Berry and Buttermilk Cobbler

by Julia Turshen, featured in Small Victories: Recipes, Advice and Hundreds of Ideas for Home Cooking Triumphs

Published by Chronicle Books

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Introduction

The main small victory here is having a really delicious, incredibly easy dessert up your sleeve. Plus, all you need is one baking dish and one bowl (and a couple of measuring devices). To save on cleanup, I melt the butter right in my measuring glass in the microwave and then just add the buttermilk to it (a very small victory, but a victory nonetheless). The cobbler topping could be used on top of any fruit mixture, and the topping itself can be varied - check out the Spin-Offs for more ideas. One final bit of advice: don't use a smaller baking dish (such as a pie plate) because the filling-topping ratio will be way off. If you don't have a 23-by-33cm (9-by-13in) baking dish, use the largest skillet you have, preferably one that's 30.5cm (12in) in diameter.

As featured in

Small Victories: Recipes, Advice and Hundreds of Ideas for Home Cooking Triumphs

Image of Julia Turshen's Berry and Buttermilk Cobbler — Photo by Gentl and Hyers

Ingredients

Serves: 8

Metric Cups

910 grams mixed berries (rinsed) - strawberries are not ideal because they contain so much water
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
100 grams sugar
kosher salt
2 tablespoons cornflour
120 grams plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
55 grams unsalted butter (melted)
120 millilitres buttermilk
vanilla ice cream for serving

2 pounds mixed berries (rinsed) - strawberries are not ideal because they contain so much water
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ cup sugar
kosher salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted)
½ cup buttermilk
vanilla ice cream for serving

Method

Berry and Buttermilk Cobbler is a guest recipe by Julia Turshen so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe

Preheat your oven to 190ºC (375ºF ). Lightly butter the bottom of a 23-by-33cm (9-by-13in ) baking dish with the butter wrapper.
Put the berries in the prepared dish and drizzle with the lemon juice. Add 50g (1/4 cup) of the sugar and a generous pinch of salt. Use your hands to combine all of the ingredients. (Taste the berries to check the sugar and lemon levels. If you're at the height of berry season, they should taste perfect-sweet enough for dessert, but cut with enough lemon so not too sweet. If you're making this with not-amazing berries, fear not...just add a little more sugar to taste.) Mix in the cornflour and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the remaining 50g (1/4 cup) sugar, the flour, baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Whisk everything together. Drizzle the butter and buttermilk over the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough forms.
Use two teaspoons to dollop the dough evenly over the berries. Put the baking dish on a parchment-lined baking sheet to catch any drips and make clean-up a breeze.
Bake the cobbler until the topping is dark golden brown and the berries are bubbling, about 1 hour. Let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes before serving so that the juices collect themselves and don't run everywhere.
Serve the cobbler warm with vanilla ice cream.

Preheat your oven to 190ºC (375ºF ). Lightly butter the bottom of a 23-by-33cm (9-by-13in ) baking dish with the butter wrapper.
Put the berries in the prepared dish and drizzle with the lemon juice. Add 50g (1/4 cup) of the sugar and a generous pinch of salt. Use your hands to combine all of the ingredients. (Taste the berries to check the sugar and lemon levels. If you're at the height of berry season, they should taste perfect-sweet enough for dessert, but cut with enough lemon so not too sweet. If you're making this with not-amazing berries, fear not...just add a little more sugar to taste.) Mix in the cornstarch and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the remaining 50g (1/4 cup) sugar, the flour, baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Whisk everything together. Drizzle the butter and buttermilk over the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough forms.
Use two teaspoons to dollop the dough evenly over the berries. Put the baking dish on a parchment-lined baking sheet to catch any drips and make clean-up a breeze.
Bake the cobbler until the topping is dark golden brown and the berries are bubbling, about 1 hour. Let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes before serving so that the juices collect themselves and don't run everywhere.
Serve the cobbler warm with vanilla ice cream.

Additional Information

SPIN-OFFS:

Substitute 2lb (910g) of just about any type of fruit for the berries, or use other fruit in combination with the berries. I like a mixture of sliced nectarines (I don't bother peeling them) with blueberries. Or try all fresh cherries (pitted) when they're in season (a mix of sweet and sour cherries is terrific). A plum and blackberry cobbler is lovely, as is a fresh apricot and raspberry one. Whatever you choose, keep the lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch, and pinch of salt.

The cobbler topping can be made with all-purpose gluten-free flour. Or use 1/2 cup (60g) whole-wheat flour in place of half of the all-purpose flour. Or try substituting 1/4 cup (30g) of the flour with cornmeal or almond meal. Almond meal goes really nicely with cherries - and you can even add a couple drops of almond extract to the topping, along with a handful of sliced or chopped almonds, if you go down that nutty road.

SPIN-OFFS: