Yesterday I ventured out to Watsonville with my dear friend Molly, her two cutie pie boys and my own little Addie. We were a sight, let me tell you. Two grown ups intent on picking full buckets of these sweet-tart berries while the kids were off in their own berry heaven world. Jake mastered the art of making jam out of berries and mud, and Tim battled a fear of bees and the urge to eat more than he picked, while Addie was happy to be outside and in the middle of it all.
The kids had such fun, we got an insanely big haul of Ollalieberries, and when we were leaving, Tim announced he was only going to have Ollalies for lunch. And then, not long after that, he begged to eat lunch at the King's Boogers (Burger King was the only kid-friendly place to stop for miles...) All in all, a perfect way to spend the first day of July.
So on to the recipe. Of course, I must admit it's not my own. I use the old Betty Crocker cookbook from 1950--and as far as I'm concerned, it may be the only recipe for cobbler I'll ever need. It's not healthy--not by a long shot. But it's perhaps one of the best desserts I've ever made. I tried this recipe over a year ago when my friends and I set out to cook our way through this old copy of the classic Betty Crocker cook book; sadly, we only got through a couple of weeks until the idea fizzled out. But the idea of this cobbler, hot from the oven with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream beside it, will never grow old to me.
Betty's Berry Cobbler
For the shortcake:
2 cups sifted flour
2 T sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 T shortening
1 cup milk
For the fruit:
2 cups sugar
2 T cornstarch
2 cups boiling water
6 cups berries (blackberries, boysenberries or
ollalieberries) mixed with 1 1/2 cups sugar
1 T butter
1 tsp cinnamon
Method (for the shortcake):
Stir together first 4 ingredients. Then add the shortening and cut in fine with a pastry blender. Stir in the milk to make a soft dough. Set aside.
For the fruit:
Mix together the sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan; gradually stir in the boiling water. Bring the mixture to a boil and keep it there for one minute, stirring constantly. Then add the berry/sugar combination.
Pour the fruit into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Drop spoonfuls of the shortcake onto the fruit nd then dot with butter. Sprinkle cinnamon on top (if desired). Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
It's best served warm with ice cream, but that's a given, right?
1 comment:
what the heck is an Ollalie Berry? ;) never even heard of it!
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