(Berry) Cobbler

For years my family has been using this cobbler recipe which is pretty fabulous. Typically our crowd drinks tea after dinner so a good cake-y thing is a nice accompaniment. That's a word, you know..."cake-y thing." This one is super easy to make, really moist, and absolutely divine even if you use frozen fruit instead of ripe. I happened to have a bag of some frozen berry mix so I used that, but you can sub out anything you like. You could even use apples, but I think it's best with some sort of berry or stone fruit (think, peach or plum, or...both!). But my absolute favorite variation is strawberry rhubarb. So that's why my recipe and the pictures don't coincide.

Filling:

2 cups sliced rhubarb (1/2-inch thickness)
1 pint strawberries, cleaned, hulled, and sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Over medium high heat start cooking the fruits with the lemon juice. Mix together the cornstarch and sugar until all the lumps are worked out of the starch. If you don't do this, there will be icky specks of white all throughout your fruit and they neither taste nor look appetizing. Bring this to a simmer, stirring often. The fruit will start to break down and thicken up. Once you see this, turn off the heat and set aside to cool.

Cobbler:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Cut the butter into the flour until it's the consistency of a crumble

Add all the other dry ingredients (baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar)

Add the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla

Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan if you want a thicken cake, otherwise a 9x13 will work. I did not flour the pan below. So I shall reiterate: grease and flour your pan. Add about 2/3 of the cobbler mix to the bottom of the pan, then all the fruit mixture. Dot the remaining cobbler over the surface of the fruit. This doesn't have to completely cover the fruit - it's actually really pretty to have the fruit peeking out from underneath. I don't have a picture of this...probably because I was licking the spoon with remaining fruit mix at the time...my kitchen, my rules. Bake about 35 minutes for a 9x13 and 45 for a 9x9. The top will be slightly brown and the cake should be cooked through when tested with a toothpick.

Georgia Peach Cobbler

My boyfriend is in looove with Georgia peaches and I honestly didn't know why until his sister brought home a few the other day. Let me compare for you: the peaches we get in Michigan have a stringy texture with a watery flavor tinged with sweetness, but more of a fake sweetness. And so, we've created the idea of what a peach tastes like through the variety of artificial peach flavors we sample in things like ice cream and those weird gummy peach ring things.

A Georgia peach, however, is unlike any of this. It's texture was the first thing I noticed because it was almost creamy. It was less juicy than I imagined it would be - the flavor was just so concentrated. It was also heavy - hence the dense flavor as well. I'd urge you to compare one to what you normally consume and taste the difference. I myself still haven't decided which is "better" - just that there is definitely a difference between varieties. But Georgia peaches are a dream to cook with - see the following recipe.

Happily, I have been able to turn Weston on the idea of pie - but with these special peaches, I wanted to make something a little more special, so I made a cobbler-esque dish. I really like this recipe - I've been using it for the past 6 or 7 years and I have no idea where I found it - somewhere on the Internet for sure. But I've tweaked it so many times, it would be impossible to find it again at this point. So, thank you random website for your recipe base.

For the peach (or any stone-fruit) filling:

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

6 to 7 Georgia peaches

2 Tbs lemon juice

Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan . Then add the peaches and lemon juice and cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Turn off the heat and let stand covered.

For the cake:

3 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup cold butter, chopped

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix the flour, sugar, and powders and cut in the butter until it looks like this:

Then combine the rest of the ingredients and pour them into the flour mixture, mixing only to combine.

Layer 1/2 of the batter in a greased 9 x 13 inch pan.

Cover with the fruit mixture.
Dollop over the reserved batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 or 50 minutes, until the top is a golden brown

Tips from the Chef

You can use any fruit with this recipe and that's what makes it one of my fav's - sometimes I'll even just make the fruit part and put it in a pie crust because I love gooey pie fillings. Seriously, try it :)

I really like this recipe because of it's idea to layer the fruit over the cake and then dollop over bits of reserved dough. Seeing that fruit peek through makes for a very pleasing, homey-chic look. I like this without any sides like whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, but that's up to you and what your preferences are.

Enjoy!