From Baking Dish to Bowl: Blackberry Cobbler

A proper cobbler consists of the following: a rich fruit filling topped with a golden, crisp crust. It is essentially a lazy woman's pie. No crimping required. With its tart blackberry filling and sweet, cinnamon sugar crust this cobbler is completely irresistible and the kind of dessert you will want to make again and again.

Method

Blackberry Cobbler

For the crust:

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the work surface

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp kosher salt

For the cinnamon sugar:

Combine 2 tsp granulated sugar with ¼ tsp cinnamon.

For the filling:

4 ½ cups of blackberries, rinsed and picked over

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp lemon zest

1/2 cup of all-purpose flour

1 ¼ cups white sugar

¼ cup light brown sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1 tbsp butter, sliced

Beat the two sticks of butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium-high until smooth. Add the egg and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, sift and add it slowly to the butter mixture, mixing until just incorporated (the dough will be stiff). Shape into a flat 1-inch thick disk. Refrigerate the dough for one hour. While the dough chills, mix together the blackberries, lemon juice and lemon zest. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, both sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the flour mixture to the blackberries and mix. Pour the mixture into a pre-greased 7x10 inch baking dish, evenly place bits of butter in the filling and set aside.

Once the dough has chilled, roll it out onto a floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Using a floured jigger glass, cut the dough into small ½-1 inch rounds and cover the filling completely. Brush the dough with 1 tbsp of melted butter and lightly sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. If making ahead of time, wait to brush the dough with butter and cinnamon sugar until you are ready to bake the cobbler. Place the cobbler on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes-1 hour or until golden brown and bubbling. Allow the cobbler to rest 5 minutes, slice and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Kitchen Code

It seems that the best recipes are always the ones we never write down. A dash here, a pinch there or until it tastes right are all common enough measurements in my family. I was recently assigned the task of transcribing a few of our favorite Thanksgiving recipes. Loose recipes torn from our favorite magazines, and more commonly ones written on scratch paper, fill the green file folder that holds all of our classic sides, sweets and stuffings.Most of the recipes were easy enough to decipher, but the real challenge came from my mother's cranberry sauce. It reads, ''Skin Dice Pears, 3/4 cups, sugar over pears, put enough water, add clove, allspice and squeeze lemon''. Not entirely cryptic, but certainly troublesome enough to cause confusion. After a quick tutorial from the riddle master herself, I managed to get everything down on paper and most importantly into the pot and on the stove.

Cranberry Sauce with Pears

Ingredients

4 pears, peeled and diced

2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Pinch of ground clove

Pinch of allspice

1 bag of fresh cranberries (cooked according to package instructions)

Method

Place pears and the next 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan. Add enough water so that the pears are just covered. Cook the pears over low heat until they have softened slightly and remove from the heat. In a large stockpot, cook the cranberries according to package instructions. Allow the sauce to cool slightly and while the sauce is still warm add the pears to the cranberries using a slotted spoon. Thin the cranberry sauce with a couple tablespoons of the pear liquid until it reaches your desired consistency. You do not need to use all of the liquid, just enough so that the sauce is slightly thinned. Taste the cranberry sauce and adjust the seasonings as necessary. You may need to add more sugar and/or lemon juice to balance the flavors. At this point, I begin by adding sugar 1 tablespoon at a time and a teaspoon of lemon juice (if necessary), tasting after each addition. As the sauce becomes less tart, I add sugar in teaspoon increments, until it is just right, again tasting after each addition.

Fall Baking

Last week, my mother and I baked a pie from scratch. I'll use the word pie loosely. Falling somewhere between a cobbler and a crumble, the results were rustic and less than picture perfect. Having examined our missteps and stumbles, we headed back to the kitchen determined and driven. I refused to be defeated by pastry. After finding a simple recipe for blueberry pie, it was time to go shopping.

Three groceries stores later and still no blueberries in sight, we opted for a blackberry and raspberry pie instead. The second attempt was far more successful. We rallied. Our grocery shopping complete, it was time to tackle the pie crust. Not wanting to recreate the horrors of my first encounter with pate brisee, I first made sure that all of my ingredients were extremely cold. I began by measuring the flour and butter and placing it in the freezer. This will ensure that you achieve the perfect, flaky crust and not something in between. A food processor is another invaluable tool. It processes the dough quickly, thereby preventing over-handling. Ours went from the food processor to the refrigerator in about two minutes.

After an hour in the refrigerator, it was time to roll out the dough. The dough rolled out with relative ease and given my last attempt, I was pleased to have crust in the pie pan. It's not that I have low standards, I simply revel in little victories.

While the crust chilled, I began making the filling. I adapted the filling from the blueberry pie I had intended to make, adding lemon zest, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. I also adjusted the amount of sugar, increasing it from 1/2 cup to 1 cup, since berry pies generally trend toward the tart side.

Before placing my pie in the oven, I quickly brushed it with egg wash for a golden, glossy finish and set the timer. As the ruby red juices bubbled out of the pie, my parents and I hovered around the oven, anxiously waiting to take it out. It wasn't more than five minutes before we began digging into the pie. We served each slice in big bowls, the filling spilling out onto the vanilla ice cream to create the most lovely shade of pink. It was a messy, delicious concoction and it could not have been anymore perfect.

Blackberry & Raspberry Pie

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Blueberry Pie

Ingredients

Makes one 9 inch pie

All purpose flour, for dusting

Pate Brisee

8 cups of fruit (5 ½ cups blackberries and 2 ½ cups raspberries)

1 cup of sugar

¼ cup cornstarch

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

½ teaspoon lemon zest

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon of milk

Directions:

1. On a lightly floured piece of parchment paper, roll out one disk of dough to a 12-inch round. With a dry pastry brush, sweep off excess flour; fit dough into a 9-glass pie plate, pressing it into edges. Trim dough to a ½ inch overhang all around. Fold edge of dough over or under, and crimp as desired. Roll out remaining dough in the same manner; transfer dough (on parchment) to a baking sheet. Chill pie shell and dough until firm, about 30 minutes.
2. Place fruit in a large bowl; with your hands, crush about ½ cup of the berries to get the juices flowing. Add sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir to combine. Spoon mixture into chilled pie shell, mounding berries slightly in the center. Dot with butter. Remove dough from refrigerator and place over the filing. Tuck edge of top dough between edge of bottom dough and rim of pan. Using your fingers, gently press both layers of dough along the edge to seal, and crimp as desired.
3. Using a paring knife, cut several vents in top of dough to allow steam to escape. In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk and milk. Brush surface with egg wash, being careful not to let it pool. Freeze or refrigerate pie until firm, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F with rack in the lower third of the oven.
4. Place pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until crust begins to turn golden, about 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking, rotating the pan halfway through, until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling and have thickened, 40-50 minutes more. Transfer pie to a wire rack to cool.

Perfect Blueberry Sauce

After much research and taste-testing, I managed to concoct what I believe to be the perfect blueberry sauce. Like any basic fruit sauce, you begin with a base of equal parts sugar and water. To that I toss in a generous helping of fresh blueberries and let the magic begin. I add pure vanilla extract in combination with lemon juice and lemon rind, which gives the sauce a sweet, slightly tart bite. I use both the lemon juice and lemon rind to develop a more complex lemon flavor. The oil from the rind renders a concentrated flavor, while the juice is much milder in comparison. Both of these ingredients are fabulous flavor boosters and you can use the zest virtually anywhere you use the juice. Plus, you don't even need to break out your zester, just toss it in the pot and let it go. I learned this trick courtesy of the fabulous Ina Garten. Now who says television can't be educational? But I digress--back to the sauce. The final ingredient that takes this sauce from good to great is ground nutmeg. If you can get your hands on freshly grated nutmeg, it will be all the more delicious. All you need is a pinch, but it rounds out the flavor perfectly. The end result is a beautifully rich, deep purple sauce, loaded with antioxidents--albeit slightly hidden ones.

Perfect Blueberry Sauce

1 cup of water

1 cup of sugar

1.5 cups of fresh blueberries

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 whole lemon rind

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Pour blueberry sauce into a fine-mesh sieve and press on the blueberries to extract all the juices. Discard the solids. Cover and store in the refrigerator.