My Favorite Cobbler

I love to pick fresh fruit in the summertime!  This summer, we finally had a huge bounty from the blackberry bushes we planted a few years ago.  Thanks to the growing season this year - the early and excessive heat -  they weren't the tastiest berries to just eat straight off the bush, but they did make a delicious cobbler.  I have them already divided up into three-cup portions so I can thaw them and make them anytime.  I cannot wait to try it with the fresh peaches.

My mom always made the "cuppa cuppa cuppa" cobbler.  You may have heard of it - a cuppa flour, a cuppa sugar, a cuppa milk, a sticka butter, and a canna pie filling, or two cuppsa fruit.  This one is tasty, but I set out to find one that was less "bready" and had a crunchier crust, and one that also incorporated more fruit, since I always seem to have a ton.

I finally found a recipe somewhere that I thought would be a winner.  I would give props to the person/website if I could, but seeing that it's hastily written on a piece of paper and has been since last summer, I can't even begin to trace it's roots.  It was definitely a winner!  So, without further adieu, here you go!

SUMMER FRUIT COBBLER

3 cups fruit (whole berries or sliced/chunked peaches)

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1 stick butter

Place fruit in a mixing bowl, and sprinkle with 3/4 cup of sugar and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375.  Put stick of butter in 8x8 dish and pop it into the oven to let the butter melt. You may consider slicing the butter into at least 3 pieces, as you don't want to leave it in there long enough to let it brown.

Meanwhile, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and milk thoroughly.

Remove pan with melted butter and pour the flour mixture into the melted butter.

Pour berry and sugar mixture on top.*

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes to one hour, making sure it's nice and brown and crusty on the sides and at least lightly golden brown in the middle.  Serve warm or cool.

*It's very important that the fruit goes ON TOP of the flour mixture.  I had always thought that was a little weird and wondered about it, but I just always followed directions.  Last night, I found out why it goes that way.  For some reason, I chose a different baking dish than I usually use for my cobbler.  When I was putting the ingredients on my melted butter, I started worrying that the dish wasn't big enough.  I went ahead and dumped the berries on, and at that point, I realized that there was no way that dish was going to work.  I pulled out another one and just dumped the whole mixture into it, since I couldn't do much else at that point. This put the berries basically underneath the dough.  I popped it into the oven.  I checked on it after 30 minutes and found the dough was bubbling up over the sides and spilling out onto the bottom of my oven.  Yay.  It was still tasty, but it was missing some crust (my favorite part), so I was bummed.  Not quite as bummed as I was at the sight of my nasty oven, which I will not clean until it gets cold because it will heat up to my kitchen to hell-like temps.  

So, now you are a little smarter thanks to my mistake.  :)