fresh Alabama blueberry cobbler

Hooray!  It’s a blog post!!  And, it’s a good one, let me tell you - totally worth the wait!  We went to the Alabama Blueberry Festival today.  Yes, there’s a festival about blueberries!  I’ve been to garlic festivals, artichoke festivals and strawberry festivals but never a blueberry festival.  And I LOVE blueberries.  I eat blueberries on my cereal, in my oatmeal, in pancakes and muffins, on my yogurt, in pies, in cobblers, in bowls with whipped cream on top, etc….  Thing 2 was less than thrilled with today’s events.  She loves blueberries like I love Brussels sprouts.  NOT!  But, she went along hopeful for funnel cake.  J  Anyway, the blueberry festival was fun – honestly not as much fun as the garlic festival or the strawberry festival (although, the real fun of the strawberry festival was finding a parking spot!) – but we had a good time.  It would have been great if it wasn’t 95 degrees.  Yeah.  It was hot.  Did you know that ice cream tastes AMAZING in hot weather?  Of course you did.  Well, did you know that Blueberry Pie ice cream tastes AMAZING, period?  No, I bet not!  Trust me – it does!

Anyway, much to the chagrin of Thing 2, I bought a flat of blueberries to bring home.  A flat is 12 pints.  I spent $20.  Can you say “GREAT DEAL”?  Wait, I’ll say it – that was a flippin’ GREAT DEAL!!!12 pints of fresh Alabama blueberries in my house!  Oh, what to make, what to make!  Of course, I had to break out my handy-dandy cookbook to check out my blueberry recipes!  *side note – I have SO MANY dessert recipes from those cooking magazines that the desserts have their own 3-ring binder!  Perhaps I like the desserts too much?  Nah!!*

Well, we have Thing 2’s bff with us right now.  She’s not only the bff, she’s like another daughter so I shall call her Thing 3.  The introduction of Thing 3 is important to my blueberry dessert quest because while she does love blueberries, she does NOT love pie.  No, I’m not sure what’s wrong with her – she certainly didn’t get that from me!  How can a person not love pie?  Ridiculous.  Anyway, I had to keep that in mind because if I had my way, I’d have made a blueberry pie in a heartbeat.  Oh well – guess it’s a good thing I found a recipe for blueberry cobbler! (psst….don’t tell Thing 3 that a cobbler is basically an upside-down pie.) J 

The recipe came from the September 2006 issue of Food & Wine magazine and it is absolutely delicious!  Putting the biscuits together was really easy since it calls for a food processor and the recipe called for ingredients common in any pantry.  The only item I had to buy was the heavy whipping cream – everything else I already had (except for the Turbinado sugar but I just used regular sugar).  I didn’t have a 1 ½-inch round biscuit cutter so I used the bottom of a glass.  This caused my biscuits to be a larger than the recipe but it certainly didn’t change the taste.  I also ran out of room for the larger biscuits and had to use a shot glass to make smaller biscuits to fill in the empty spaces.  Yes, it IS possible to use a shot glass for other things than shots.  Of course, the shots ARE more fun but using the shot glass for mini-biscuits is certainly not going to affect you in the morning.  J

FYI, the recipe called for 6 cups of blueberries (2 pounds) which is equivalent to 3 pints of blueberries.  YUM!  And now I have 9 pints left….can you say blueberry muffins?  Final verdict on the cobbler?  Well, as you would expect, Thing 2 did not partake although she did say that it smelled amazing.  Things 1, 3 and husband all licked their bowls after they were done. J  Yes, me too.  I’m not ashamed.  It was GOOD!  The biscuits were sweet and cooked perfectly and the blueberry mixture was both sweet and tart and delicious.  I want more.  Thank goodness it serves 8!  I think I’m going back for seconds…..

But, before I go, here’s the recipe.  Happy cooking, eating and drinking!

Blueberry Cobbler with Honey Biscuits

1 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup finely ground cornmeal

¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

Scant ½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled

2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream

6 cups blueberries (2 pounds)

2 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons fresh orange juice

½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon potato starch or cornstarch

1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (see note)

Vanilla ice cream, for serving

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a food processor, pulse the flour, cornmeal, 3 tablespoons of the granulated sugar, the baking powder, cinnamon and salt to combine.  Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.  Add the 2/3 cup heavy cream and pulse just until a smooth dough forms.  On a lightly floured surface, pat the dough into a ball.  Flatten slightly then roll out the dough to a ½-inch thickness.  Using a floured 1 ½-inch round biscuit cutter, stamp out 32 rounds; pat the scraps together and reroll if necessary.

2. In a medium bowl, toss the berries with the honey, orange juice, lemon zest, potato starch and the remaining 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar.  Pour the berries into a 2-quart baking dish.  Arrange the biscuit rounds over the fruit in rows so they touch but do not overlap.  Brush the rounds with the remaining 1 tablespoon of cream and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar.  Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the fruit juices are bubbling and thickened and the biscuits are golden brown.  Let cool slightly and then serve with ice cream.

NOTE: Turbinado sugar is a coarse, brown-colored raw sugar that’s available in specialty food stores and supermarkets.