{Your Favorite Fruit Here} Cobbler

Fruit desserts are the essence of summer. And a cobbler is a list-topper when it comes to fruit desserts. It is simple and oh, so versatile, and the perfect compliment to a summer barbecue. When I was a young girl, I liked to browse through my mom's cookbooks, and especially one intrigued me. It is called Family Favorites, and it is a collection of recipes put together by California home economics teachers! Therefore, the recipes are easy and well-tested. When I got married, I made sure to order a used copy (all you can find) of this special recipe book on Amazon.com for myself! Leafing though this book one day I came across this fruit cobbler recipe and decided tried it with peaches. We also discovered it is amazing with blackberries, which grow rampantly in my parent's Oregon backyard. As they say, the rest is history.

For many summers now, this recipe has been the request of small family dinners (correction: we never have "small" family dinners in my family...) as well as big parties (this is usually what our "small family dinners" turn into)! I remember making several LARGE pans of it when my brother got married almost 8 years ago. Several summers ago, I made two 9x13 pans full for my grandpa's birthday celebration in Florida (where blackberries are scarce- my grandma paid a small fortune for them!). Earlier this summer, my sisters texted me, requesting it. I've made it with fresh, u-picked local peaches, canned Costco peaches, white peaches, fresh Oregon blackberries and frozen blackberries, but it is ALWAYS delicious.



Recently I served it (peach style) for my in-laws after a delicious steak dinner, alongside my mother-in-law's fantastic fresh, homemade vanilla ice cream, and amazingly my father-in-law remarked later that he preferred the cobbler to the ice cream!

Enjoy the recipe with whatever your favorite summer fruit is, and maybe it will become your family's tradition too!

By the way, I apologize, I was so excited to eat the finished cobbler, that I forgot to take a picture! You'll just have to imagine it, steaming...with a scoop of homemade ice cream...summer in a bowl.

Fruit Cobbler
(printable version)

from "Family Favorites"

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 scant tsp baking powder

1 stick softened butter

1 egg, beaten

6 cups of fruit (or enough to fill your pan!)

sugar to taste (about 1/2 cup for peaches)

cinnamon/nutmeg as desired

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine the first four ingredients in one bowl. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients. Mix beaten egg well into flour/butter mixture. Fill an 8x8 pan full with fruit. Sugar well. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg to taste. Pat or sprinkle cobbler dough over top of fruit. Bake for at least 40 minutes or until topping is golden brown and fruit is bubbly. Excellent served warm with ice cream.