Sweet Sweet Cherry Cobbler

My man’s favorite dessert is cherry.

Cherry pie. Cherry cobbler. Cherry whatever.

But especially cherry cobbler.

Which is funny because he will be the first to admit that, while growing up, he doesn’t know that he would have ever had a true homemade from fresh cherries cobbler.

So I have been on a search for a few years for good recipes but I still hadn’t found what I was looking for. (Cue the U2 music here.)

I recently noticed that there was a  cherry cobbler recipe in my William’s Sonoma Essentials of Baking cookbook.  I decided to try it out and with Mike’s reaction I knew I was on the right track. But my critique was that it still wasn’t quite “there.” The cobbler topping was really good, but the filling… well, it was lacking something. It lacked the thickened juice surrounding each cherry that I think of when I picture cherry cobbler.

Notice the cherries are just there with
no extra thickened juice surrounding them. 

Then, my most recent Cook’s Illustrated issue had a cherry pie recipe that I decided to try. It garnered rave reviews from my man and I learned a couple of things by reading the article and making the recipe. One of those things was the fact that most cherry pie/cobbler recipes are designed for sour or tart cherries which break down and release their juices easier than sweet cherries. This pie recipe from Cook’s Illustrated accounted for the smaller amount of juice released by sweet cherries in the cooking process.  After having tried the pie recipe, I decided to incorporate a few of the ingredients and techniques used to make a better cobbler. A cobbler full of flavor and juicy goodness.

And make a better cobbler it did.

In honor of my man’s birthday which is coming up soon, I invite you to share a little Sweet Cherry Cobbler with him.

Sweet Cherry Cobbler

Ingredients:

Filling:
6 cups sweet (i.e. Bing) cherries, stems removed and pitted
2 small red plums, pits removed
3 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon table salt
1 ¾ tablespoons granulated tapioca
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cobbler topping:
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon sugar mixed with ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

 

You will also need:

Food processor or blender
Fine mesh strainer
Several bowls
Baking dish (I use a round 11” baking dish with sides 2” high)
Whisk
Rubber spatula/spoonula
Spring loaded scoop (ice cream scoop)

 

Method:

For the filling: Place the pitted plums (with skins) and about ½ cup of the pitted cherries in the food processor. Process about 1 minute, scraping down the sides as needed. Strain the purée through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl, pressing on the solids to remove all the juice. Discard the solids. To the purée, add the sugar, salt, lemon juice, cinnamon and tapioca; stir to combine.

Take ½ cup – 1 cup of the pitted cherries and cut them in half then place all the cherries in the purée mixture. Stir to coat the cherries completely and let stand for 10-15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375ºF.

Place the cherry mixture in the baking dish; bake for 10 minutes while you prepare the topping.

For the topping: Combine the buttermilk and vanilla and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Work the small pieces of butter into the flour mixture with your fingers until it resembles coarse crumbs. Pour the buttermilk/vanilla mixture into the flour mixture; fold and stir together with a rubber spatula just until the flour is completely and evenly moistened. It will be a soft, sticky and thick dough.

Remove the fruit from the oven and scatter spoonfuls (from your spring-loaded scoop) of the dough all over the top of the fruit. It should not cover completely as the dough will spread as it cooks. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar evenly over the top.

Return the cobbler to the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. The cherry filling will be bubbling and the topping browned (a toothpick should come out clean).

Cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack.

Serve warm with ice cream.

Eat.

Repeat.

This recipe can also be found on my recipe blog here.