I just realized that I’ve never posted about fruit cobbler before. This is weird because I do make a lot of cobbler because I often am trying to get rid of fruit. Or I’ll find that my mother has stashed fruit into the freezer. Or I’ll find that my mother was trying to corner the market on canned, sliced peaches. There are other things you can do with random fruit, but I like cobblers because they’re quick and easy to throw together and there’s just something welcoming about a warm dessert (with ice cream).
So, recently I needed a dessert and the original intention was to make a lemon cake or lemon bars (stupid lemon tree). Unfortunately, I didn’t manage my time well enough to make anything with all the lemons. It wasn’t so much the bake time that was getting me as it was the prep and assemble time. What do? Look in the freezer and see what random fruit you have and throw a cobbler together. Turns out, I had a pack of sweet cherries (pitted) and I used those to make a 9×9 cobbler.
Since a cobbler is something I normally just throw together, I’m not always very precise with measurements. But typically, my batter is 2-4 tbsp of butter that I melt in the baking dish in the oven while preheating (325degF). I mix a cup of flour, 2 tsp of baking powder, 0.25 tsp salt, and 0.25-0.5 cup of granulated sugar together in a separate bowl. To that, I add about 0.75 cup of milk (or if I’m feeling fancy, buttermilk) and 1 tsp of vanilla extract and mix into a smooth batter.
When the oven is preheated, I take the baking dish out and pour in the batter and whisk it around a little to incorporate the butter a little (small pools of butter are fine) and then dump the fruit right on top. It’s probably around 2 cups worth of fruit normally. If you’re using frozen, go directly from frozen. If you’re using fresh, you’ll probably want to cut the fruit into bite size pieces. Then you just throw everything in the oven for about an hour. I don’t think I’ve ever had poor results with this method.
I’ve made cobblers with blueberries (fresh, frozen), random mixed berries (frozen), peaches (fresh, frozen, canned), mango (frozen), apples (fresh, frozen, although I typically prefer to make apple crisp or pie with fresh apples), and cherries (frozen, canned). I may have tried it with other fruit too…but I don’t remember right now.
Sometimes I will double the batter because I have a lot of people say that the cake portion of the cobbler is their favorite part. I actually like the fruit part, and I’ve been known to jam waaaay too much fruit into a cobbler. You generally need to bake it longer if you stick in a lot of fruit as it would otherwise be too soggy.
Did I mention that cobbler is pretty good for breakfast? Maybe with some plain or vanilla yogurt in place of the ice cream?
Random moosages as I see fit. 