Blackberry Cobbler

Blackberries have been pretty cheap at my local market, so for Halloween, I decided to make up some delicious blackberry cobbler.

Cobbler was a product of the early British American colonies when settlers couldn't find the ingredients to make their traditional (and rather disgusting) suet puddings. Most cobblers are done with the fruit on the bottom and then topped with a layer of uncooked biscuit dough. This recipe is done in reverse, with the batter on the bottom and the fruit on top. When it cooks, the fruit sinks a little, the batter rises a little and everything combines to make a big ol' batch of awesome.

In an attempt to use less refined sugar, I use a combination of sugar and honey. Most recipes allow you to substitute honey for sugar in a 1-to-1 ratio. However, the sugar in this recipe is used to get the berries to macerate (get all blissfully mushy) and berries won't macerate in honey, so I couldn't eliminate the sugar altogether.  Once the berries were nice and juicy, I added the honey just before dropping the spoonfuls of berries into the batter. The result is a sticky mess that has a unique flavor but still retains that classic cobbler taste.

And MAN is it good!

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blackberries (thawed and drained)
1/2  cup sugar
1/2  cup honey

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 375 and get to work:

Add the half cup of sugar to the berries and allow them to get juicy for about 20 minutes.  

While the berries are macerating and the oven's heating up, combine the flower, baking powder, salt and milk together until it's smooth.

Then add the melted butter and mix this all together.  This batter is going to look very wet, and you may be tempted to add more flour, but don't. Trust me on this.

Pour the batter into an 8 inch square baking dish, the drop spoonfuls of berries on top. The honey/sugar mix is going to be very thick, so scoop up the stuff with a spoon and drizzle it over the bare spots in the batter. 

 Toss this bad boy into the oven for 45-55 minutes, or until the batter is golden brown on top.

When you pull it out of the oven, it's going to look like a dish of molten lava. 

Make no mistake: this is hotter.

Give it AT LEAST 30 minutes to cool down before attempting to dig in. 

Enjoy!