My mother used to make this all the time when we were kids growing up in England, using fresh blackberries that we would pick by the bucketful. Happy days – although we used to get some fearsome scratches from the brambles! Mum used to have a saying,”When all fruit fails, welcome blackberry.” which goes to show how under-appreciated this great fruit was because of the sheer quantity of it that was available.
When we lived in Kent, we found an abandoned market garden that had a huge and overgrown blackberry plot that provided us with bushels of fruit. Mum would make jams, jellies, pies and of course blackberry cobbler; it was almost with relief that late autumn would bring an end to the season and our scratches would finally heal for another year.
In fact it was considered wrong to pick blackberries after Michaelmas (September 29) as folklore has it that Satan fell into a bramble bush when he was expelled from heaven and cursed the fruit from this date onwards!
Unfortunately fresh blackberries are relatively expensive to buy in Canada but you can use frozen ones and still get excellent results (hopefully they were picked before Michaelmas!).
A great old-fashioned dessert, especially in summer, served with ice cream.
Blackberry Cobbler Recipe |
INGREDIENTS:
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METHOD: Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Sift the flour and baking powder together in a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in the egg, followed by the milk. Gradually beat in the flour mixture, being sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to get an even mixture. Place the blackberries in a 1½ quart (1 – 1½ litre) casserole greased with butter. Mix the cornstarch into the cooled jam syrup till smooth, and pour over the berries. Use a tablespoon to ‘dollop’ the batter onto the berries and syrup. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the topping comes out clean. |
