Fresh Blackberry Cobbler

There are some wonderful 'Pick Your Own' Farms around the outskirts of My Town. My neighbor went to the berry patch to pick gallons of big plump juicy blackberries.  She was kind enough to share with me. So, I went through My Mother's Recipe Book to find her cobbler recipe.  I'm sharing it here with you. Enjoy! Oh, and don't forget that big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!

Homemade Blackberry Cobbler

Cobbler Filling:

6 cups fresh blackberries

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ tsp salt

3 Tbsps cornstarch                                                                          

½ tsp cinnamon

½ to ¾ cup apple juice or apple cider

2 Tbsps butter

Cobbler Crust:

1 ½ cups AP Flour

½ tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

¼ cup Crisco shortening

¼ cup cold butter

5 Tbsps ‘ice’ water

1 extra Tbsp butter and 2 tsps sugar needed to top crust for browning

Make It

Wash fresh berries – drain in colander.  Pour berries into 9x13 baking dish. - Combine salt, cornstarch, cinnamon and sugar – Sprinkle over berries and fold in to coat berries – set aside.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Make Crust: in large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar – mix well. Add shortening & butter to bowl cutting into dry ingredients with fork until crumbled in texture. Stir in 5 Tbsps ice cold water. Mix until dough follows spoon around bowl.  Generously flour cutting board before placing dough ball on board. Sprinkle rolling pin with flour and roll dough into a rectangle ¼ inch thick. Cut dough into strips.

Pour apple juice over berries – stirring in to mix well. Dot 2 Tbsps butter all over top of berries. Place strips of dough lengthwise over berries, then, crisscross some strips across width of dish making a lattice pattern.

Heat 1 Tbsp butter in microwave until melted. Brush melted butter over crust then sprinkle with 2 tsps sugar. Bake 40 – 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let cobbler set 15 minutes before serving.

***Note: Frozen berries can be used instead of fresh. Also, a combination of blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries makes a good cobbler. I used 4 cups of ‘fresh blackberries’ and 2 cups mixed frozen berries. (Made a delicious cobbler).

The other day, I saw Blackberry Cobbler on the menu at a local restaurant. I ‘love’ Fruit Cobbler – any cobbler, but especially Blackberry Cobbler. The picture display looked awesome.  I couldn’t wait to taste it.  We order Restaurant food, then bring it home to enjoy. When I unpacked our desserts and opened the lid to the container,  the cobbler  certainly did not look like the picture. As I dug my spoon into the hunk of sticky dough, there was no juice and few blackberries. The dough stuck to my throat. I pushed it back with disappointment, yet,  I saved it for further scrutiny. 

The very next day, my sweet neighbor came to my door bearing gifts from a local ‘pick your own’ vegetable and fruit patch. A big bag of freshly picked blackberries were placed in my hand.  I instantly knew what I would do with them.  I didn’t have quite enough berries to measure the 6 cups called for in my recipe, so I checked my freezer and found a bag of mixed berries (blueberries, blackberries  and raspberries). Luck was on my side – the berries in the bag measured exactly 2 cups. I pulled out my sweet mom’s cobbler recipes and went to work.

The resulting cobbler was ‘amazing’.  Lots of berry juice and plump sweet berries bubbling under a crisp flaky crust was just what I had been craving.  As I have said many times, there is nothing as delicious as ‘homemade’.  It takes a little time and effort to make tasty dishes of food at home, but the difference in taste is so worth it.

And Kids actually like ‘fresh’ fruits that have been ripened on the vine.  Vine ripening gives them their delicious taste and lots of juice, quite opposite of the ‘green picked’ versions found in stores which are flavorless, white on the inside, and dry of juice.

Back in her days in the kitchen, My Sweet Mom went the ‘extra mile’ and ran the berries through a sieve to mash out all the seeds. Her Blackberry Cobbler was made from pureed seedless berry juice.  If you like a seedless version, you can do the same.  

Actually, 8 cups of berries can be used in this recipe, if you would like ‘more’.  Just increase the sugar amount to ¾ cup and the apple juice to 1 cup – everything else remains the same measurements.

Anyway, I hope you will try My Mom’s Recipe for a Delicious Cobbler. Your Family will love you for it.

Oh yes, don’t forget that big dollop of Vanilla Ice Cream on top. Yum!

Donna