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Flexi-Recipe: Seasonal Fruit Cobbler
Now that summer is here, it gets us in the mood for one of our flexi-recipes: Fruit Cobbler. What’s so fun about fruit cobbler is that you can make it with virtually any seasonal fruit. From June-August we are especially keen on formulations that use berries: stawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries on their own, in combination, or mixed with a delicious, ripe and in-season stone fruit — such as peaches, cherries, plums, or apricots.
There is an important climatarian reason to focus on fresh berries in the summer, while leaving them aside during other months: out-of-season berries have a high carbon cost. Because berries are highly perishable (they spoil quickly), to get them out of season they are rushed to market on airplanes, sometimes from the opposite hemisphere or another continent. This means they contribute to massive emissions compared to other plant-bsaed foods, which are typically low in Carbon Cost. In other words, get your berry fix in now during summer, while the berries are fresh and locally grown in the U.K. During other periods of the year, apples, bananas, and a variety of other fruits can sub in to this recipe to make a great seasonal cobbler.
As with many of our flexi-recipes, you have your choice of ingredients here. Choose the fat you prefer, as well as your favorite in-season fruit. Keep in mind that fruits vary in sweetness. You can adjust the amount of added sugar up or down to reflect your desired level of sweetness and the natural sweetness of the fruit.
Yield: A small portion for 6 people. Double all ingredients for a larger party, larger portions, or leftovers.
Flexi-Recipe: Seasonal Fruit Cobbler
Prep time
15 min
Cooking time
15-20 min
Total time
30-35 min
Save PDFIngredients
- 1/4 cup (65 ml) liquid fat (yoghurt, sour cream, or milk)
- Freshly grated zest and juice from one lemon.
- 8 tbsp hard fat (butter, lard, spread, etc) and a knob more
- 1 cup (125g) plain flour for the crumble and ¼ cup (30g) for the fruit.
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- ⅓ cup (65g) sugar for the dough and 1/2 cup (100g) sugar for the fruit
- 1kg fruit of your choice (compote or chopped)
- Optional:
- Cinnamon
- Vanilla
- ginger
Instructions
-
- Preheat your oven to 200°C (400°F). Put a knob of your hard fat into a cast iron skillet/ baking dish (or line a baking tray). Put that in the oven to melt.
- Prepare the fruit filling: In a bowl, combine your fruit, ¼ cup flour, ⅓ cup sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest. Set aside.
- Prepare the crumble dough: Reserving the sugar, sift your other dry crumble ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, optional cinnamon) together into a large bowl and stir to combine.
- Grate or chop your butter. “Cut” butter into dry ingredients, either with 2 knives, a pastry blender, or food processor. Wash your hands with cold water.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients, and add milk. Mix quickly with your hands until the mixture holds together but is not sticky. If it is too sticky, add some flour. Split the dough in half.
- Drop half your dough into the hot pan from the oven.
- Cover the dough in fruit. Drop the remaining dough on top of fruit.
- Bake for 25 – 30 min until golden brown on top.
Notes
Keep your fat cold.
You can use almost any flour for this recipe, but if you use whole wheat or corn, try to mix it ½ with plain, strong white, or self rising flour as well.
Brush a simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water boiled together) over the cobbler and bake an additional 10 minutes if you want a glazed top.
More recipes like this
Flexi-Recipe: Seasonal Vegetable Tagine
Take this season’s freshest vegetables and make this moderately spiced Moroccan stew any time of year.