Cobbler

1 tbls corn starch
3/4 cup pls 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 pints (three of those little tubs) of berries
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tbl baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick cold butter
1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tbls of milk

Note: The measurements are a little odd because this recipe is halved from the original. That's the way I have it written down, so that's the way it's getting posted. If you want to make a bigger batch just double everything and use a 9x13 inch pan.

Preheat the oven to 425 and grease a 8x8 baking pan. Mix together the cornstarch and sugar (reserving the 1/2 tsp of sugar) in a mixing bowl. Add the berries, coat them in the sugar mixture then pour them in the pan. Put the pan in the oven until the mixture is bubbly, about 10-15 minutes. While the berries cook whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Take the butter and cut it into small cubes then work it into the flour using a food processor, pastry cutter or your hands, till it's a coarse meal. Add the milk and stir it till its a dough. Remove the berries from the oven and drop scoops of the dough (1/3 of a cup or so) on them and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 tsp of sugar. Put it back in the oven till golden, 20-30 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

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Sweet merciful crap, I love cobbler. This is by far the best recipe I have seen for this particular type, too. It is simplicity itself and comes out just amazing. There are a lot of recipes that call for eggs, buttermilk and all kinds of other stuff, but one of the things I like best about this one is how simple it is. Nothing but the basics. This kind of cobbler isn't really sweet by itself (uhm, discounting the berry part), it's more of a biscuit. So it needs something like ice cream or whipped cream. But that's not really a hardship, I don't think. First thing, preheat the oven to 425 and grease the pan. Mix together the corn starch and sugar. This time around I am using two tubs of blackberries and one of raspberries, but you can use whatever kinds of fruit you want. Peaches would be lovely. Mix together the cornstarch and all the sugar except the 1/2 teaspoon. I have found that mixing up store bought berries in a bowl like the recipe says really squishes up raspberries. So what I have taken to doing is just pouring half the berries straight into the greased baking dish,
(not bothering to mix them together to speak off... let's just pretend we don't notice that) sprinkling them with half the sugar/starch mixture, adding the rest of the berries and sprinkling on the rest of the sugar mix. It works just fine. Put the dish into the oven and cook it for ten to fifteen minutes. You want it to get bubbly. While the berries are cooking whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.This you do need a bowl for. Next is the hardest part of the recipe, especially in the summer. You want to take a cold stick of butter and cut it in half lengthwise. Then turn it and cut it in half again so you get four long, relatively equal sticks. Now cut those into half inch cubes. I didn't manage to get any good pictures of this because my kitchen was pretty hot and the butter was starting to soften already. You want your butter to stay cold for this part, so you need to work kind of fast. Add the butter to the flour mixture.Now you can cut the butter in with a pastry cutter or you can toss it into a food processor and work it till it's right. But I can't give you advice on those since I always do it by hand. And I mean really by hand. I just reach into the flour and squeeze the chunks of butter.Over and over. Until it's a coarse meal. After you squeeze a chunk you want to drop it back in and work another one. You want each piece to be completely coated with flour when you squeeze it. When you are done it should look kinda like cornmeal, but fluffier and a bit bigger.Those bigger lumps aren't butter, they are the mixture sticking together a bit. You shouldn't have any chunks of butter left. Now pour in the milk and mix it around till it's a dough.It doesn't take much, you don't want to over mix it. Once the berries are ready pull them out of the oven. It doesn't matter if a some of the sugar hasn't melted all the way, it's going back in the oven and it will work itself out. Now drop big spoonfuls (quarter cup or a third) of it onto the top. Don't worry about covering the whole thing, you want some of the liquid to bubble up through.Sprinkle that 1/2 teaspoon of sugar over the top of the batter. Now toss it back in the oven for 20-30 minutes. You want it to be gorgeous and browned, like this. Lovely isn't it? Now, like I said, this kind of cobbler needs ice cream or something. Tonight it's whipped cream. Yeah, it's from a can. What of it? It's still real cream. Look, I could stay here and debate the merits of canned dairy products or I could go eat my cobbler. Which would you pick? Heh.