied, 30 is better, 15 was the original but I changed it after the third summer).

Also a squeeze of lemon juice. A small one. I started adding this in — I want to say 2018? It brightens the peach flavor and keeps it from being cloying.

Also a pinch of salt. I don't remember when I started doing this. It might have always been there and I forgot to write it down or it might be a recent addition. Either way, add a pinch of salt.

Also a whisper of vanilla. Half a teaspoon. This is new this year and I don't know yet if it will stay but it seems right.

~~Put peaches in a buttered 9x13 baking dish~~

Actually I stopped using a 9x13. I use a round baking dish now, the French one that's more like a tart pan but deeper. The round shape gives you better edge-to-center ratio when you fold the pastry.

Wait. I should explain the pastry.

For the topping: ~~1 cup flour~~ ~~1 cup sugar~~ ~~1 cup milk~~ ~~1/2 cup melted butter~~ ~~Mix together and pour over the peaches~~ ~~Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes~~

Okay so this is the original cobbler recipe that I was taught, and I no longer make this. I haven't made this in probably four years. I can't in good conscience write it down as my cobbler recipe because if you make it this way it will not be what I bring when I say I'm bringing cobbler, and you will be confused.

What I actually make now is a dough. A proper dough, with cold butter and flour and ice water and a little sugar and salt, worked together until it just barely comes together, then chilled for an hour.

I roll this dough out into a round — not a perfect round, an imperfect round, which is part of the appeal — and I put the peaches in the center, leaving a border of about two inches, and I fold that border up and over the peaches in rough pleats.

This is not a cobbler topping. This is pastry. I am aware of this.

~~Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes~~

I bake it at 400°F for 25-30 minutes. Higher heat, shorter time, because the pastry needs the blast of heat to puff and turn golden and develop those crispy folded edges that are the best part.

Also I brush the pastry with egg wash before it goes in. And scatter turbinado sugar over the top so it sparkles when it bakes.

Also I put it on a parchment-lined baking sheet, not in a baking dish. Because it's free-form. Because a baking dish implied walls and structure and the thing I make now has neither.

I just read back over what I've written and I want to acknowledge what has happened here.

My neighbor asked for my peach cobbler recipe. I sat down to write my peach cobbler recipe. What I have written is a recipe for a peach galette — free-form pastry, mounded filling, folded edges, parchment-lined baking sheet, 400°F.

This is not a cobbler. My sister-in-law Dana told me this directly, more than once. "That's a tart, Eloise." "That's a galette, Eloise." She was right both times.

Here is what I think happened: I started with a cobbler. The cobbler was good. I read somewhere that if you make the topping more like a shortbread — more butter, less milk — it gets crispier. I tried that. Then I read that a proper tart dough is different from a cobbler topping and would give a different texture, and I tried that. Then the dish was clearly not a cobbler and I started making it free-form on a baking sheet, which is a galette, and I kept calling it a cobbler because I couldn't quite admit that I had wandered so far from the original.

I never decided to stop making cobbler. I just kept adjusting until I was making something else.

What to actually tell my neighbor

I called her instead of writing it down. I said, "I have to be honest with you. I was going to send you a cobbler recipe but I don't make cobbler anymore."

She said, "What do you make?"

I said, "A galette."

She said, "Is that harder?"

I thought about it. "A little. The dough part takes practice. But once you have it it's actually pretty forgiving — you just pile the peaches in the middle and fold up the edges however they fall."

She said, "That actually sounds easier than cobbler."

I said, "The technique is different. But the idea is the same. Fruit in the middle, something pastry-like around it, bake until golden."

She said, "Just send me whatever you actually make."

So here it is. The real recipe, written honestly, without the crossed-out cobbler instructions. It's a Peach Galette. It is not a cobbler. It started as a cobbler and it has become something with a French name that I make on a baking sheet and serve with vanilla ice cream while it's still warm.

If you want a cobbler, I remember vaguely how to make one. But I'd have to look it up, because it's been a while, and honestly once you've had the galette you may not want to go back anyway.