Summer and cobbler go together, wouldn’t you agree? The experts at www.allrecipes.com think so, too: “Cobblers are such a fantastically unfussy way to highlight and enjoy the flavor of peak season fruits like peaches, plums, berries, nectarines, cherries, and more. They're universally loved, unlimitedly customizable, and are the perfect cushion for vanilla ice cream. What more could you really ask for?”


The All Recipes folks also like how cobblers do well with small and easy tweaks—entirely on the fly—tweaks that add a special touch or personal signature to your creation. Here are some of their favorite places to start:

First of all, consider adding another fruit to the mix. Mixing fruits is a way to add a “dynamic flair” to your dessert. Peaches and blueberries, mixed berries, blackberries and apricots, cherry and pear, are just a few suggestions. Experience shows that, like heads, two fruits are better than one.


Next, change up your thickener. This small technical detail can make a lot of difference. Try subbing cornstarch for flour, or vice versa. The All Recipes folks especially like this idea because flour imparts a mild bitter flavor to a filling that doesn't always cook entirely out; corn starch is generally undetectable. Or better yet, try tapioca starch; it's also flavorless and incorporates into various fruits' juices extremely well. Just keep in mind that pure starch has twice the thickening power of all-purpose flour, so you'll need less of it.

Give your biscuit topping a textural twist. While a classic biscuit topping is sublime, folding a little personality into your cobbler topping is a fun and tasty means of “making your mark on the summer potluck dessert table.” For example, replace a little of the all-purpose flour with cornmeal. This trick adds a touch of sweetness and textural intrigue. Or fold some chopped pecans into the biscuits for more crunch and flavor intrigue. Or simply brush the biscuits with egg wash and sprinkle on sanding sugar for a dazzling aesthetic and delicate crunch.


Involve your favorite herbs and spices. Zippy freshly grated ginger is known for how it complements the sweet-tartness of blueberries, so why not incorporate some in your next blueberry cobbler filling? Or you could even work a little fresh ginger and chopped candied ginger into your biscuit topping.

Another delicious combo is fresh peaches paired with fresh basil. Basically, if there's a flavor element you especially love next to fruit, experiment with using it to amp up your cobblers.

Don’t forget the sauce. For instance, adding a homemade salted caramel sauce to cobbler is a small twist that adds a lot of “WOW factor.” For a peach cobbler, consider adding a little bit into the filling. Sauces aren’t necessarily meant to replace the vanilla ice cream, of course. They’re just an extra added attraction.

Finally, employ a custom whipped cream. If you feel hesitant about adding new flavors directly into your cobbler, ease into customizing it by making a flavored whipped cream to serve polish it off. Typically, the only flavoring added to fresh whipped cream is vanilla extract, but that doesn't mean that's where you need to stop. Start by adding a different extract, such as almond. Or make a chocolate whipped cream by mixing in cocoa powder. Or add cinnamon or your grated ginger here (rather than into the filling). And citrus zest folded into sweetened whipped cream is scrumptious.


The bottom line? Don’t be hesitant to get creative with cobbler—it’s really nothing more than a blank slate for your culinary creativity. Give these simple tricks a try and see if they don’t yield WOW-worthy results!

I’ll close with a recipe for a rhubarb and berry cobbler that folks in our neighborhood consistently ask for. It has a secret ingredient that Aunt Annie added to this recipe over 50 years ago (balsamic vinegar—now the secret’s out!). See what you think:



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    Alice Osborne
    DVO Newsletter Contributor since 2006
    Email the author! alice@dvo.com