THREE-BERRY COBBLER

via williams-sonoma.com

I'm in Florida with my folks for Thanksgiving. My dad requested a berry cobbler for tonight's dessert so I dug up this Three-Berry Cobbler recipe from Williams-Sonoma and made a few of my own modifications. This is typically a summer dessert as berries aren't really in season, even in sunny Florida, but I've always had good luck with frozen berries in pies. I dug around the fridge / freezer to see what I had to work with (after all, they don't call it a cobbler for nothing... you literally cobble together what you have in the house) and found partial bags of wild Maine blueberries and blackberries in the freezer (score!) and a pint and a half of fresh blueberries. There was no buttermilk on hand (who ever does?) but I used a baker's trick of 1/3 cup of milk with about a 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar and viola instant buttermilk! 

Here's my version of the berry cobbler ---

Two-Berry Cobbler --
2 cups fresh blueberries, washed
2 cups of frozen wild blueberries, do not thaw
2 cups of frozen blackberries, do not thaw
1/3 cup white sugar
1 Tbs. cornstarch
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbs. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup whole milk mixed with 1/2 Tbs. of vinegar (I used apple cider)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat an 8-inch square nonreactive metal pan or 9-inch ceramic baking dish with a non-stick spray -- I used butter. (Do not use glass dish for this recipe.)
2. To make the filling, in a bowl combine the fresh & frozen blueberries, blackberries, white sugar, and cornstarch. Mix gently coating the berries. Spread fruit evenly in the prepared pan. 
3. To make the topping, in a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a different bowl, using a hand-mixer beat together the butter and brown sugar on high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce the speed and beat in about half of the milk/vinegar mixture (or buttermilk). Add about half of the dry ingredients and beat until almost combined. Beat in the remaining buttermilk. Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat until a thick, sticky batter forms. Do not overmix. 
4. Drop the batter by heaping spoonfuls over the fruit. Spread it as evenly as possible with a back of a spoon. Some of the fruits will be exposed. 
5. Bake the cobbler until the crust is a deep golden brown and the fruit juices bubble up around the edges through any cracks, about 40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool to lukewarm before serving. Scoop the cobbler from the dish onto a dessert plate and serve a la mode with a scoop of vanilla icecream. 

We had the cobbler after dinner and it was scrumptious! Enjoy.