From the garden: Blackberry Peach Cobbler

After a bit of a summer sabbatical, I am happy to be sharing a recipe that we have loved during this transition from summer to back-to-school and fall.  My blackberry bushes are currently weighed down by more blackberries than I know what to do with.  I love watching people walk down the sidewalk next to my bushes and sample a berry.  That’s my favorite time to eat them too: warm from the sun and fresh off the vine.  It is also Palisade peach season in Colorado which means you see peach stands all over the place.  The dairy that delivers our milk each week (Longmont Dairy) will also deliver a box of fresh Palisade peaches.  I love opening up the milk cooler to a giant box of peaches and my Ladybug will eat a whole peach any time she can get her hands on one.

We’ve had blackberry-wine sauce over steak, fresh blackberries on yogurt, blackberry compote on ice cream and many other recipes this summer to use up the pound of berries we have been picking each day.  But my favorite way to use blackberries in a recipe will always be cobbler.  I can still remember as a little kid going to a restaurant (I believe it was called Fitz’s in East Cape Girardeau, IL) with my mom, maternal grandmother, maternal great grandmother and other relatives.  We all inhaled the delicious blackberry cobbler and then smiled at each other with purple stained teeth.

I like a cobbler that is heavy on fruit, not on breading and has a crispy top to provide a good texture difference to the cooked through fruit.  Blackberry cobbler is fantastic on its own but my twist of adding peaches I think balances out some of the tart blackberry flavor with the natural sweetness of the peach.  This recipe goes together easily and is great to make ahead and then warm for a crowd.  I love serving it with a little good vanilla ice cream on the side to add some creaminess.

Recipe:

Filling:

• 6 cups blackberries
• 5 peaches, peeled and diced into nickel-sized pieces
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Topping:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons cold butter cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup hot warm

Sprinkle on top:

• 2 Tablespoons raw sugar

Directions:

1. Pour yourself a glass of red wine and put Johnnyswim on Spotify
2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
3. Combine all of the filling ingredients in a large bowl and toss to coat the fruit evenly with the sugar and other ingredients
4. Pour filling into a 2 quart baking dish
5. Bake for 10 minutes
6. While the filling is baking, combine all of the topping ingredients (except the water) until the butter is smashed in with the other ingredients

Most baking recipes will call this “resembling a course meal.”  You can accomplish this with a pastry blender tool, a fork, or even your fingertips.

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7. Stir in the water until combined
8. Remove the filling from the oven and spoon the topping over them.  You want to have spots with some filling poking through.
9. Sprinkle the topping with the raw sugar.
10. Bake for 30 minutes more.  The topping should be golden.
11. Let cool for 5 minutes then spoon cobbler into a bowl with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

You can also bake this ahead of time and warm prior to serving in a 200 degree oven.

I hope this warms your soul as much as it does mine!

Happy cooking!