Fruit and berry Cobbler

If you take baking, summer usually is full with various galettes, while autumn brings those cozy and flavourful types of cakes, like crumbles, crisps and cobblers. These three have a lot in common (e.g., all of them are baked desserts of fresh fruit and/ or berries topped with some kind of pastry. The fruit juices bubble up into the pastry as it bakes, keeping the filling juicy and extra flavourful) but still have slight differences and here what they are: crumbles and crisps have a streusel-like topping, crisps would contain oats and crumbles would not.

Cobblers, on the other hand, have a biscuit-like topping on the fresh fruit. The biscuits are usually dropped onto the fruit in small rounds, giving it the appearance of a cobbled road and hence the name.

It’s really easy to make a cobbler. You may use any fruit and/ or berries you like and get a delicious treat inside half an hour.

My observation and recommendation is to add any sour compound such as Granny Smith apples, plums or berries such as black currants to make the cobbler even tastier and richer in taste.

The recipe serves 4-5.

The recipe adapted from “Seasons” book by Donna Hay

Filling:

• 1 medium apple, peeled, cored and cubed
• 1 medium pear, peeled, cored and cubed
• 1/2 c berries, fresh or frozen (I used blackberries)
• 40 g/ 3 T caster sugar
• 1 T lemon juice
• 25 ml/ 1 T + 2 t water
• 1/2 vanilla pod (seeds scraped, pod reserved) or 1 t vanilla essence/ vanilla bean paste
• 1 T icing sugar, for dusting
• ice cream, for serving (optional)

Heat the oven to 355ºF/ 180ºC.

Place the fruit and berries into a medium saucepan, add sugar, lemon juice, water and vanilla seeds and pod. Set over medium heat, bring to the boil and cook for 5-7 min., shaking the pan occassionaly, until the fruit is just tender and the liquid is syrupy. Remove from the heat, discard pod.

Transfer the contents of the saucepan to a 3-cup/ 750 ml capacity ovenproof dish.

Cobbler:

• 75 g/ 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 10 g caster sugar
• 10 g shredded coconut
• 10 g rolled oats
• 50 g unsalted butter, chopped
• 40 ml milk
• 1/2 t vanilla essence

Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, shredded coconut, oats and butter in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Gradually add the milk and vanilla essence and process until the dough forms a ball.

It’s also easy to make the dough by hand mixing the dough with a spoon or rub with your fingertips.

Break small pieces of dough, lightly flatten them and arrange over the filling.

Bake in the heated oven for 20-30 min. or until the dough is cooked.

Remove the dish from the oven, let the cobbler cool slightly. Serve warm with icecream, if desired. Dust the cobbler with the icing sugar before serving.