I have mentioned several times on the blog, that husband and I eat almost exclusively home-made food, including desserts. It happened gradually, but I became kind of a foodie over the years and I spend more and more time reading and watching recipes, researching ingredients and experimenting in the kitchen.
I am so satisfied, when I try new spices, new cooking methods, new ingredients
and new proportions. This led me to growing some of my own spices, as well as
collecting spices, when we travel. But more about this - perhaps in another
post.
This summer I came upon a video about an easy American dessert, the vlogger called magic cobbler. Traditional cobblers originated in British American colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. Lacking standard baking pans or proper ovens, settlers improvised by dropping raw dough over spiced fruit in cast-iron Dutch ovens over open fires. As it baked, the dropped dough puffed into a rough, "cobbled" top layer resembling a cobblestone street.
Unlike the standard cobbler, which uses biscuit dough and which I made some years previously, the Southern magic cobbler involves melted butter, over which a light mixture of flour, milk and sugar is poured and finally a handful of fresh or frozen fruit is gently arranged on top of the batter.
My version is light on sugar and heavy on the fruit and I've been making these
all summer long with all sorts of seasonal fruits - strawberries, cherries,
apples, pears, apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines, figs and random
combinations thereof, as per the content of our fridge and fruit basket :)
Ingredients:
- 40 g butter + 10 g sunflower oil
- 80 g sugar
- 160 g milk
- 100 g flour + 5 g baking powder
- 250 g fruit
Cut the fruit into small bites or slices, you can cover them with some vanilla sugar, if you want. The amount of fruit is arbitrary - 200 g is probably the minimum, but I've gone up to 600 g with some fruit.
Place the mixture of butter and oil in the baking dish and put it in the oven
to melt at 200C. I get the best results, when the oil mixture is hot, just
close to the point, when the butter begins to burn - be careful not to
overpass this point, as butter contains milk solids, that scorch quickly over
high heats. Meanwhile prepare the batter, mixing sugar, milk and flour with
baking powder. You can add your favourite dessert spices here - unfortunately
my folk do not enjoy most of the spices I love - cinnamon, vanilla, fig leaves
powder, mahleb, lemon, but you can go as crazy or as moderate as you please
with these.
Take out the baking dish with the hot oil and pour the batter in the center of
the oil - it will spread and begin cooking even before you put it in the oven.
Arrange the fruit pieces carefully on top of the batter and place the dish in
the oven. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the amount of fruit. A
tooth pick test in the center of the pie will show you if it is completely
done.
I absolutely love mine with coffee, but you can serve it with milk, tea or any
other beverage of your choice. The dessert is light, it does not contain eggs
and is not too sugary - if the fruits are sweet, I reduce the sugar to 70 or
even 60 g, as I really dislike dishes, that are too sweet . The texture is soft and the
combination of the caramelized crust with the baked fruit is exquisite.
Together with the crumble - another recipe I should revisit on the blog, this
is our most favourite dessert this summer!
