The case of the curious cobbler
Our local cable provider, Comcast, just started showing the Create channel a few months ago. I discovered this in the wee hours one sleepless night when I happened upon "Coastal Cooking with John Shields." With a few exceptions (hello, Legal Seafood's stuffed shrimp, I'm looking at you), I don't eat seafood much. But the host, chef at the Baltimore museum of fine arts, made a cobbler that was interesting. (I've never made anything that involved pouring hot water on top of batter. It's a little disconcerting, I have to say.)
Cannon Beach is in Oregon, whose food traditions are a mystery to this southerner. But cobbler is near and dear to my heart. So I decided to use the blackberries we bought at the market today to make Shields' Cannon Beach blackberry cobbler.
In my world, "cobbler" is really just a way of saying pie without a bottom. My mother makes peach cobbler with store-bought pie crust and pushes bits of extra dough down into the fruit for extra yumminess. And she always makes a simple syrup for the fruit. So this cobbler was a new one on me.
The results, taste wise? Mom declared it more of a dumpling than cobbler, but the berries gave out a wonderful sweetness. A few important caveats, though: The recipe calls for unsalted butter, but there are no other seasonings at all in the dough. So it desperately needs something, even if it's just a pinch or two of salt. A little lemon zest and a couple of dashes of vanilla might also help a lot. Aesthetically, not so pleasing. The top didn't brown up, despite extra time and added heat in the oven. Nevertheless, we're looking forward to having it for dessert later with some vanilla ice cream.
