I felt like an old fashioned cobbler the other day. Not that I had ever had one but I have read lots of recipes for cobblers in Roslyn Deakin’s on-line cookbooks and they sounded yummy.
Roslyn Deakin collects recipes and sells her recipe books on-line. Each book is a collection of recipes based on one ingredient. I have her apricot, lemon, quince and plum books.
I didn’t follow the instructions for the filling but I did use a recipe for the topping. I find it rather amusing that recipes for cobblers and crumbles, that are really only enticing in winter, often call for fresh stone fruit which is no-where to be seen at this time of the year.
As there was no way I could get my hands on fresh apricots, and I refuse to buy cherries imported from the States (think of all those food miles), I had to resort to tinned apricots and maraschino cherries in a jar (which, ironically, came from the States).
Serves 6
Filling:
- 825g tin of apricots, drained
- ½ of a 10oz (283g) jar of maraschino cherries, drained
- 2 tsp cornflour or Clear Jel
- Place the apricot halves in the base of a 20cm pie tin.
- Arrange the cherries throughout the apricots.
- Collect the juice from the jar of maraschino cherries and, if desired, thicken it slightly. I used 2 tsp of Clear Jel, blended into the juice with a stick blender. Alternatively, slowly add the reserved juice to 2 tsp of cornflour, stirring all the while. Heat until the cornflour thickens.
- Pour over fruit.
Topping:
- ¾ cup plain flour
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp bi-carb soda (baking soda)
- ¼ tsp salt
- 3 tsp caster sugar
- 2 tbs (40 mls) cold, unsalted butter
- ½ cup buttermilk
- Preheat oven to 200°C.
- Sift together the plain flour, baking powder, bi-carb soda, salt and 1 tsp of sugar in a bowl.
- Blend in butter with your fingertips until it is the texture of breadcrumbs.
- Stir in buttermilk with a fork until just combined.
- Drop 6 dollops of dough over fruit, leaving a space between each dollop.
- Sprinkle remaining sugar over topping.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until topping is golden.
- Serve warm with cream.
Passion Fruit Garden 
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I think…recipes like this came about because they were used in winter with fruit that had been canned at home in summer, and therefore needed cooking to make special. In summer you just ate the fruit raw. So using tinned fruit was probably the right thing to do! I also love all the variations on cobbler – crumble, crisp etc.
G, I can’t believe you pay $20/kg for local cherries!! We usually pay under $10 when they’re in season, often around $6. The US cherries are here for $10/kg as well, and we always buy a few for Small Man who is a cherry addict.
One last thing re crumble – we almost always make it from frozen fruit. When we’re diligent, we buy boxes of stonefruit when it’s in season, halve and deseed it, and freeze it in flat packs. We can then turn that into jam or dessert at a later stage.
Celia, we regularly pay $30 a kilo (especially around Christmas time when everything is at a premium). Food is more expensive in Perth than in Sydney.
I agree with you, historically mothers would have opened a jar of preserved summer fruit. I think all the recipes call for fresh fruit as not many people preserve any more and it is politically incorrect (in the foodie world) to suggest using tinned fruit:)
I have to try and make a cobbler! I so agree about the food miles and I try and only buy what is in season 🙂
Absolutely. Normally in Perth we only have cherries for 2 or 3 weeks in December. This is the first year that we have had cherries in the supermarket in winter. A very bad trend, if you ask me. Also the cherries are only $10.00 a kilo. We usually pay at least $20.00 for local ones. Something is wrong. I don’t think the $10.00 represents the true cost to the earth of the cherries.