Sunday, July 29, 2012

Kitchen Improv: Blackberry Cobbler!

The other night the Hubs shot me a text saying that we needed to use up the blackberries in the fridge, as a few were starting to go bad.  We can’t have that!  So of course, cobbler was my first thought.  Delicious, easy way to use up a couple cups of fresh berries.

I got home from work, flipped through a couple cookbooks, and picked a recipe that seemed simple. I mean, flour, butter, berries, sugar, milk…how much more basic can you get?

Ten minutes into the prep for our Adventure into cobbler town, we made two discoveries.

1. We had only 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour in our pantry.

2. We also had only 1/4 cup of milk.

Did that stop us?  HECK NO!  There’s a 9x13 pan in the oven melting butter…and I’m not wasting a stick of butter just because of a couple setbacks.  Care to find out how we still managed to throw together this delectable gem?

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Then keep reading. (Duh.  I’m sure you were planning on doing that anyway, right?)

First, I’ll give you the recipe I was SUPPOSED to use.  It’s apparently Mel Tillis’ mother’s cobbler recipe.

Ingredients (original):

1 stick butter

2 C milk

2 C flour

2 C blackberries

2 C sugar

 

Nice & simple, right?  But missing items in a pantry will throw off even the simplest of recipes.  So… we improvised.

First, my husband MADE flour.  Seriously.  MADE it.  He is RESOURCEFUL.  I’ve never made flour before.  I typically leave that to the professionals.

Two cups of old fashioned oats + 1 blender + 1 awesome husband?

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BAM: Oat Flour.  Homemade even.

(Note: 2 cups of oats makes about 1.5 cups of oat flour.  So we added the 1/2 cup of regular flour that we already had.)

Then…no milk.  But that’s no problem: We have INSTANT MILK!

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If you DON’T keep a box of dry milk in your pantry…you really should.  It’s perfect for these situations and there’s no taste difference (when used for baking), and a big box is pretty darn cheap.  Also comes in handy when you’re out of coffee creamer. :D

So we have a glass 9x13 pan in the oven, with a stick of butter cut up in it, melting:

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And we’re combining our ingredients in our mixer: flour, milk, sugar (I actually decreased this to 3/4 cup of sugar, and 1/2 cup of Splenda.  The blackberries are already pretty sweet, so 2 cups of sugar just seemed excessive).

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The batter seemed a little thin, and I was really surprised there wasn’t a leavener of some sort in the recipe, so I added 1 tsp of baking soda & 1/4 tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp of cornstarch, and about 1/2 cup of additional flour (I had some wheat pastry flour in the pantry that needed to be used up as well).

Once the thickness seemed right (like cake batter), I poured it into the pan on top of the melted butter, and then sprinkled the blackberries evenly over the top.  Then, sprinkle 1 tbsp of white sugar over the top of the batter.

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Bake at 425 for 20-30 minutes, or until the top browns and the edges of the crust pull away from the sides of the pan.

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Makes 15 servings.

Ingredients (actual recipe used):

1 stick butter

2.5 cups flour (1/2 cup AP, 1.5 cup oat flour, 1/2 cup wheat pastry flour)

2 cups nonfat milk

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 baking powder

1 tsp cornstarch

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup Splenda

2 heaping cups blackberries

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NutriFacts:

Calories 150.0  

Total Fat 4.1 g   

Saturated Fat 0.2 g   

Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g   

Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g  

Cholesterol 10.6 mg  

Sodium 122.0 mg  

Potassium 90.6 mg  

Total Carbohydrate 28.3 g   

Dietary Fiber 2.5 g   

Sugars 13.1 g  

Protein 3.8 g

2 comments:

  1. The original Tillis recipe called for self-rising flour which gives you the necessary leavening. We make cobblers frequently following the Tillis recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The original Tillis recipe called for self-rising flour which gives you the necessary leavening. We make cobblers frequently following the Tillis recipe.

    ReplyDelete