Buttermilk Cobbler with a Variety of Fresh Cali Fruits

This is a cobbler made by myself and my cousin/best friend Jennifer for a 4th of July barbecue. Because we are greedy, we put in probably twice as much fruit as was called for in the recipe. And then decided we needed to compensate by doubling the biscuit recipe and giving the cobbler a bottom crust as well. It was like cobbler pie... amazing!

Probably a tad more than we needed for the barbecue, but who can complain about cobbler for breakfast?

Buttermilk Cobbler with Mixed Fruit (adapted from this Food Network recipe)

Preheat the oven to 425°. Butter a baking dish, the largest you have if you want to make the volume in the recipe that follows. It can easily be halved or otherwise adjusted at will.

For the fruit*:
1 small container raspberries
1 small container strawberries
2 superripe peaches
2 ripe mangoes
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon flour (optional; helps the pieces of fruit maintain some integrity, but we skipped it)
*note: the amount and kind of fruit that can be included in this recipe is very flexible; if it looks like there isn't enough in the pan, just sprinkle some more on top! Next time I would add blueberries too... but we'd eaten them all by the time we put the cobbler together =(

For the cobbler:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons brown sugar
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons brown sugar, for topping
Whipped cream as needed

Dice all fruit to desired size. It doesn't really matter how you do it, so it's really about your preference.
Sprinkle the sugar and flour, if using, over the fruit and mix well with your hands to avoid mushing things around. Set aside.
Combine dry ingredients for cobbler in a bowl. Work the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers if you're cool or with a pastry cutter if you don't like getting your fingers dirty (wack!). Continue to work the butter in until the texture becomes that of coarse crumbs. Add the buttermilk in and stir to form a dough. Divide in half.
Spread half of the cobbler dough into a thin layer on the bottom of the pan. Spread the fruit out over the dough, and then use a spoon to scoop evenly-spaced dollops of the remaining cobbler dough across the top. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of brown sugar over the cobbler blobs. Put the cobbler into the oven until the dough on top is golden-brown, about 20-25 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream.


We didn't add any cinnamon or vanilla to the fruit because we wanted the natural flavors of the fruits themselves to be front and center, but if desired, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and 2 of vanilla can be added to the fruit before the sugar and flour.

Bottom crust... yesss.

Bake Hard,
Azara