"Perhaps the most impressive of all the cookbook blogs are the three devoted to the 2004 edition of Gourmet magazine's "The Gourmet Cookbook" -- all 5¼ pounds and 1,300-odd recipes of it. Befitting this culinary Everest, all three writers are overachievers in their professional lives."

--Lee Gomes, The Wall Street Journal, May 28, 2008
"I should have told you before how much I've been enjoying reading your thoughts. You seem like such a great cook."

--Ruth Reichl, Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet Magazine, June 8 2008, comment on "Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream".

Friday, January 25, 2008

Blackberry Cobbler

What? Blackberry Cobbler in the middle of winter?

I know, I know--macrobiotic squeamishness aside, isn't it nice to be able to buy ripe berries in January? I don't know where they come from, and lord knows how much of a carbon footprint they have, but: I used a cloth bag to carry them home, so there.

Actually not home, work. Dr. and Mrs. S. have fruit salad every morning for breakfast, and they like their berries--so berries it is, year round, regardless of the price. So it's just a short hop from buying a half pint of blackberries to getting six half pints for cobbler. Right? Just don't look at my receipts.

This is one of those cobblers you bake right in the frying pan--you cook the cornstarch/sugar/water mix with the berries, sling the dough on top, and throw the whole shootin' match in a 400 oven. The dough is sweet-biscuity.



Now--although Dixie (the aide) and I thought this was delicious, Dr. and Mrs. S. pushed those beautiful biscuits aside and just ate the berries. In her case I think it's a hangover from those dieting days--in his case, he's got a weird thing about texture. No bread pudding for this fellow. I guess the biscuits didn't make the crispy cut, or maybe he was just full. Sometimes I over-analyze.

Gourmet doesn't have this specific recipe, but it couldn't be easier--in fact, if you're a baker you already have this one imprinted in your memory and could figure it out in a snap. Well actually, the biscuit part did use one technique I've never used before--it's the standard flour/baking powder/sugar/salt + cold butter--but then you add a little boiling water to make it come together. So why cold butter? I don't know, but it came out great so who am I to question?

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