raspberry and blackberry cobbler
i honestly don’t miss much about the summer months during the wintertime, but i do miss barbecues with outdoor music on cool nights and picking wild blackberries for cobbler, which is the first thing i learned how to bake on my own.
whenever i need this recipe, i text my mom, paranoid that it changed or that i'm remembering the measurements incorrectly — because it can’t possibly be this easy — but it's always the same. and it's always easy. if there ever was an equally self-pleasing and crowd-pleasing dish that doesn’t go wrong and barely needs to be referenced, this is The One.
here's why: with equal parts of the main three ingredients (flour, milk, and sugar) and just 1/2 stick of butter, it leaves a lot of room for error— a rarity in baking. i'm not a good measurer, and therefore have always had to try, ever so desperately, to be good at math or oven confection. pleased to share that i've crushed this cobbler both as an ambitious pre-algebra seven-year-old and as a flailing twenty-four-year-old who still counts her fingers.
what’s more, it tastes like a buttery, berry-filled summer cloud. with a generous, melty scoop of ice cream, the worst thing you can do is mix-up salt for sugar, but you probably won't do that. most cobbler recipes are too fancy. any cobbler'll fall apart as soon as you plate it, where it always looks more beautiful in person as a gooey jumble than any photo will give it credit. in the end, this recipe is about the strange sensation of getting back way more than you ever you put in. it makes you (a professional chef, an aspiring chef, hobbyist, or rookie) feel good and confident in the kitchen, and it produces a beautiful dish that couldn't possibly have been as easy as you remember. but i did nothing you'll think. that's right. now, you can do everything!
you'll need
1/2 cup of self-rising flour (white lily, if you can find it)
1/2 cup of whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup of berries (you can really add as many berries as you want, before it spills over.)
vanilla bean ice cream (it just has to be vanilla bean)
on you go
preheat oven to 350 degrees. whisk together flour, milk, and sugar until it resembles pancake batter. melt 1/2 stick of butter in a stovetop/oven safe dish (like a 2L corningware or small cast iron skillet). let the butter bubble and when it starts to smell nutty, add the berries, reserving about 1/3 for later. pour batter over the berries. fill in gaps with berries. adding to the middle will push batter to the sides, if you're worried about distribution. bake at 350 for 30 minutes, checking it occasionally depending on the strength of your oven.
note: i cut this recipe in half (a deviation from my mom's original) to fit a small cast iron skillet. it's usually 1 cup, 1 cup, 1 cup, 1 stick ... you get it. it's flexible! as long as it's equal parts, you're fine.
your workhorses
every piece is equal parts important. except, maybe...
vanilla bean ice cream | it's not a workhorse, but it is a necessary flourish.
soundbites
dessert only: spotify
piece of power
on dolly parton, novalis, and the philosophy of homesickness:
to be at home everywhere