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By Sarah Condley

Columnist

While we had wild black raspberries on the vine, I found this recipe on The Pioneer Woman’s website and figured I’d give it a try using what fresh black raspberries I had and rounding out the 6 cups of berries called for with last year’s blackberries that were in the freezer. Even though this is a blackberry cobbler recipe I thought the two different berries would mix well since I didn’t have enough black raspberries. I used frozen blackberries because this year’s blackberries weren’t ready and frankly, due to the wonderfully hot weather we’ve had, along with no rain in our part of the county, what we hoped would be a good crop of wild berries has dried up, and those that didn’t dry up were gobbled up by the birds and rabbits – we just love wildlife (not).

As you know, I enjoy baking, and a cobbler is a great summer dessert. It’s not fussy, and you can just cobble it together, and you’ll have something deliciously sweet to eat in no time.

I gathered the wild black raspberries I had picked, rinsed them, and measured out about 4 cups.

Since this recipe calls for 6 cups of blackberries, I headed to the freezer and pulled out some from last year. I didn’t thaw the blackberries; I just added 2 cups of them to the bowl of raspberries and then poured on the sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. The recipe didn’t say what size dish to use so I just guessed and used an 11 x 7 baking dish.

After greasing the baking dish, I poured the berry mixture into it and sat it aside while I made the dough for the cobbler topping.

To a medium size bowl, I added the dry ingredients and then dumped them into the Crisco and butter. I used a pastry blender to combine those ingredients until they were crumbly. Then, I was ready to combine the milk and egg, add them to the dry ingredients, and toss them. Once the dough was no longer sticky, I was prepared to drop it on top of the berries in clumps. The recipe said to flatten the dough with your fingers, and I did lightly flatten each clump of dough, and finished off by sprinkling three tablespoons of sugar over the dough.

The cobbler baked for 30 minutes. When it came out of the oven, it looked great, smelled great, and I could hardly wait for dessert that night.

After supper, I was the one who asked Brad if he was ready for dessert usually, it’s the other way around (even though Brad isn’t the sweet eater in our family).

The cobbler was still warm when I scooped out some in a bowl and topped it with vanilla ice cream; Brad topped his with Reddi Whip. It didn’t take us long to decide on this recipe, “Nailed It.”

Of course, there was plenty of cobbler left over, so when we headed to see our newest grandson, Owen and his parents took it with us the next day so we could share. Michael and Sarah both liked the cobbler but thought there was a little too much biscuit topping compared to the amount of berry filling – and of course, they are entitled to their opinion, but this recipe has earned a spot in my self-made cookbook. I’m glad we still have some of last year’s blackberries in the freezer, so I can make this again.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups fresh or frozen blackberries

• 1/2 cups plus 4 tablespoons sugar

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 1/2 whole zest of lemon

• 2 cups flour

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/4 cups Crisco

• 4 tablespoons butter

• 1 whole egg

• 1/2 cups milk

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine blackberries, 1/2 cup sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a mixing bowl. Stir and spread out in a buttered pyrex dish.

• In a separate bowl pour flour, salt, baking powder, and 1 tablespoon sugar. Add shortening and butter and work mixture together with a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture is course.

• Measure 1/2 cup milk, add an egg and mix together. Pour into the flour mixture, stirring as you go.

• Mixture should be smooth and not dry, but not over sticky.

• Take clumps of dough and place them on top of the blackberries. Lightly flatten dough with your fingertips. Sprinkle with 2 to 3 tablespoons of sugar and bake until golden for 30 minutes.