Blackberry Cobbler? Yes, please!

I have fond memories from my childhood of visiting my grandmother in east Texas, picking dewberries, and then having my grandmother's friend/housekeeper/cook, Rene, turn out a so-delicious-I-can-hardly-believe-it dewberry cobbler. I had the day off from work today and had a hankering to cook up some classic Americana. So, along with burgers and potato salad, I decided to make cobbler. While dewberries are not really available in stores, blackberries are really close relatives. You can pretty much use any fruit you want, though.

Also, Rene made her cobbler with rolled out dough arranged in a lattice design. That's waaaay to artistic for me, and I actually like the aesthetic of this method better. It's more cobbley.

Anyway, let's get to it!

(I apologize in advance for the poor quality of these photos. I don't have very good light in my kitchen)

Get yourself about 1 1/2 lbs. (24 oz) of blackberries and give them a good rinse. Transfer to a large bowl.

Hello my darlings!


Pour 1/2 cup sugar, zest of 1 lemon and about 1-2 Tablespoons of lemon juice (juice of 1/2 lemon for those folks who aren't into measuring) over the blackberries. Give it a good stir...this will help the blackberries to start releasing their juices.




Next, we make the dough. Mix together 2 cups all purpose flour, about 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 Tablespoon baking powder and 1 Tablespoon sugar.




Toss in 1/4 cup Crisco (that's right, I said Crisco) and 4 Tablespoons butter.




Using a pastry cutter, fork or two knives, start cutting the Crisco and butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. This will take a few minutes and will require some elbow grease. Just be patient.



Once you kinda come into the home stretch, I dispense with the pastry cutter and just use my hands. That way you can really feel when it's done.

It should look something like this.




In a separate bowl, mix together 1/2 cup milk and 1 egg. Pour the egg/milk mixture, kinda slowly, into the flour mixture.




Mix in wet ingredients using a fork, your hands, or whatever mixing tool floats your boat. The end result should be a fairly sticky dough.



Back to the blackberries...pour those delicious beauties into a baking dish making sure to scrape all the sugary juiciness from the bowl into the dish as well.




Drop little clumps of dough over the berries until they're covered. It doesn't have to be fancy so don't go measuring out the clumps or anything. Irregular fingerfuls will do just fine. Shift them around and nestle in more clumps as needed and don't forget the sides and corners of the dish! If you don't use all the dough that's okay too.




Pat the clumps down just a teeny bit and sprinkle with more sugar. I used about 1 1/2 Tablespoons.



Bake in a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.

The result is a summer berry wonderland covered in a sweet biscuity topping!

Goodness, gracious. *drool*

To serve, you could just eat it straight out of the dish. I wouldn't blame you. But my recommendation is to spoon it into a bowl and add a few scoops of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream.

*Note: If you're going with my recommendation, the Blue Bell ice cream is a MUST. Any other brand just will not do. If you happen to live in a state where Blue Bell is not available.....well...it just won't be as special.

Yes, ma'am! I can't even tell you how excited I was to eat this.

I have to tell you, I've been a little intimidated by cobblers in the past. For some reason, I thought it would be more complicated than it actually was. But it was very simple and straightforward...and only took about an hour to make from start to finish!

Enjoy!

*Cobbler recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman