Yes, yes, yes; there’s fruit involved – but, while fruit is an important part of most cobblers, I think the buttermilk and maple syrup are by far the coolest things about this recipe.
Well, aside from the nice dollop of really good vanilla ice cream served along with each tasty, TASTY slice.
The original recipe, found, of course, with da Google, called for using fresh peaches and blackberries. But, I have this knack (you couldn’t really call it a GIFT) of choosing the absolutely worst tasting fresh peaches available at any given time, and I had a bag o’ Cherry Berry Mix in the freezer, so I used that instead.
Nice.
Also nice, there is no sugar used in this recipe – just that maple syrup stirred with some cornstarch and tossed with the fruit before spooning over the batter and baking.
INGREDIENTS
•1/4 cup maple syrup
•1 tsp cornstarch
•Fruit – I used a one-pound bag of Trader Joe’s frozen Cherry Berry mix, thawed
•1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, cut into large pieces
•1 cup flour
•2 tsp baking powder
•1/4 tsp salt
•1-1/4 cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 375°.
Whisk the maple syrup and cornstarch together in a medium bowl, then add the fruit and toss gently to coat. In retrospect, I think I should’ve left the berries frozen at this point – as I did before mixing the blueberries into soda bread – frozen berries take a bit of tossing really well without leaving you with a bunch of fruit mush.
Add the butter pieces to a cake pan – I used the 9 inch round deep stoneware plate I use for quiches and pies and such, but you could use a round or square regular 8 inch metal or glass cake pan – and pop it into the oven, just until butter is melted, maybe three or four minutes. Remove and set aside.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the buttermilk and stir just enough to combine it all into a thick batter.In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in buttermilk and mix until just combined to make a thick batter. Pour on top of the melted butter in the pan – but don’t stir it! Just gently spread the batter to cover the bottom of the pan Scatter the fruit mixture over the top of the batter and bake until golden and bubbly The original recipe called for 50 to 55 minutes; I was busy and so set the timer for 50 and got on with other stuff. Ding! The timer went off, and I had a cobbler just on the verge of being overdone – so I would recommend keeping a wary eye on things at the 40 minute mark.
Still tasty, tho’ – and that hit of butter flavor at the bottom of the crust is just lovely. Try it and see if you don’t agree.