Week 8 – Cobbling it together…

Apple and Blueberry Cobbler

Initially I thought for this week’s bake I’d have to randomly select something from the recipe book, however, yet again, the reduced section of a supermarket came to my rescue, in the guise of blueberries!  I looked in the Index under Blueberries, and found 3 entries – Blueberry Loaf, Blueberry and Amaretto Trifle Cupcakes, and Apple and Blueberry Cobbler.  I immediately discarded the thought of the cupcakes, as I don’t like Amaretto.  I was all set to attempt the Blueberry Loaf – although bread making scares me, the point of this experience is to try new baking experiences.  However upon reading the recipe it looked a little fiddly, so I thought I’d look at the Cobbler recipe.  Being British I’m not used to the concept of Cobbler, however it seems to be a cross between a pie and a crumble.  I decided to plump for that, as I had everything except for the apples.  Also the recipe is super simple!  Facing my fear of making bread will have to wait another week (at least…).

The Bake

As noted above, I acquired the blueberries from the reduced to clear section.  Blueberries are normally quite expensive, so I snapped them up.  However I only bought one 125g packet of them, and the recipe called for 200 grams.  So I thought the best thing to do was halve the quantities.  This did work out better really as I have a small Le Creuset flan dish, and a massive Pyrex dish, but nothing really in-between, so making a smaller Cobbler would allow me to use the flame orange Le Creuset.

The first step is to peel and chop the apples (Bramley and Granny Smith), and add them, along with sugar and mixed spice, to a saucepan of melted butter, and allowing to soften.  I put the lid on as well to speed up the process.  Once softened, you stir the blueberries through, then put the mixture into the pie/flan dish.

 

Meanwhile, I made the dough.  It’s initially a standard crumble/breadcrumb consistency, but then you add boiling water, which immediately turns it into quite a gooey dough.  You then completely cover the fruit mixture with it, by adding balls of mixture to the top.  I was a little worried that as I had used half the amount of ingredients, it wouldn’t cover the fruit, so I had to spread it out a bit.  You then sprinkle brown sugar on top, and into the oven it goes.  I stuck to the stated cooking time of 35 minutes despite halving the quantities, as with my oven I normally need to increase the cooking time.

I could smell that it was ready before the timer went off, as the sweet aroma of the mixed spice filtered through the house.  And voilà - simple!  I think it looks great; like a tasty, homely dessert.  And it tastes homely too, and delicious.  The fruit is soft, and sweet, and the blueberries give the mixture a nice colour.  The dough/crust is quite surprising; it almost tastes like fried batter, crossed with crumble topping.  In a good way!  I still had some double cream left over from the Chocolate Malt Cake, so I ate it warm with some double cream.  Bliss.

Who knows what next week will throw up, but until then, Happy Baking!