Blackberry Cobbler

OK, OK..... one more post on blackberries and I promise I am done for the season! But you'll be thankful I did ... I promise! My friend Amanda sort of "egged me on" to add this and I said I would add it so here it is.... the world's easiest blackberry cobbler recipe! When you're in a hurry and you have fresh fruit handy, this has to be the quickest thing I've ever done ... not to mention the fact that everybody loves it. It goes great with vanilla ice cream, especially if it's home-made!




Blackberry Cobbler

For the blackberries:

• 2 cups fresh blackberries
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar

For the cobbler:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup milk

Macerate the blackberries in a bowl by "squashing" them slightly with a fork and adding the 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water. Stir and let them sit for 5 minutes (while you're assembling the cobbler).

In a preheated oven set to 350 degrees, place the stick of butter in a 1 1/2 quart baking pan. (I use an 8x8 square cake pan for this and it's perfect!) Put it in the oven for a couple of minutes while you're preparing the batter and let the butter melt completely.

Mix all of the dry COBBLER ingredients in a bowl. There's no need to sift the flour if you use a whisk to mix the dry ingredients. Add the milk to the dry ingredients and whisk to a pancake batter-like consistency. Don't overmix the batter or it will result in a heavy "cake". Remove the baking pan from the oven and simply pour the batter in the center of the pan directly onto the melted butter and let it spread out across the pan. DON'T MIX! The butter will keep the "cake" portion of the cobbler from sticking and the excess butter flavors the fruit beautifully.

Drop the macerated blackberries as evenly as possible across the top of the cobbler. Pop the baking pan into the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes until the butter and fruit are bubbly and the top of the cobbler is a beautiful golden brown.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or custard if you wish ... or just devour it "as is" while it's still warm!

Of course, here we go again with a "method" of cooking. So you have respberries, use them instead of blackberries! Or strawberries..... or blueberries..... or peaches..... or nectarines..... or gooseberries..... or almost any good, juicy fruit! The "cake" portion of the cobbler will always remain the same. Just make sure as you macerate the fruit, you squash it slightly to help release the juices from the fruit as the sugar will do the rest. It's fresh fruit time and we should eat seasonally... so I suggest trying theis cobbler all summer with every kind of fruit! As always, until next time, ciao!