Easy Soft-Fruit Cobbler
Easy Soft-Fruit Cobbler
Sometimes, you need a quick and easy dessert, and this is it! Easy soft-fruit cobbler is the way to go, and one I can use in a quick pinch when I need a dessert or snack. The best thing about it is you can practically use any fruit for this recipe!
Cobbler is an easy, quick solution to use fresh fruit when you have a bumper crop or multiple crops coming in simultaneously. So, I will always set aside a cup or two of whatever fruit comes in. While canning, freezing, or freeze-drying the rest of the fruit, I have a cobbler in the oven. It keeps the kids occupied and their hands out of my freshly cut-up fruit, ready for processing.
Which Fruits Work Best:
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
- Peaches
- Pears or cooked pears
- Apples or cooked apples
How to Pick the Right Fruits:
When picking fresh fruit, you want to pick fully ripe ones. Blueberries and Blackberries will not have any red areas on them. Red berries will be tarte. Strawberries: you want to avoid white spots on the fruit. Peaches need to be soft but not smushy. It is the same with apples and pears. If you use fresh apples and pears, your fruit will have a little crunch after cooking your cobbler. But if you want a softer fruit, you can cook them slightly before using them, or my preferred method is to use canned apples and pears.
Once again, I must share this tip: If you purchase fruit from a store or farmers market, smell them! Yep, I constantly embarrass my teenager by smelling fruit before I purchase it. But it is a must-do! If the fruit smells like nothing, it will taste like nothing, wasting your money and time.
You can watch how I gathered blackberries for one cobbler on our Wildwood Wonder Instagram reel here:
Freezing Fruit for Future Cobblers:
Whether you are freezing fruit from the store or freshly picked, you want to rinse them off.
For berries:
- After rinsing them off, place them on a towel to air dry. This step is essential because it will help them avoid sticking together while freezing, making it harder to measure the right amount.
- Once the berries are dry, place them in freezer bags.
For larger fruits:
- You will want to wash fruits like apples, pears, and peaches well. Then, you will remove the stems.
- Cut the fruit in half on a cutting board and then quarter them. Core them out, removing the large seed in a peach or cutting the center seeds/harder area out of the apple and pear slices. Put all the scraps from your fruit into a bowl that you can take out to your compost bin or feed fruit peels to your chickens.
- If you want smaller slices, now is the time to cut your quarter pieces in half.
- Line a cooking sheet with parchment paper. Place your slices on the parchment paper in rows, filling the cooking sheet.
- Place the cooking sheet in the freezer. Once the outside of the fruit has firmed up, place them in a freezer bag to continue freezing.
Kids can help with this one:
This recipe is also great for children to help with. It teaches them the result of using the essential ingredients of baking. It also gives them a quick result where they can see the fruits of their labor. Pun intentional.
Ingredients:
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup of fruit/ let sit in sugar to create a syrup
Fruit:
Peaches, blackberries, blueberries, cooked apples, pears, and strawberries work best. Fresh is better, but I use frozen fruit, too.
-If you want a syrupy cobbler, sprinkle extra sugar on your fruit, mix it around, and let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour.
Butter:
Use melted unsalted butter. If all you have is salted, that will be okay too.
Leave some butter out for your glass pan.
Self-rising Flour:
Self-rising flour works best for a crunchy cobbler crust. You can use all-purpose flour, but you will need to add salt and baking powder to the flour.
Sugar:
This recipe calls for a cup of white sugar. I use cane sugar. If you want a fall/winter feel to your cobbler, combine white and brown sugars for a warm twist. Add cinnamon and nutmeg to your dry mix if you are in the mood for extra warmth.
Milk:
Whole milk is the way to go when baking. You can use whatever milk you have, also.
Tools:
- Sifter- if you want to avoid clumps of flour/sugar
- Spoon
- Fork- using a fork for this easy cobbler is easier and faster.
- Bowls
- Glass baking pan or any square/rectangle baking dish
How to Make:
- Melt Your Butter: melt it first so it will not be too hot when you pour it in.
- Mix Your Dry Ingredients: Sift through it, getting a good mix together.
- Add Milk: create a well in your dry ingredients and pour your milk in the middle.
- Add butter: now add your butter into the mixture.
- Add fruit: now add your fruit!
Display:
Let's face it: this cobbler will not last long enough to put on display, lol. Warm and fresh out of the oven is the best time to eat it! But I recommend placing your cooking dish in a basket of the same shape after completely cooling. You can always place cute dessert plates and a jar of forks beside your container to make it even more welcoming.
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Watch how easy it is to make this cobble in our newest YouTube Video:
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