Monday, June 8, 2015

Crusty Blackberry Cobbler

Farm Boy is a certified blackberry aficionado, so when we moved to the country one of our first projects was to plant blackberries.  We don't have a huge number of plants, but they are pretty productive.  Each year we usually get enough for fresh eating, a few cobblers and a gallon or two of blackberry wine.



5 pounds of berries in two days!

My go-to cobbler recipe is the shortcake cobbler from the 1950 Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, but since we had so many berries, I wanted to try to make a bigger cobbler with more of a pastry crust than the shortcake.  I turned to my trusty friend, The Southern Living Cookbook (1995).  I was going to say that technically this book isn't vintage, but I suppose at twenty years old it might be.



This is a great cookbook.  I can't think of anything I've tried from it that flopped.  There is a newer edition, but I prefer this one.



Since the recipe was for peach cobbler, I decided to go with my normal blackberry cobbler filling recipe from the Betty Crocker book, but scale it up to the size of the peach cobbler.






The one problem I have with the Betty Crocker recipe is that it calls for all that water.  When the blackberries cook they release a lot of juice, so if you add a cup of water, it makes for a very thin, runny cobbler.  I usually just add a tablespoon or two for my regular cobbler.  I scaled up to a quarter cup for the big cobbler and I thought it was a little runny.  My taste testers liked the extra juice.

Since I seem to have lost my pie crust mojo, I am going to take the coward's way out and just call for a crust for a double crust pie.  Trust me, you don't want any pie crust making hints from me, unless you enjoy placing your pie crusts directly into the trash.

chambers 90c stove range
Hot berry deliciousness
The directions calls for weaving the crust into a lattice design, but dipping my fingers into a pan that just came out of a 475F oven didn't seem like a good idea, so I skipped the weaving part.  Again, coward.  I do not have asbestos fingers!

chambers 90c stove range
Yay for leftover pie crust and pie crust cookies!






Crusty Blackberry Cobbler (Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

Pastry for double-crust pie

8 cups blackberries
2 cups sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1/2 Tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 475F.  Lightly butter an 8-inch square pan.

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a large saucepan, stirring well.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has come to a boil and thickened slightly. Set aside to cool.

Roll half of pastry to 1/8" thickness.  Cut into an 8-inch square.  Spoon half of berry mixture into the prepared pan. Dot with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon. Top with pastry square.  Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Spoon remaining berries over baked pastry square.  Roll remaining crust to 1/8-inch thickness.  Cut into 1-inch strips.  Arrange in lattice design over berries.  Bake an additional 15 to 18 minutes or until browned. 

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.






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