Berry Cobbler

I love Granny Smith apples.  I don’t eat them much, but I use them often in my cooking and baking, so I try to keep them around.  They are firm, tart, flavorful and last a long time on display.  People who visit my home are always amazed at the amount of fruit I have in the ‘apple bowl’ on my kitchen table. 

I learned a long time ago that apples need to be stored separately.  Apples release a gas that will spoil fruits prematurely if stored together, so my fruit bowl contains applies only.

 

On occasion someone will suspect that the fruit in the bowl is fake until they look closely and even pick up an apple or two and see that they are real.  My secret is that I use surprisingly realistic looking fake apples to create a bed for the three or four real apples that sit on top.  I thought that was genius.
 

I can't tell the difference when I use fresh or frozen berries for this cobbler.  Since I keep a few small bags of berries in the freezer, I always have the ingredients I need to make this delicious dessert at a moment’s notice.

Ingredients:

§     1 stick unsalted butter

§     1 cup self-rising flour

§     1/4 cup sugar

§     3/4 cup whole milk

§     1 teaspoon vanilla

§     2 cups berries (raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries)

§     1 Granny Smith apple cut into berry size cubes

§     1/2 cup sugar

§     1/2 cup water

§     Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a small bowl, combine berries, apples, sugar and water and set aside.

Melt butter in a shallow 1 1/2 quart baking dish. 

In a small bowl, mix together flour, sugar and milk and pour evenly over the melted butter. 

Spoon the fruit evenly over batter.

Do not stir. 

Bake 40 – 45 minutes.  

Remove from the oven and dust with powdered sugar. 

Serve warm with a scoop of your favorite ice cream.  For a printer friendly copy of this recipe, go to Berry Cobbler. Enjoy!

If using all-purpose flour, sift 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt with flour.

Note:  The original recipe did not call for the granny smith apple but I found it gave the cobbler a much needed tart flavor.