Fruit Cobbler

Today I found myself aimlessly wandering around the kitchen, opening and reopening the fridge and cabinets looking for food that was nowhere to be found. Clearly this excess of energy and lack of food must be resolved by baking something!

Four nectarines had sadly been confined to the fridge fruit bin, after sitting on the kitchen table for days, ripening to perfection, but still lacking any flavor whatsover. They were asking to be made into a delicious dessert. I decided to make a cobbler, since I've made quite a few pies in the past week or so and it's been months (or maybe even a year) since I've made cobbler.

Cobbler can be baked with either the fruit on the bottom or on top, but it is always served with the fruit on top. I prefer making it with the fruit on the bottom, that way the fruit is moist and juicy while the crust is crunchy and browned, but still fluffy.

I decided to use the recipe from the Joy of Cooking, I don't think I've ever made their cobbler before. It also uses the book's "Fluffy Biscuit/Shortcake" recipe as the pastry topping, which I tried insetad of my own biscuit recipe.

Ingredients:
First make the pastry:
1 short c flour
1/2 t salt
2 t baking powder
1/2 T sugar
3 T butter
3/8 c milk

In a bowl, sift dry ingredients then cut in the butter. (When making pastry, make sure the butter is taken directly out of the fridge and still cold.) Add in the milk, and mix with a fork until combined and few crumbs remain. Set aside. NOTE: When I made this, I didn't flip back to the cobbler page and started kneading the dough. I ended up kneaded it into an 8''x8'' square to make a fit topping for the cobbler. If you'd rather do this, flour your surface, and very gently fold over the dough several times and press down until it has about 6-8 layers.

When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 425 F and grease an 8''x8'' square pan. Start making the fruit filling by peeling your fruit and removing pits/seeds.

Fruit Filling:
3 c fruit (I used nectarines and a couple small plums)
1/3 c sugar, or more depending on sweetness of fruit
1 T flour
cinnamon & nutmeg to taste
2 T butter

Combine fruit, sugar, & flour into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Heat on M until the fruit starts bubbling, stirring regularly. Once it smells good and the sauce has thickened (about 5 minutes), remove from heat and pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon & nutmeg and dot with butter. Cover with pastry. If made into an 8''x8'' sheet like I did, this can be carefully placed on top as with pie dough--fold in half, move to the dish, then unfold. If you left your pastry in the bowl, you can pull off clumps of it and drop them on top of the fruit, similar to drop biscuits, and you'll get a nice texture when it bakes.

Bake 30 mins & serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream (or both).
I let the cobbler sit for a few hours before eating, but it was still a little warm when I served it. The fruit held together nicely and was not too sweet. The pastry topping balanced the filling perfectly and was not too buttery. I wish I had some ice cream to eat with it!

Right out of the oven