Berry Cobbler

Last summer and fall, I can’t even begin to tell y’all how many requests we got for cobblers. I’m not sure if cobblers are largely a regional dessert or something, but aside from the traditional Dutch oven “cobbler” where you dump a box of cake mix, a can of fruit, and a can of Sprite into the Dutch oven and wait 30 minutes until it’s Business Time, I hadn’t eaten much cobbler. But I figure it’s full of things I like, so how could I go wrong?

Last week when we were both in Seattle with our families, we got our kids and husbands together for the very first ever Our Best Bites family barbecue. We were pretty excited that our boys became instantaneous BFFs/explorers/Jedi Knights and that our 3-year-olds spent a great deal of time talking to each other without being interrupted and corrected by their older siblings (plus, I have reason to believe that they may be betrothed).

Anyway, Sara made some amazing steaks and I brought this cobbler that I literally kind of made up as I went along at my in-laws’ house. Cream? Good. More cream? Better. Lemon zest? Why not? It was truly a kitchen experiment that went pretty darn well. It would also make an awesome Father’s Day dessert (hint hint!)

So first, preheat your oven to 350. Grease a 9×13″ pan and set aside.

For the crust, you’ll need flour, salt, baking powder, sugar,

eggs, cream, and butter. You can also add the zest of 1 lemon or orange if you want. By the way, that whole list was pretty much a list for diet disaster.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and citrus zest (if using). Then take your cold butter and a cheese grater…

and grate that sucker. Look how pretty!

Gently fold the butter into the flour mixture so it is light and crumbly.

Crack open two eggs…

and give them a whisk.  Add them to the flour/butter mixture and stir until just combined. Then add the cream and mix everything together until you form a wet dough.

Lightly press about 1 1/2 c. of the dough into the bottom of the pan and set it aside.

Now, take about 4 cups of berries. I used a triple berry mix and while it was good, I think next time I’ll stick to either blueberries, blackberries, or a combination of both. But this mix had raspberries in it and I’m not crazy about raspberries in baked goods (I’m a freak, I know).

Toss the berries with 1/2 c. brown sugar…

and spread the berries over the “crust.” Drop the remaining dough over the berries and set aside.

Now…I’m using the streusel topping from our blueberry muffins, so if you like that, than I’m willing to bet my cat you’ll like it here, too!

Mix together 1/2 c. sugar, 1/4 c. + 1 Tbsp. flour, and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Cut in 3 Tbsp. of butter (or hey, if you’re on a grating kick, you could measure out 3 Tbsp. of butter and then grate that, too!) until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle it over the dough-topped berries

and then pop the whole pan into the oven. Bake it for 45-55 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the dough is cooked through.

Serve warm with sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.