I gotta be totally honest; this very good cobbler caused me all kinds of trouble before (finally) turning out correctly.
Part of the trouble was me; I misjudged the amount of cherries and so made the filling twice. Not too, too big a deal, it was a snap to toss together – both times.
The other troublesome bit was the recipe itself; I do not believe that 1/4 cup of melted butter was enough for the cobbler topping; more like 1/2 cup, I’d say.
Still and all, dotting the baked top with additional butter, melting it a bit with a blow torch, then popping it all back into the oven worked a treat, and got me a very nice cherry cobbler with (really) not too, too much trouble.
INGREDIENTS
Cherry Pie Filling:
•4 cups pitted red cherries
•1 tbsp Cointreau
•1 tbsp Brandy
•4 cups white sugar
•1 cup cornstarch
Cobbler:
•Cherry pie filling
•1 yellow cake mix
•1/4 cup melted butter*
•1/2 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
(or almonds or pecans)
•1 tsp allspice
*I would suggest 1/2 cup, or follow what I did, below.
Whisk the sugar together with the cornstarch in a bowl and set aside.
Add the cherries (I used 2, one pound bags of frozen, pitted sweet cherries) to a large sauce pan and cook over medium heat until they release their juices.
Bring to a simmer, then stir in the brandy, Cointreau, and sugar/cornstarch mixture.
Note: recall, I did this in two batches; which may very well make things easier to wrangle. You do what you like.
Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has thickened, about 20 minutes. Transfer to an eight inch square baking dish (I opted to use a vintage paella pan, which worked a treat) and heat your oven to 350º.
Pour the melted butter over the cake mix, pistachios, and allspice in a mixing bowl and stir to combine.
Scatter the cobbler topping over the cherry filling in the pan.
Note how dry it is.
After baking for 35 minutes, mine came out looking like this.
Hmmm.
I told you there wasn’t enough butter in the cobbler topping.
I tried two things.
First, I dotted the top with another quarter cup or so of butter and used my kitchen torch to start to melt the butter. It was working, but I was also singeing the top a bit, so…
Second, I popped the whole shebang back into the oven for another 20 minutes.
See how nice it turned out?
Tasted great, too. With ice cream on top.