I'm off to Gencon next weekend. And an infinitely customizable cobbler recipe you can make with whatever fruit you have lying around.
does what it says on the tin
I will be at Gencon next weekend, though I’m not on program or anything this year, just hanging around.
I made this.
Everybody loves pie, of course (well, probably not everybody, but most people seem to really love pie). Pie is good! Pie is great! But pie crust takes a while to make and you have to roll it out, so the other day when I was thinking of making a gluten-free berry pie for a friend I realized… I could save myself 45 minutes of work and the endless despair of trying to get a gluten-free crust to hold together, and just make a cobbler.
Epiphany! Mind blown! COBBLER.
It was about 9 minutes of work to throw together, so now, a week and a half later, I am here making another one. And I will tell you how.
First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F or whatever your local equivalent is.
Then, get enough fruit to cover the bottom of your 9x9 casserole dish or brownie pan and go halfway up the sides. Dust it with two to three heaping teaspoons of tapioca flour (or cornstarch, if you are not me and can eat corn without Distress), sprinkle a half cup to a cup of sugar over it depending on how sweet your fruit is, and also sprinkle it with a pinch of salt. You can add flavorings too—spices or vanilla or almond extract or a splash of liqueur, whatever.
My first attempt was raspberries, gooseberries, tart cherries, sweet cherries, blueberries, and blackberries, and it was phenomenal. The second one was tart cherries, sweet cherries, and about a cup of pineapple that needed using up.
Once you have your fruit sorted, make this drop biscuit recipe:
2 cups flour (basically any kind—I’ve made this with 50/50 gluten-free and oat, and 50/50 spelt and oat, but all purpose would also be fine!)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
10 tablespoons (a stick and a little) cold butter or other solid shortening, cut in cubes or grated into the dry ingredients.
~3/4 cup of dairy—buttermilk, runny yogurt (as opposed to Greek yogurt or skyr), regular milk, oat milk, whatever.
Please note that you can swap in vegan alternatives for the butter and milk if that’s your jam.
Rub the butter into the dry ingredients, but don’t try to break it up too much. if you grated it, the grated strands are a fine size. Once that’s all mixed together, add your milk or whatever and mix it very quickly together. It’s fine if there are floury patches left.
Working quickly, dollop it on top of the fruit until the fruit is mostly covered. I use an ice cream disher to make 9 big dollops in a square but you can just plop it on with a spoon or your hand, what the hell, you’re alone in the kitchen and you washed your hands, didn’t you? Also it’s going in a 375-degree oven.
You can sprinkle some more sugar on top if that seems nice to you, or dust it with cinnamon, or whatever.
Put it in the 375-degree oven. Set a timer for 20 minutes.
In 20 minutes come back and turn it around. Reset the time for another 20 minutes.
Come back and check on it. If it’s done it will be golden-brown on top and bubbling joyfully around the edges, looking thick and glossy. If it’s not doing that it needs a little longer.
Pull it out.
You can eat it immediately (careful, hot!) or you can let it sit and thicken up a little. Keeps great in the fridge but needs to be warmed up for peak experience because the biscuits get hard when they’re cold.
I hope this helps you eat all that that delicious fruit that might go to waste otherwise!
Best,
Bear