cobbler

Sour Cherries are the Star of Cobbler Season

July 16, 2021 / / Uncategorized

I have finally found a recipe for cherry cobbler that works.  They’re somewhat easier to make than pie–less messy but thoroughly wonderful tasting with a rusticity that’s so pleasing.

Cobblers are quick to make, or “cobbled” together  in three basic ways. There’s the batter method where you melt the butter in a baking dish as the oven preheats; a milk and flour batter is poured in and then topped with the fruit of choice.  Some recipes call for boiling water, sugar and cornstarch mix poured over the fruit.

Cherry cobbler in pastry dough

cherry cobbler baked in pastry

The deep dish double-crust cobbler is basically a pie made in a 2+inch baking dish; sometimes you can do just as well with a single crust in the dish with only a top crust.  The double crust is beneficial because the bottom crust  absorbs some of the liquid. In fact in some cobbler recipes, strips of dough are simmered with the fruit filling, thus acting as a thickener for the filling. And finally there’s the biscuit topped cobbler, which seems to be the most popular.  I like them all.

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The Beloved Sour Cherry Works Beautifully in a Cobbler as Well as Pie

July 16, 2018 / / Baking & Desserts, Recipes

I love cobblers.  And this is the season to do them up right when you use all those luscious stone fruits and berries for fillings in summer; in the fall use apples and pears.

Cobblers are truly an old-fashioned American dessert creation.  The French have nothing like it except clafouti, which is more custardy than cobblery. The British love their crumbles and puddings.

But as a purely American invention cobblers are akin to be the lazy man’s or woman’s pie since they are often less complicated to prepare than pies.

There are several types of cobbler depending on the style of topping: pastry, biscuit, crumbles and batter puddings, the latter often being the most unusual.

I’ve written about cobblers often here. Just put “cobbler” in the Golden Dish search box and a whole host of cobbler recipes will come up.

Sour cherry cobbler

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The Essential Summer Cobbler

August 23, 2017 / / Baking & Desserts, Recipes

With our farmers’ markets going full force rippling with tomatoes, corn, berries, fruits and every kind of harvested vegetable able to grow well enough in our climate, I look specifically at what I can use to make this–the quintessential summer cobbler with fruit, berries or a mixture.

Defining what a cobbler is can be tricky business.  In strict culinary parlance, it’s basically stewed fruit topped with a kind of drop-biscuit dough and baked.

Two types of peach cobbler: crunchy (left) and classic

 

But what also doubles in cobbler-speak are preparations like pandowdy, grunt, slump and sonker, which is a deep-dish pie unique to North Carolina country cooking.

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It’s peach time and this is a fabulous old-fashioned cobbler

July 29, 2015 / / Baking & Desserts, Recipes

In other, warmer parts of the country peaches are a harbinger of summer when harvests are ready by mid-July.  In Maine, however, we’re a month behind, with only a few growers in the southern half of the state even growing the fruit. But our peaches can be nearly as good as the famed Georgia peach: sweet-tart, beautifully colored fruit that finds its way into pies, cakes, ice cream, cobblers and jams.

Peaches will be in markets soon

Peaches will be in markets soon

Kelly Orchards in Acton is highly revered for their peaches and one of the largest growers in the state. Foxes Ridge Farm is another peach orchard, also in Acton.   You’ll regularly find them starting in mid-August at the North Berwick, Kennebunk, Springvale and Sanford farmers’ markets.  (Note Foxes Ridge only attends the Kennebunk market). In Portland some vendors carry Kelly peaches such as Snell Family Farms and Uncle’s Farm Stand at the Wednesday and Saturday markets.

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