Munchie Monday: Blackberry Cobbler

 The other day I stopped at the Dorr Farms booth at the Farmers' Market.  They had big beautiful baskets of fresh blackberries.  Remembering that Dear One LOVES blackberry shortcake, I picked up a basket.

Instead of shortcake, this is what I made:

Blackberry Cobbler. from The Chunky Chef

This is the recipe from The Chunky Chef.  Below it is what I actually did...

COBBLER

• 24 oz fresh blackberries
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional but recommended)
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 3/4 cup water

TOPPING

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup cold butter, grated or finely cubed
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup cold buttermilk

Instructions

• Grease an 8 inch square baking dish.
  
• In a large saucepan, combine the blackberries, sugar, and cinnamon. Cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil.
  
• Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into fruit mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2-5 minutes or until thickened.
  
• Pour into prepared baking dish.
  
• For topping, in a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or two forks until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
  
• Stir in buttermilk just until moistened. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto hot berry mixture.
  
• Bake, uncovered, at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Serve warm, with whipped topping or ice cream if desired.
  

Notes

1. Buttermilk amount will vary from individual to individual.  You want the dough to be moist enough to hold together when pinched between a few fingers, but not moist enough that it's wet.
2. For a thicker cobbler, combine blackberries, sugar, 1 Tbsp of cornstarch and cinnamon and stir well in baking dish.  Let sit for 15-20 minutes, so they can soften a little and produce a little bit of a syrupy liquid on the bottom of the dish.  Add topping and bake as directed.

WHAT I DID--

In the bottom of an 8 inch square glass baking dish I spread 1 cup sugar then a thick layer of blackberries   and left them for 10 minutes.  Nothing seemed to be happening so I started smashing the berries up with the back of a spoon then sprinkled on a few shakes of cinnamon and left them again.

Leaving the berries alone for a while I got out a nice glass bowl and poured in  1.5 cups of self-rising flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking SODA , and 1 Tablespoon sugar and mixed well.  Taking out our box grater I grated 1 stick on cold butter into the dry ingredients then mixed in with a fork until you could not really see the chunks of butter.  Into that mess I poured 1/2 cup buttermilk and stirred.  It did not seem to be enough liquid so I poured more in and stirred it until it seemed right.  In this case, I was planning to drop the batter on top of the berries so it was a little wetter than The Chunky Chef suggested.

Ater putting  9 big globs of batter on top of the berries I then spread the batter to the edges of the pan then baked for 30 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F oven.  After checking, I decided to let the cobbler cook some more...about 5 more minutes.

The reason I was letting the cobbler cook longer is that the berry juice was just barely coming up through the biscuits on top. I wanted more indication that they were cooked.

Looking back through the recipe I realize I did not use any corn starch.  That might have been a good thing to do--add the corn starch.  I did not do the cooked blackberries method but followed the bit in the Notes.  Still, it was a wonderful cobbler.  Fortunately, we were able to share some with friends so we did not eat it all ourselves.

We served this with whipped cream on top.  Because of all the sugar in the recipe, I did NOT sweeten the whipped cream when I beat it.  SOMEONE in the family said we should ALWAYS have sweetened whipped cream...!  Well, we shall see.