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Prep time
15 minutes
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Cook time
1 hour 10 minutes
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Makes
1 (9-inch) cobbler
Author Notes
A cobbler is not the same as a crisp, crumble, buckle, betty, or grunt. It’s a fruit-based dessert topped with cookie, biscuit, or cake batter, arranged and baked in a way that resembles cobblestones. (Peek our explainer on the differences here.)
All-purpose flour makes for a biscuit that’s sturdy enough to stamp into clean-sided rounds, but tender enough to break apart with a spoon. Work the shaggy dough with a light touch and keep the rounds in the freezer to ensure the finished biscuits are as flaky as can be. Cultured butter has a tangy, almost cheesy flavor that gives the sugary biscuits and berries a much-welcome backbone. If all you have is plain and unsalted though, your biscuits will be very much OK.
The filling, as is, is not too sugary, allowing the berries’ natural sweet-tartness to shine through. If you taste your berries and find them not-so-flavorful, bump up the sugar in the filling by 1 to 2 tablespoons. As for frozen versus fresh berries—go for what makes sense seasonally and economically. Fresh and out-of-season berries will be more expensive (and worse, mushy or off-tasting) than those frozen at peak ripeness. Serve with a globe—or two!—of vanilla ice cream for dessert, or with a dollop of yogurt for breakfast. —Coral Lee
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Ingredients
- Biscuit Cobblestones
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2 cups
(256 grams) all-purpose flour
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3 tablespoons
granulated sugar
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1 tablespoon
baking powder
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2 teaspoons
finely grated lemon or lime zest (from 1 medium lemon, or 2 to 3 limes)
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1
stick (113 grams) cold cultured unsalted butter, cut to ½-inch pieces
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1 1/4 cups
(300 grams) heavy cream, plus more for brushing
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1 teaspoon
kosher salt
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2 tablespoons
(or more) turbinado sugar
- Filling
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1 1/2 pounds
blackberries, fresh or frozen
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3 tablespoons
granulated sugar
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2 tablespoons
fresh lemon or lime juice (from ½ a medium lemon, or 1 lime)
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1 tablespoon
plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
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1 teaspoon
Luxardo or almond extract
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1 teaspoon
pure vanilla extract
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1/4 teaspoon
kosher salt
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1/4 teaspoon
ground cardamom or cinnamon
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1/8 teaspoon
rose or orange flower water (optional)
Directions
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Heat the oven to 400°F.
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In a large bowl, using a fork, stir the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and zest. Plop in the butter pieces and, working quickly with your hands, toss the pieces in the flour and smush each into a thin chip. Add the cream and salt and bring together the dough into a shaggy mass with a flexible bowl scraper. Cut into quarters and stack the pieces atop each other. Press down to flatten, roll to a ¼-inch thickness, and stamp out circles using a 1-inch round cutter. Freeze the circles while you prepare the filling.
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In a large bowl, combine all of the filling ingredients, toss to coat well, then transfer to a 9-inch cast-iron skillet. Level out the fruit, then top with the frozen biscuit rounds, nestling them together like cobblestones. Brush each biscuit with a thin wash of the cream and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar.
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Place the skillet on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue to bake for about 1 hour longer, until golden brown and burbling. Let cool slightly before serving.
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