Cobbler, Cobbler, mend my shoe

Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe.
Get it done by half past two.
Half past two is much too late!
Get it done by half past eight.
~Author Unknown

cob·bler –noun
1. a person who mends shoes.
2. a deep-dish fruit pie with a rich biscuit crust, usually only on top.
3. an iced drink made of wine or liquor, fruits, sugar, etc.
4. a fabric rejected because of defective dyeing or finishing.
5. a mummichog.
6. Archaic. a clumsy workman.

Similar to a fruit crisp in that they both have a delicious juicy fruit filling, cobblers are an American invention, most likely invented by those talented American Pioneers who were very adept at pulling delicious rabbits out of hats made of simple and lacking ingredients. They were very good at improvising. Having brought their favourite recipes from back home with them they had to make do with the ingredients that were available for them in the New World and came up with delicious recipes such as these, and unique names as well, such as cobbler, crumble, grunt, pan dowdy, slump, buckle . . . essentially all the same dessert but with different toppings and names.

Yes, today is Tuesday and it's the Tuesdays with Dorie Challenge day . . . the one day of the week when a bazillion bakers around the world pool together their resources and talents and bake the same recipe from the delicious book "Baking, from my home to yours" by Dorie
Greenspan.

This weeks challenge was, you might have guessed it, Mixed Berry Cobbler, on pages 416-417 as chosen by Beth of Our Sweet Life .

Beth, Beth, Beth . . . this week you were surely singing the song of my heart for I love fruit cobblers almost more than anything in this world! Thanks so much for choosing this recipe!



I decided early on after reading about all the experiences that the other ladies of the baking group were having with this recipe, that I would make a few changes in the basic recipe. I have always loved the combination of blueberries and peaches and so I decided to add a tin of sliced peaches into the cobbler filling mix, chopped into small squares of course. I knew you wouldn't be able to see them in the final baked mix as they would be coloured blue like all the little blueberries, but I thought that they would create a simple taste surprise in every bite! I also added a tsp of cinnamon because blueberries, peaches and cinnamon go together very, very well.



A lot of the other ladies had found the topping to be rather bland and so I kicked it up a notch by adding a heaping tsp of my own homemade pumpkin pie spice to the flour and sugar before I rubbed in the butter. I also added 1/2 tsp of pure vanilla essence to the cream before I stirred it in. The dough for the topping came together very nicely. I patted mine out to the required size between two pieces of cling film, and easily popped it on top of the berry mix that was waiting in my little blue casserole dish.

Blueberries, peaches all tucked under a biscuit dough blanket in a pretty blue casserole dish . . . all it needed now was my little blue pie bird that I received from my friend Susan from Not Quite June Cleaver as a cute little decoration. I had been dying to use it ever since it came in the mail! This was the perfect excuse!



I brushed the biscuit blanket with some more cream and sprinkled on a healthy topping of demerara sugar before I popped it into the oven to add some colour and lovely crunch to the finished creation.

It smelled heavenly when it was baking . . . oh my!



It looked so beautiful when it came out of the oven with those delicious blueberry juices oozing around the edges and that cute little bird peeping up out of the middle, not to mention with that sugar crust adoring the top!

They say the proof is in the eating, and this turned out to be very delicious on the day, served up warm and adorned with a couple slabs of Green and Black's organic vanilla ice cream. We both loved it very much. The crust was short and buttery and melted in the mouth and those blueberries and peaches . . . well . . . they were nothing short of wonderfully, tastily, moreish!



With a few adaptions this was a lovely recipe and I would make it again. I was also able to cut the recipe in half quite successfully, which I like to do sometimes as there is really only Todd and I here to eat these things and I am quite stout and shouldn't be eating too much of things like this and Todd is only one man and can't possibly get through a lot of it all on his lonesome. In a way I was glad though that I had only made half as it is not a dessert that sits well I found for the next day all the juices from the blueberries had soaked into the topping and it was not quite as appealing, so it's truly an eat on the day type of dessert!

For the recipe you must visit Beth's page, and for a gander at what all the other lovely members of the group came up with, hop on over to the main Blog Roll! I'm on my way over myself as I can't wait to see what they each came up with. Maybe I'll meet you there!

Next week Karina of The Floured Apron has chosen . . . Apple Cheddar Scones on page 32. Mmmmmm . . . I can't wait!!!

Hmmm . . . now I'm wondering what a mummichog is . . .