Sunday Dessert: Blackberry Peach Cobbler

I have mixed feelings about Sundays. I’m not scheduled to work weekends, and sometimes that pans out, but much too often, I end up working, for a variety of reasons that never fail to make me grumpy. If I do have the full day off, however, I love to spend it making delicious food. If time and energy allow, that includes dessert as often as possible.

Extra time doesn’t have to mean extra complication, though. This blackberry peach cobbler is relatively simple, somewhat rustic even. The topping involves easy quick-bread techniques and no complicated pastry procedures. I don’t even bother peeling the peaches. (You could if you are fussy.) The fat blackberries and sweet peaches melded together in a dark, jewel-toned, extra-juicy filling that soaked just enough into the slightly tangy buttermilk biscuit topping. Altogether it’s sweet enough to be unmistakably dessert, but the natural tartness of fresh fruit kept it flavorful and satisfying.

Just about any bake-able fruit would be at home under this soft biscuit lid, so I strongly encourage you to use the cobbler vehicle to feature what you like. Peaches and blackberries have strong tradition behind them, and would be just great individually, but other berries, other stone fruits, and rhubarb, alone or in combinations, would also be delicious.

I adapted Grandmama’s Buttermilk Biscuits to make the drop biscuit topping for my cobbler. It’s half a recipe with enough extra buttermilk to make it spoon-able rather than cut-able, and that’s it. I didn’t add any sugar to the topping, and it wasn’t needed. You could brush the top with egg wash or cream and sprinkle it with coarse sugar, though, and that might be pretty fabulous. There’s enough biscuit topping in this recipe to completely cover the fruit when it bakes, so if you like your cobbler more, well, cobbled, you may not want to use all of the dough. (Drop any extra on a baking pan, bake it off, and just eat it!)

  

I can’t remember that I ever made a fruit cobbler before I put this one together. I usually make fruit crisps instead. Unless I have the streusel for a crisp already in the freezer, however, I don’t see any reason why not to switch up to cobbler when sweet seasonal fruit is looking for an appropriate home. 

If there’s something sweet and comforting to help savor a waning Sunday, maybe Monday morning won’t hit so hard. Especially if there’s some leftover dessert to eat for breakfast. I won’t tell if you don’t.

Blackberry Peach Cobbler

Based on recipes in The Joy of Cooking

All 2-quart baking dishes aren’t the same! Make sure you use one that’s wide enough to spread lots of biscuit dough over the top, but deep enough to hold all of your cobbler without bubbling over.

Filling

4 cups blackberries

2 cups chopped peaches

½ cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Biscuit topping

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon fine salt

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup cold butter (1/2 stick)

1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Prepare a 2-quart baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray or greasing it with butter or oil.

2. In a large bowl, combine the blackberries and peaches. Add the sugar and cornstarch and toss together to combine well. Pour the filling into the prepared baking dish.

3. In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk or sift together to combine well. Cut the butter into small pieces. Add the butter and cut it into the flour with a pastry blender or with a fork or your hands until the butter is in small, well-coated pieces. Stir in the buttermilk until the flour mixture is just moistened.

4. Drop the biscuit batter onto the fruit mixture in large spoonfuls. I you want a more cobbled appearance to your baked dessert, you can hold back some of the biscuit mixture. As written here, it will cover the dish as it bakes.

5. Place the baking dish on a sheet pan if desired. This will help insure against drips on the bottom of the oven. Bake at 375 F for 45-50 minutes or until the top is golden brown and baked through, and the fruit mixture is bubbling and thickened. Cool for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or ice cream if desired.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Other recipe like this one: Fruit Crisp on Demand, Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Graham Cracker Topping, Cherry Plum Crisp, Grandmama’s Buttermilk Biscuits

One year ago: 5 Fabulous Potato Salads

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

 

It was many years ago that I first tried the recipe for this apple coffee cake. It was so easy and so good, I thought, “I should memorize this recipe for the purpose of instant gratification.” I haven’t managed to accomplish that just yet, but I have put the basic recipe to other uses including a blueberry version and this rhubarb cake. Since I love the idea of a base recipe with multiple variations, I call that just as good.

This is still a very simple cake pulled together using the method of a quick bread rather than that of a more delicate or fancy cake. I think it takes longer to go out to the back yard to cut the rhubarb than it takes to mix the batter. 

I like the bit of whole wheat pastry flour in this. I’ve been finding quick breads made with all white flour to be a bit pasty and not as flavorful as they could be, so I add some whole grains when I can. I suppose I could also say that the whole grains make this cake healthier, but with a whole cup of sugar in the batter and more in the topping, I’m not sure I'd really have the high ground. You could substitute the whole wheat pastry flour with more all-purpose flour if you prefer.

I added almonds to the topping to give it a little more substance. The butter-sugar-flour mixture kind of melts into a crunchy lid on top of the cake, and I like the way the almonds gave it a more crumbly texture. If you happen to keep streusel in your freezer for fruit crisps on demand, you could save some time and use that in place of the topping recipe below.

I added some almond extract along with the vanilla to the cake batter, which not only complemented the nuts in the topping, but enhanced the fruitiness of the rhubarb. There’s enough rhubarb to create tart, gooey pockets and keep the cake moist without making it mushy or difficult to serve as a cohesive square. Because this cake is delicious, but informal enough to slice a square from the pan for snacking at any time of the day. Or with any company.

 

Rhubarb Coffee Cake with Almond Crumble Topping

You can use any topping you may be keeping on hand to make fruit crisp in place of the topping in this recipe. 

Topping

1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

¼ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/3 cup chopped almonds

Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon fine salt

Finely grated zest of 1 medium-size lemon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 large egg

¾ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 cup chopped rhubarb

1. To make the topping, combine the 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour and brown sugar. Cut in the cold butter with a fork or with your hands, continuing to work it until the butter is well coated and in small pieces. Stir in the almonds. Refrigerate while preparing the cake batter.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare an 8-inch square baking pan by spraying it well with cooking spray or greasing it with butter or oil. Set aside.

3. In a medium-size bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, ½ cup whole wheat pastry flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk or sift together to combine well. Add the lemon zest and work it into the flour mixture with a fork or with your hands until it is well-distributed.

4. In another medium-size bowl, beat the egg and melted butter together. Add the milk and extracts and whisk to combine.

5. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture, mixing until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Stir in the rhubarb.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Crumble the topping evenly over the cake batter.

7. Bake at 350 F for 40-45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with no batter sticking to it. (Make sure that if you do see some gooey moisture on the pick that you haven’t poked into a slice of cooked rhubarb, which will remain moist.) Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cool completely.

Makes 9-12 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Rhubarb and White Chocolate Blondies, Rhubarb Pudding Cake, Blueberry Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Crumble Topping, Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake

One year ago: Sesame Noodles with Ginger Cilantro Sauce

Asparagus Salad

  

I keep making this salad. It has become a metaphor for loving being in the kitchen: flavors and aromas, fresh ingredients, nourishment, anticipation, pleasant surprise. I began making it when it still seemed safe to go somewhere without social distancing or wearing a mask, and I found some of the best asparagus I’ve ever eaten at Trader Joe’s on my way back from a short vacation. It started out as a recipe fantasy in Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden, and, now that really great asparagus is in my farmer’s market, it has become a way of life.

Six Seasons is a big, bold, flavor-promoting recipe collection. It celebrates the absolute sacredness of freshness and seasonality in produce, but also boosts everything with multiple layers of enhancing flavors – sometimes lots of them, often in combinations that I’m not sure about, always at least one more that I ever thought anyone would slip in. McFadden may be a sorcerer.

 

I have to admit that I’ve been intimidated by this kind of cooking. I don’t really have simple taste, but I do have a “simple” budget and not a lot of time. I would page through this type of cookbook, dreaming and drooling, but ultimately getting a little discouraged by ingredient lists that looked hard to acquire, a little weird, or just plain exhausting.

I set aside plenty of time to work on this recipe the first time I made it. I properly sliced the raw asparagus. I combined the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, walnuts, chile, black pepper, and lemon zest. And then I sniffed the bowl. I’m not sure what made me do it, but there was no going back. There will never be any going back. The fragrance of lemon and toasted nuts, the vaporous umami of the Parmesan (I mean, who knew it was safe to smell cheese?) along with toastiness from the whole grain, homemade breadcrumbs and punches of spice from the chile and black pepper – Alchemy. A whole greater than the sum of its parts. I can’t say enough.

 

The lesson of this dish is that bold layers of big flavor, properly and appropriately applied, can even further enhance already great, fresh ingredients, creating something magically spectacular. This salad is also a full celebration of what it means to enjoy food. It’s a pleasure to make with its meditative slicing and wonderful fragrances. And it’s so incredibly, wonderfully, super-naturally delicious. This is what we food-lovers step into the kitchen for.

I’m going to keep making this salad.

Asparagus Salad with Walnuts, Breadcrumbs, and Herbs

Adapted from Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden

There’s lots of room to adjust seasonings, oil, and lemon to taste in this recipe. Taste as you go and make it your own. It is best while the breadcrumbs are still crisp, but it’s still great once they’ve softened having soaked up lemon and olive oil.

1/3 cup breadcrumbs, preferably coarse, crunchy, and whole grain

½ cup freshly shredded or grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup toasted walnuts or pecans, chopped

Grated zest of 1 lemon

½ teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste

About ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more or less to taste

1 pound asparagus, tough ends removed

¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more to taste

¼ cup fresh mint or parsley leaves, or a combination

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, or a good quality lemon-infused olive oil, plus more to taste

1. In a large bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, walnuts or pecans, lemon zest, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Toss them together, and then STOP. Put your face over the bowl and sniff. Sniff a few more times. Inhale. That’s what you’re here for!

2. Thinly slice the asparagus on a sharp angle. Add to the mixture in the bowl.

3. Pour in the lemon juice and add the mint and/or parsley. Toss everything together. You can taste at this point for salt, spice, and lemon and adjust as you please.

4. Pour over the olive oil and toss everything together. Taste again and adjust as needed.

5. Make this dish multiple times and try out different ratios of salt, oil, lemon and herbs. Make I again and again until it is your own, or until asparagus is out of season in your area.

Makes 4-6 side-dish servings (Although I’m perfectly satisfied to have it as a main dish.)

Other recipes like this one: Fresh Peas and Mint; Brown and Wild Rice Salad with Asparagus and Pea; Apple Salad with Lime Juice, Walnuts, and Cheese

One Year Ago: Strawberry Sour Cream Pound Cake