Before crumble, which is a surprisingly recent addition to the pudding canon, there was cobbler, a similarly homely dish of baked fruit with a sweet, doughy top of such lumpen solidity to suggest exactly how it came by its curious name. Particularly popular in the US, it’s an easy, versatile dessert: as Joy of Cooking puts it, “while neither tidy or shapely, it is indisputably delicious”.
Prep 20 min
Cook 45 min
Serves 4-6
800g plums
50g light brown sugar (see step 2)
4 small knobs butter, plus extra to grease
1 tsp cornflour (see step 3)
1 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp cinnamon (see step 4)
For the cobbler
225g plain flour
50g coarse cornmeal (optional)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tbsp caster sugar
Salt
100g chilled butter
220ml buttermilk (see step 7)
1 tbsp demerara sugar
1 A note on the fruit
You can make cobbler with almost any fruit that stands up to cooking – peach, berry, apple – but plums are one of my favourites, because heat really concentrates their gloriously sweet and sour flavour. The method described will work for all stone fruit, though you may need to adjust the sugar accordingly – damsons, say, will require a fair bit more (as well as more time to stone!).
2 Prepare the plums
Halve and stone the plums with a small, sharp knife, cutting off and retaining any flesh clinging to the stones in underripe fruit.
Toss the plum flesh in the light brown sugar (white sugar would also work, if you prefer), then leave to sit and macerate for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, to help draw out the fruit’s juices.
3 Prepare and fill the dish
Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6, and butter a medium baking dish. Drain the plums in a sieve held over a bowl to catch all the juices, then tip the fruit into the greased dish.
Put the cornflour (or use a scant tablespoon of plain flour instead) in a small bowl, then whisk in the plum juices and lemon juices, until smooth.
4 Finish and bake the filling
Sprinkle the fruit with ground cinnamon or another sweet spice – nutmeg, ginger, mixed spice, green cardamom or star anise all spring to mind, or add a dash of vanilla extract to the plum juice mixture – then pour over the bowl of juices.
Dot the fruit all over with butter, then bake for about 15 minutes, until softened.
5 Start on the topping
While the fruit is baking, make the cobbler topping. Put the flour, optional cornmeal (this gives a lovely flavour and slightly gritty texture, and can often be found on the world food aisle of supermarkets or in wholefood shops; if you don’t use it, make up the weight with more flour), baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl or food processor.
6 Work in the sugar and butter
Add the sugar and a good pinch of salt to the flour mix, then whisk or whizz until well combined. Cut the cold butter into cubes, then rub it into the mix with your fingertips, or pulse, until the mixture appears crumb-like. Take care not to work it any more than necessary – the topping should be soft, not chewy.
7 Finish the dough
Beat in just enough buttermilk to make a smooth dough. Buttermilk is now widely available – I really like the Irish one sold by Marks & Spencer and Ocado – but you can make a DIY alternative by souring 250ml milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice or a fairly neutral vinegar (eg cider or white-wine) and leaving it to thicken for about 10 minutes.
8 Divide, flatten and arrange on top of the fruit
Divide the dough into balls about the size of a scoop of ice-cream, then flatten them slightly and arrange out on top of the plums, spacing them out because they will expand as they bake.
Depending on the size of your dish, you may not need all the cobbler balls, but you can always bake any extra on a greased baking sheet alongside the cobbler, or freeze for later.
9 Bake until golden, then serve
Sprinkle the dough with the demerara sugar – again, you could use white sugar here, if you prefer – then bake for 30-40 minutes, until the topping is golden and well risen and any fruit you can see beneath is bubbling.
Remove, leave to rest and cool for 15 minutes, then serve with ice-cream, creme fraiche, custard or double cream.
