Fruit Cobbler

Cobbler.  It's such a long time since I've eaten one and I'd forgotten how lovely they can be.  Essentially it's stewed fruit topped with a scone like topping.  On a whim I decided to make this while making my Spanish style sausage and beans.  This fantastically tasty pudding then happily cooked away using heat in the oven and then was left cooling slightly while we ate our first course.

This was also devised as a way to use up some past their best apples and some frozen raspberries which had been kicking around the freezer for a while.  Not massively high in sugar either.  Probably around 60g, 2 ounces of added sugar in the whole dish and a fantastically warm cuddle of a pudding when spring has more than a hint of wintery bite about it.  This is great Sunday lunch fodder.

Fruit Cobbler - Just about stretched to 2 adults and 1 toddler (with custard)

Ingredients

110g, 4oz Eating apples (peeled weight)
200g, 7oz Frozen raspberries
110g, 4oz Self Raising flour (or all purpose flour and 1 tsp baking powder)
1 tsp Baking Powder
30g, 1oz Butter or margarine
30g, 1oz Sugar (granulated or caster) plus 1 tsp
60ml, 2fl oz Milk
Squeeze lemon juice
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Method

Stew the apples with 1 tbsp water and the raspberries.  Stew for a few minutes and pour into a smallish heatproof dish.  If you want to at this stage you can refrigerate until you're ready to cook.

When ready, preheat the oven to 180oC, 350F, Gas Mark 4.

Using a food processor or by hand, rub the flour, baking powder and sugar (except the 1 tsp).  Then mix the milk, lemon juice and vanilla together (don't worry if it causes the milk to go funny).  Mix this into the flour mix.  It should be a softish consistency, if it's not, add a bit more milk.

Spoon on the mix on top of the fruit in blobs with a bit of space for expansion and sprinkle on the sugar.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until risen, browned and cooked through.  It was so good.

I think it is a bit better allowed to cool a bit before serving with some hot custard.  My 3 year old son had seconds meaning there wasn't really enough for Mummy to have a decent sized portion but then that is the joy of a good cobbler!

Make it Thrifty

This is a great way to use up this slightly wizened apples from the fruit bowl.  Just use what you have.  Plums, pears, peaches even (but not Bananas; that would be odd).  I really like the idea of a plum cobbler.