However, in addition to all the home decorating articles and ads, this month they had a recipe thrown in, which I don't think I've seen before in this magazine. It was for a Blackberry & Apple Cobbler, and the picture looked so amazing that I immediately ripped that page out. It's been sitting on my kitchen counter for a few days, and every time I've walked past it, I've practically drooled. So last night I made it.
Here's my review: The topping is amazing. Nathan and his brother, Andrew, said that it was a very British topping--not too sweet, very buttery, and just all around delicious. Andrew said it reminded him of shortbread, except the texture was much less dense. But the really special thing about it was how it just melted in your mouth. Truly, the cobbler topping was out of this world.
As for the filling, I have to say that I wasn't crazy about the apples--their texture didn't seem to go with the rest of the dish, and the blackberry flavor overpowered them, anyway. Next time, I'm going to make this dish with only blackberries. Also, there is no flour in the filling, which is usually used as a binder in American cobblers and crisps. As a result, there was a lot of blackberry juice in the bottom of the dish--in fact, the berries were practically swimming in it. Honestly, it wasn't too bad of a thing to happen, because the sugary juice was great spooned over the vanilla ice cream I served with it. But I think I'd add a little flour next time, just to firm it up a bit.
Another thing I should note before you delve into the recipe below is that the original recipe is in grams and milliliters. Not having any familiarity with metric conversions, I asked Andrew to convert all of the measurements for me, and I've given our approximations below. Also, the original recipe calls for double cream, which is not exactly readily available at my local grocery store, so I substituted heavy cream. And it tells you to serve the final product with pouring cream or custard (so British!), but we went with ice cream, instead.
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British Blackberry Cobbler
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour (115g + 1 tablespoon)
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 of a stick of butter, softened and cubed (95g)
2/3 cup heavy cream (150ml)
24 oz. blackberries (I used frozen)
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (75g + 2 tablespoons)
good pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 375. Place the blackberries in the base of a 2 or 3 quart baking dish. Dredge and toss with 1 tablespoon flour and 1/4 cup sugar.
In a separate bowl, mix the remaining flour, salt, and baking powder. Rub the butter in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (I used a fork for this). Add the cream to the mixture and mix into sticky dough. Add a bit more flour if you need to (I ended up adding two or three more tablespoons).
Roll the dough into approximately six balls, then flatten the balls and place them on top of the berries. Brush the tops with a little milk or egg whites and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Bake 40-50 minutes or until golden.
5 comments:
That looks A-MAZING! :D
Deb
It was really good. The topping was definitely amazing. As for the apples, I liked the texture change, but they were overpowered by the blackberries. It'd be good without them. Good idea on the flour, Lauren. Although, as you mentioned, with ice cream or cream the extra juice is pretty tasty.
I'm pretty sure this would simply be classified as a crumble (or crisp in the US). As far as I know, the Brits have no knowledge of what we would consider a "cobbler." Heavy cream IS double cream, except the Brits don't pasteurize it, making it richer and firmer. And custard literally is pudding. But we usually serve crumbles with ice cream, too, and I haven't heard any complaints from the locals. :D
Emily: So does "crumble" refer to both cobbler toppings and oatmealy crisp toppings? I think of cobblers as biscuit toppings and crisps as oatmeal toppings. If "cobbler" isn't a term used in the UK, I'm guessing they used it in the magazine because it's for an American audience.
The Brits don't really have cobbler topping. They don't really have BISCUITS, at least not in the American sense. By far, crumble toppings are most common. They might occasionally put a pastry top on things, but usually they'd rather just have pie. And if they're gonna have pie, it's gonna be savory. In the mind of the average Brit, there's crumble and savory pies. :D
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