Today, though, today was special. About four minutes into my warmup I look over to the side of the road and see blackberry bushes. I was looking at the vines wondering if they were going to produce any blackberries and was starting to get disappointed when I wasn't seeing any green buds. That's when I "zoomed out" with my sight and realized that I had been focusing too much on the vines - I SHOULD have been looking at the ENTIRE side of the road! The whole side of the road was covered with blackberries! I guess because the berries were all different colors that in my peripheral vision automatically thought there were just leaves. Oh how wrong I was.
On my way back to the house after my run, I stopped off to see if the blackberries were ripe enough to eat. I lucked out and they were ready! I walked back to the house, grabbed a collinder, wrote a note to Lucky letting him know where I had gone, and back up around the corner to the blackberry bushes. Thirty minutes and one full collinder later I was on my way back to the house. It took all my willpower not to eat the berries before I got them inside and washed.
After a full day of errands we were finally able to go home and take some time to make a cobbler - a request from my wonderful husband. I searched my favorite recipe website for a popular blackberry cobbler recipe, Allrecipes.com, and finally found one that received 4 1/2 out of 5 stars and 6,527 people had saved. I could safely say this one was most likely a good one.
Starting off, I started preheating the oven at 350°, threw 1/2 cup of butter in a 10-inch baking dish and melted it in the microwave for 90 seconds.
While that was melting, I mixed 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water in a saucepan, turned on the stove and let the sugar water boil to make a simple syrup. {Note: whenever you need to make a simple syrup, either for baking or for mint julep cocktails, boil water and sugar together until the sugar is melted. Done. Simply syrup.}
While the sugar water was melting in the pan, I put 1-1/2 cups of self rising flour* in a separate bowl, cutting in 1/2 cup of cold butter to make a crumbly dough.
Add 1/3 cup of room temperature milk to the mixture,
mixing together with a fork until everything comes together and the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. {Another note: you are not going to get all the crumbs to come together into the dough. That's ok. When you turn out the dough onto the counter you can push those crumbs into the rest of the dough.}
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| The Force is strong with this milk. |
Cut the dough in half, flatten one half to put in the bottom of the baking dish with the melted butter.
Add 2 cups of fresh blackberries. Add another 1/2 cup to 1 cup of berries because you can't stop yourself from eating them.
Flatten out the other half of the dough and add it to the top of the berries.
Pour your cooled simple syrup** on top of the cobbler and try not to freak out that the sheer amount of syrup versus berries and dough. I promise you it will all be soaked up during the baking process.
While the cobbler was baking, I mixed two tablespoons of sugar with 1-1/4 teaspoons of cinnamon.
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| Sorry for the bad pics all of a sudden. My camera's batteries died right at this moment and I can't find any more around the house. :S |
After the 45 minutes was up I sprinkled the sugar/cinnamon mix on top of the cobbler and put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. I was just looking to create a slightly crispy crust with the sugar mixture.
It worked.
At the very last second I whipped up some heavy cream to add on top of the cobbler. I was originally going to add some powdered sugar to the cream but it seems like I am no longer the owner of any powdered sugar, I just whipped the cream. It actually works well to counteract the sweetness of the cobbler.
And there you have it.
Well, actually there I have it. ;)
Hopefully now you will too.
*I never have any type of flour on hand except for all-purpose flour and because this recipe calls for self-rising flour I used the following addition: use 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus 1/4 teaspoon salt and 2-1/4 teaspoons of baking powder.
**Obviously there are more low-sugar modifications for this recipe but some of my blackberries were kind of tart so I wanted to make sure the cobbler was nice and sweet.
Here's the full recipe for you which is a version of the recipe I found on Allrecipes.com.
Blackberry Cobbler (adapted from Allrecipes.com)
Serves 8Ingredients
1 cup butter or margarine, divided
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1-1/2 cups self-rising flour*
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
2 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar
Directions
1. In a 10" round or oval baking dish, melt 1/2 cup butter; set aside.
2. In a saucepan, heat sugar and water until sugar melts; set aside.
3. Place flour in a mixing bowl; cut in remaining butter until fine crumbs form.
4. Add milk, stirring with a fork until dough leaves side of bowl. Turn out onto a floured surface; knead three or four times.
5. Cut dough in half, roll out one half and place in bottom of baking dish with melted butter. Spread berries over dough.
6. Roll out other half of dough and carefully place on top of berries.
7. Pour sugar syrup on top of dough (syrup will be absorbed).
8. Bake at 350° F for 45 minutes.
9. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over top and back an additional 15 minutes.
Serve warm or cold
*If self-rising flour is not available, use 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus 1/4 teaspoon salt and 2-1/4 teaspoons of baking powder.
