The solution: Most of the fruits we tested, when baked with sugar, produced a nice quantity of slightly thickened juices. Two fruits, however, responded very differently. Apples were so dry we ultimately added water to make them juicy enough. At the other end, sour cherries were too watery, and ultimately demanded more thickener than the other fruits. Stated simply, baked fruits need sugar. On its own, most fruit is too tart for this type of dessert, and sweet cobbler toppings and ice cream accentuate its tartness rather than mellowing it. It turns out that sugar also helps with thickening, turning the fruit juices into a very light syrup. Even though sugar helped thicken the juice, it wasn't quite enough. We found a number of starches worked well at unobtrusively thickening the juices, but we preferred cornstarch because it is most widely available. One final observation about thickener: The riper the fruit, the lower the pectin level, so if baking prime specimens, you may want to add a tad more starch.

For good measure: Since fruit sweetness varies, we recommend you start by adding the lower of the suggested amounts, then taste and increase as needed. Also, be mindful that cooked fruit tends to be a bit tarter than its fresh version, so add a bit more sugar than you think you need.

MASTER RECIPE FOR FRUIT COBBLER

Enough for one 8-inch square or one 9-inch round pan

Clearly, these fruits can be mixed. If sugar quantities for the selected fruits are different, simply average the two amounts. Any of the toppings listed below can be used with any of the fruits. If you’re short on time, the Butter Cookie Dough Topping and the Batter Fruit Cobber can be put together very quickly. These recipes can easily be doubled and baked in a thirteen-by-nine-inch pan. Serve any of the cobblers that follow with ice cream or lightly whipped cream.

1. Prepare pastry, shortcake or cookie-dough topping for fruit. (Refrigerate shortcake or pastry topping.) Batter Fruit Cobbler that follows is self-contained.

2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix cornstarch, sugar to taste, and optional dry spices in medium bowl. Add prepared fruit and optional liquid flavorings; toss to coat.

3. Place fruit in 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan. Cover with selected topping, and bake on cookie sheet until golden brown, 45 to 55 minutes.

BUTTER COOKIE DOUGH TOPPING

This recipe was featured in an article titled “Boarding House Cuisine,” which ran in the May 1990 issue of Cook’s magazine. All of us who tasted the cobbler thought it was one of the best we had ever tasted. Six years and a lot of cobblers later, I still feel this topping makes one of the best cobblers you’ll probably ever eat. Because the cookie dough is quite sweet, use the smaller amount of sugar suggested in the fruit chart.

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 large egg or 1 yolk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in small bowl; set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar until well blended. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture; stir until just combined.

3. Drop dough onto prepared fruit by heaping tablespoons. Bake, following instructions in master recipe.

RICH SHORTCAKE TOPPING

Because the biscuit easily absorbs juices, this shortcake topping is particularly nice with berries. If you want to top the cobbler with individual biscuits, increase the recipe by half and roll it to three-quarters inch thick, brushing the dough rounds with milk and sprinkling them with sugar.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
7 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in food processor fitted with steel blade. Scatter butter pieces over mixture, tossing to coat butter with a little of the flour. Cut butter into flour with five 1-second pulses. Add shortening; continue cutting in until flour is pale yellow and resembles coarse cornmeal, with butter bits no larger than a small pea, about four more 1-second pulses. Turn mixture into medium bowl.

2. Pour 6 tablespoons milk into flour mixture. Toss with fork until mixture forms large clumps. Turn mixture onto work surface; lightly knead until mixture just comes together. Place dough on sheet of plastic wrap and press into either square or round disk, depending on pan shape. Refrigerate while preparing fruit. (Can be refrigerated up to 2 hours before baking.)

3. On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough to 10-inch square or circle. Lay dough over prepared fruit; tuck excess dough in between pan side and fruit. Brush dough with remaining tablespoon of milk; sprinkle on sugar. Cut four two-inch air vents in dough top and follow baking instructions in master recipe.

FLAKY PASTRY TOPPING

You can effortlessly achieve a soft and crisp-textured crust by tucking the pastry between the fruit and pan wall. The fruit juices keep the side crust tender while the dry oven heat crisps up the top. To turn your cobbler into a pandowdy, follow Master Recipe for Fruit Cobbler, topping it with Flaky Pastry Topping. Once the crust has fully set, but not browned (about thirty minutes into baking), remove the dessert from the oven, scoring the crust lengthwise and crosswise to form two-inch squares. Using a large spoon or metal spatula, press the partially baked crust down into the fruit. Continue to bake until the crust is set and golden.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar, plus 1 additional tablespoon for sprinkling over dough top
6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 tablespoons chilled all-vegetable shortening
2–3 tablespoons ice water
1 tablespoon milk (or water)

1. Mix flour, salt, and sugar in food processor fitted with steel blade. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture, tossing to coat butter with a little of the flour. Cut butter into flour with five 1-second pulses. Add shortening; continue cutting in until flour is pale yellow and resembles coarse cornmeal, with butter bits no larger than a small pea, about four more 1-second pulses. Turn mixture into medium bowl.

2. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons ice water over flour mixture. Using rubber spatula, fold water into mixture. Then press down on mixture with broad side of spatula until dough sticks together, adding up to 1 tablespoon more water if dough will not come together. Place dough on sheet of plastic wrap and press into either square or round disk, depending on pan shape.Refrigerate while preparing fruit. (Can be refrigerated up to 2 days before baking.)

3. On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough to 10-inch square or circle. Lay dough over prepared fruit; tuck excess dough in pan between pan side and fruit. Brush dough top lightly with milk or water and sprinkle with additional sugar. Cut four 2-inch air vents in dough top and bake following instructions in master recipe.

BATTER FRUIT COBBLER

Serves 4 to 6

After testing a number of batter-based cobblers, we found this recipe, adapted from New Southern Cooking (Knopf, 1986), to be one of the best in its category. Many of the batter cobblers reminded us too much of cake, quick bread, or custard. Unlike the others, this one had a real cobbler feel to it.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
2 cups sliced fruit or berries (not sweetened or thickened)

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Put butter in
8-inch square or 9-inch round pan; set in oven
to melt.

2. Whisk flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in small bowl. Add milk; whisk until just incorporated into dry ingredients. When butter has melted, remove pan from oven. Pour batter into pan, without stirring it into butter, then arrange fruit over batter. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon sugar. Bake until batter browns, about 40 to 50 minutes.

July, 1996


Click Here to View PDF file of the rating chart.

Original article and recipes by Karen Tack and Pam Anderson

 
SEE ALSO:

Cherry Pitter