This is Bob’s favorite. I made it for him for Father’s Day and, lucky for him, it’s not the girls’ or my favorite so he got to eat it five nights in a row until it was gone. I actually really liked it too, as did Hailey (Ella opted for ice cream with chocolate syrup), which is saying something because I don’t generally enjoy the texture of cooked cherries. The sweet/tart flavor won me over though as did the buttery cobbler crust. Once I added vanilla ice cream the texture of the cherries was barely an issue. I might even make it for him again someday. He deserves it, he’s a pretty great dad.
It’s hard to find fresh pie cherries, aka sour cherries, even at the local farm stand I go to so I used frozen. Actually, the frozen ones are great because they’ve already removed the pits for you. If you can’t find them at all and want to use the sweeter cherries you find in the grocery store, you will need to add some lemon juice for optimal flavor.
I hope you have a safe and happy weekend. Our great friends will be here, as is tradition, and these three goofballs (below) will be together so we are bound to have a fun one here.
Cherry Cobbler
(8-10 servings)
Crust
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 TB sugar
1/2 cup cold butter, sliced thin
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
Filling
2lbs pie/sour cherries, fresh or frozen, pitted (about 6 cups)
1 cup sugar
2 TB cornstarch
2 TB water or lemon juice (if using sweeter cherries, use the lemon juice)
1 TB butter
Additional
1 TB turbinado sugar
vanilla ice cream
Place flour, baking powder and sugar in a mixing bowl or food processor. Stir or pulse to combine.
Using a fork, pastry cutter or the pulse function on your FP, add cold butter until the mixture has the texture of coarse cornmeal. There might be some tiny chunks of butter, that is fine.
Blend in the eggs and milk, form in a ball, then flatten and wrap in plastic wrap.
Chill in the fridge while you prepare the cherries.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Stir the cornstarch with the sugar to combine then, in a large saucepan or Dutch oven, combine cherries, water (or lemon juice) sugar and cornstarch.
(Because the cornstarch can tend to clump, it’s wise to stir it into the water first or mix it with the sugar, either will prevent clumping as it cooks)
On medium heat, stirring often, bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat so that the mixture is lightly boiling/simmering and continue to cook, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes, until thickened.
Remove from heat and stir in 1 TB butter. Allow to cool a bit while you prepare the crust. If you are using a Dutch oven, you can leave it in the pan, if not, transfer the filling to an oven safe pan, like a 9×13 inch Pyrex, coated with no-stick cooking spray.
Remove the chilled crust. Roll out the crust and place it in one large shape over the cherries. Sprinkle the top with turbinado sugar for a nice added crunch.
Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for about 25 – 30 minutes. The filling should be bubbling and the crust should be golden brown.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or refrigerate for later. You can warm it up or eat it cold, I like the crust even better cold for some reason but I’m kind of weird that way according to some.
Happy Independence Day!
