Cherry Cobbler – Food to heal your soul.

Cherry Cobbler (5 of 12)Heralding the end of the season, the price of cherries dropped suddenly a couple of weeks ago. Given that I had a virgin cherry stoner, purchased on the last French holiday, I thought it time to lay my hands on half a kilo of these delectable treats. The plan was to prepare a simple Cherry Cobbler. A quick trawl of the Internet, revealed thousands of recipe options. As is my way, I decided to meld a number of these into something approaching a reasonable concoction.

Some used tinned cherries. Some used far too much sugar. Some used far too little fruit. The others all seemed to let themselves down in one way or other. Too much butter here, too complex a recipe there. I gleaned what I could from them all and decided to go my own way. This recipe is simple and it works. It will feed six to eight after a decent main course.

The ingredients, cobbled together for the photo, of course.

The ingredients, cobbled together for the photo, of course.

Ingredients

  • 220 grammes of butter
  • 140 grammes of flour
  • 220 grammes of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 225 ml of milk
  • 500 grammes of cherries
  • Handful of flaked almonds
  • Icing sugar to dust

Heat the oven to 180º C (360º F). Put the butter into a 30 cm (11 inches) square baking dish and pop it in the oven. I’m sure this will work in other sizes too. That is the size of my baking dish.

The dish is in fact clean, just very old and well worn. Somewhat like myself.

The dish is in fact clean, just very old and well-worn. Somewhat like myself.

Wash, dry and de-seed the cherries using a cherry stoner. Every good kitchen has one!

The unused cherry stoner, just before going into action.

The unused cherry stoner, just before going into action.

Side note on stoners: A stoner limps along the street, wearing only one shoe. He meets a fellow stoner who remarks “Hey Man, lost a shoe?” The stoner replies “No man. Found a shoe.” Sorry about that one. 

In a bowl, mix together 125 grammes of the flour, 170 grammes of sugar and the baking powder. Add the milk, stirring to form a batter.

There's no need to sieve the ingredients. Any lumps can be beaten out.

There’s no need to sieve the ingredients. Like with children, any imperfections can be beaten out.

When the butter has melted, Take the dish out of the oven and pour in the batter mixture.

No need to stir things. Let the batter and butter be mellow together. Like two stoners, perhaps.

No need to stir things. Let the batter and butter be mellow together. Like two stoners, perhaps.

Add the remaining sugar and remaining 20 grammes of flour to a bowl and add the cherries. Toss to coat.

Stones gone and tossed in flour and sugar. It was hard not to eat them raw.

Stones gone and tossed in flour and sugar. It was hard not to eat them raw.

Drop the cherries into the batter.

Spot the action shot! Last few of the cherries get dropped in to the batter.

Spot the flying cherry! Last few of the fruit get dropped in to the batter.

Place the cobbler into the oven and bake for 50 minutes. Add the flaked almonds after 40 minutes or so. It’s cooked when a skewer, toothpick or knitting needle can be inserted and removed cleanly. Don’t use all three.

The finished cobbler. If you are going to have it cold, let it cool and sprinkle with icing sugar.

The finished cobbler. If you are going to have it cold, let it cool and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Serve with a scoop of ice cream or dollop of cream.

Delicious cobbler. It will heal your soul, if you will pardon the awful pun.

This delicious cobbler will heel your sole, if you will pardon the awful pun.

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  • You clearly had a misspent youth, Conor Bofin. Good to see you’ve redeemed yourself since. 🙂 Lovely recipe, thanks.

    • I wrote a post last night for future posting. It really shows just how misspent my youth was. More to follow….
      Hope all is well with you Linda.
      C

      • Splendid, thank you, as are you I hope. I look forward to further confessions …

  • Fresh cherries in a crumble, nice one. Very punny post.

  • Oh, envious! Cherries are my second favourite fruit, and I can’t grow them in this climate (the tropics). They come into season at Christmas and are available up here but at enormous expense. I may have to slum it and experiment with the canned variety. That would be my sole opportunity. Sorry….

    • Second favourite! What’s your fist Kate?
      I bought some cherries in syrup in jars for winter use. I have to come up with a recipe yet. Perhaps something ‘laced’ with cherries that would taste good on the ‘tongue’. Sorry right back at ya!…

      • First favourite is mangoes. I preserved a whole tray of Bowen mangoes in orange juice earlier this year, for a taste of sunshine in the winter. Maybe mango cobbler would work, tropical footwear, perhaps?

        • I am unsure about tropical footwear. In fact, I flip and flop on the subject.

          • I am going to bring this to a dignified close. It can’t possibly ‘last’ any longer…

          • Touché!

  • Our cherries are long since gone, but we’ve got a plethora of baking apples coming into season. As if I needed an excuse to make a run to my favorite orchard for apples, cider, and sheep petting.

    • Amber, remember to post it when you do. Rob a sheep for me while you are at it!

      • They’re little Black Welsh Mountain sheep. I bet I could fit one in my back seat!

  • One can never have too many cherry cobbler recipes . This one looks great. It reminds me of a clafoutis .

    • It’s really simple and requires very little skill. That’s why it suits me so well.

  • This got me cobbled! 🙂

    • That was the idea Barb. Happy to have done so.

      • I just wish we still had cherries available! Might have to do this with the apples I just harvested! 🙂

  • Something akin to a sweet yorkshire pudding? Good gadget, but better joke.

    • A sweet YP is a great idea. Who will be first to post? A sort of vegetarian Toad in the Hole.

  • I recently bought a cherry stoner (we call them cherry pitters) that will do 6 cherries at a time. I haven’t used it, but this gives me reason to! 🙂

    • Show off! That reminds me of strapping six pens together to write the lines I was given for not paying attention in school. We used to lash through them!

  • Good thing you pointed out the falling cherry, or I would have missed it. The batter has intriguing proportions — don’t think I’ve ever seen one with more butter than flour. Does the stoner work well? I didn’t enjoy stoning the cherries for the clafoutis I made — the French would of course tell me not to stone cherries for clafoutis in the first place.

    • Thanks Stefan, yes, the stoner worked very well though, a couple of the stones escaped in the process. So, no 100% guarantee.

      • Thanks Conor, I’ll see if I can find one in Amsterdam.

  • This looks so delicious. I really love cherries and cobbler. This is a combo of my faves.

    • We enjoyed it Amanda. I look forward to them being back in season.

  • Alas, our cherry tree was at the rental house we are no longer in. Cherry season is spent now here, anyways. But a wonderful, simple recipe that even I could make. I am not a baker, as I’ve lamented for years… my pies and cakes just never come out right. It’s probably our high altitude (almost 3,700 feet, don’t ask me to translate that into your system). 🙂 p.s. loved the stoner joke!

    • 1127.76, give or take a couple of inches.
      This recipe requires no skill at all. Thanks be to goodness.

  • I squirreled away a few bags of cherries last July to be used as reminders of Summer when Winter is at its worst, come January and February. Recipes like this one sure are making my plans hard to follow. This could get nasty, Conor, if I run out of cherries in December. just saying … 😉

    • I bought a couple of jars in syrup recently as they seem to be as rare as the fresh ones over here for some reason. Recipe ideas (with meat) welcome. My input to follow. Stay away from the freezer!

  • Drool. Cherries have gone now. I don’t feel like I made the most of them. Shame.

    • I have a fig post to put up soon. Also a short season. Yours is excellent and is giving me pause for thought.

      • Thanks – I’m going to squeeze another in next week I hope. I can’t get enough.

  • This looks really good…and heartwarming! Thank you so much for sharing.

    • Thanks Linda,
      And thanks for visiting.
      Best,
      Conor

  • I have seriously got to up my food pun game over the next while. You seem to have this blogging thing all laced up.

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