Blackberry Cobbler

About four years ago, when I married my husband, we planted a single blackberry plant in our backyard hoping for blackberries each year. The first few years, we were thrilled to pick anywhere from 5 to 20 blackberries in late June and July. However, this year, we were so excited to have lots and lots of blackberries. Besides eating them right off the plant we made blackberry pancakes, blackberry waffles, used them in smoothies, and this cobbler.



Ingredients:

Filling

3 cups blackberries (fresh or frozen), ***See peach variation below

1/4 cup real honey

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 tbsp. butter, I use this

Biscuit Topping

1 cup whole grain flour (try spelt or einkorn)

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped, soaked nuts (such as pecans or walnuts)

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup cold butter, cubed

3/4 cup whole milk (or buttermilk)

How To:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cook blackberries: In a medium saucepan, combine all filling ingredients above. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer while completing the topping steps.

 

2. Prepare Topping: Combine all dry ingredients above and mix well. Then cut in butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs. I just use a spoon for this and it works fine. Add milk and mix until just moistened. I use soured raw milk for this but you cannot use soured store bought milk, it must be soured raw milk.

3. Combine: Pour berry mixture into a greased 8x8 baking dish. I am not sure if greasing it is necessary, but I use butter and figure it does not hurt anything. Then drop large spoonfuls of the topping batter on top and sort of flatten a bit, if necessary. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes until topping is golden brown.

 

 

Comments: This takes about 20 minutes to put together and goes really well with vanilla ice cream. It is also good the next day.

 

Peach Variation:

My husband's favorite is peach cobbler and we received some lovely peaches from a friend, so I made another cobbler this week with the peaches and it was delicious. I used the same technique as above with three large peaches, but increased the vanilla to two teaspoons and the cinnamon to one teaspoon (in the filling). Also, for the topping I used maple sugar instead of coconut sugar and sprinkled a small amount of raw cane sugar and cinnamon on top when I took the cobbler out of the oven. So delicious!

 

Thoughts on soaking...

You should really soak your flour overnight neutralize phytic acid, but I'm going to be honest and tell you I haven't done so when I've made this recipe. However, if that's something you prefer to do every time, I would suggest trying the following method (although if someone has a better idea, please let me know if the comments):

 

Mix the flour, oats, and nuts with the butter until it is crumbly, then add the soured raw milk or buttermilk to form a thick dough. Let sit overnight and when you are ready to use, knead in baking soda, sugar, and salt very quickly - don't over mix. Then, proceed as above by dropping large spoonfuls on top of the hot blackberry mixture.

 

Also, I believe if you use sprouted flour, you do not need to soak because sprouting neutralizes the phytic acid, but this is not my area of expertise, so if this is important to you, please check into it further. Finally, if you use freshly ground flour (i.e. you ground it yourself), the soaking time reduces to a couple of hours rather than overnight, which is necessary for store bought flour.

 

 

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This recipe was shared on Melt In Your Mouth Monday, Show and Share Wednesday, Simple Meals Friday, and Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm. Please click the link to find other great recipe ideas!