Recipe: Blueberry Cobbler

The first blueberry cobbler I did this summer was completely made from our own blueberries. Of course that one was the best; not even the farmers market berries taste as good as ones you grow yourself. But this recipe is so good you could use storebought berries and it would still be delicious.

First, pick over the berries and remove stems. Then toss with flour, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice.

Give it a nice easy stir and set about making your biscuits. Into the food processor, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder:

Pulse to combine, then add butter and pulse until the butter is the size of fat peas.

Mix together milk, cream and vanilla:

Pour the flour mixture into a bowl.

Pour the milk in and, at first, mix with a fork. Then use your hands. It will be gooey:

Put the berries in buttered dish (I like a giant souffle dish, but it could be a shallower one). Then use your fingers to form egg-sized balls of biscuit dough and place them on top of the fruit:

Cover the whole top of the fruit. Cracks are OK. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, then allow to rest for 25. Serve with ice cream.

Berry Cobbler

This recipe is orignally from “In the Sweet Kitchen” by Regan Daley, and is meant to be a peach and mixed berry cobbler. I haven’t yet made it with peaches, but I’m sure it would be just as delicious.

4 to 6 cups blueberries, blackberries, black raspberries, huckleberries, etc.
OR a combination of 2 1/2 pounds of peaches, necatires or apricots along with 2 cups mixed berries
1/2 plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons cornstarch, dependng on the juiciness of the fruit
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Biscuit topping
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Additional butter for greasing the dish
Additional sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly butter the inside of a shallow 2-quart, preferably ceramic, baking dish and set aside. Wash and pat dry the peaches, then cut each one in half, discarding the stone. Cut the peach halves in 6 ot 8 pieces and place in a large bowl. Add the berries, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice and use a spatula to gently toss the ingredients together until the sugar and cornstarch are evenly distributed. Don’t be overly aggressive at this point or you will crush and bruise the fruit. Let the fruit sit while you prepare the biscuit mixture.

Into a large bowl, sift the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and stir with a fork to blend well. Use a pastry blender or two knives to cut the butter into the flour mixture utnil the largest bumps are about the size or fat peas. (Or combine the ingredients in a food processor and pulse once or twice to blend. Add the butter and pulse until the largest lumps are the size of fat peas. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and proceed with the recipe.) At this point, give the fruit one more gentle stir, then spoon it into the prepared baking dish, scraping the juices, sugar and starch fromt he bottom of the bowl over the fruit and spreading the filling evenly over the bottom of the dish.

Combine the milk, cream and vanilla and pour this mixture into the flour-butter mixture. Use the fork to stir for the first few strokes, then use your hands to gently rub the liquid into the crumble. The dough should be very wet and sticky. Pinch of egg-sized lumps of the gooey dough and drop these dollops onto the fruit, eventually covering most of the surface of the dish. A few little cracks between the biscuits is fine; the jewel-colored juices of the berries will bubble up and stain the white biscuits and look gorgeous. Sprinkle the top of the cobbler with the 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar.

Bake the cobbler for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the juices from the fruit are bubbling vigorously through the cracks between the biscuits and the biscuits are puffed and golden. Cool on a wire rack at least 25 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature, alone or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The cobbler should be eaten within 3 or 4 hours, but any leftovers can be refrigerated for 2 to 3 days.