Mixed Berry and Sour Cherry Cobbler

I get easily distracted by all the colorful produce at farmers markets and sometimes I end up buying more than I should. Last week I purchased too many berries. Some of them were very ripe and I knew they would not last long. A cobbler is a good way to deal with the “I have too many berries” problem. As I was mixing the ingredients, I remembered that I had some pitted frozen sour cherries too. I added those in to make a total of 5 cups of fruit. You could use any mix of berries that you have on hand.

Berry and Sour Cherry Cobbler

Ingredients for the filling:

• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 cup raspberries
• 1 cup blackberries
• 1 cup sour cherries
• 1 cup currants
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon orange zest or lemon zest
• ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Ingredients for the biscuit dough:

• 9 ounces flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces buttermilk, plus more for brushing the tops of the biscuits
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 3 ounces butter, diced into ½ inch pieces and frozen
• demerara sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper in case the fruit juices bubble over your pan.
2. For the filling: combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and set aside to macerate.
3. For the biscuit dough: whisk together all the dry ingredients. Whisk together the buttermilk and orange zest. Toss the butter in with the flour mixture and transfer all the butter and flour mixture to a large food processor. Pulse 5 times to break up some of the butter into the flour. Slowly add in the buttermilk as you continue to pulse, until you have incorporated all of the buttermilk and you get a rough dough. You could do this by hand with two forks as well, or a pastry blender if you have one. Lightly sprinkle flour on your counter. Transfer the dough to your counter. Pat the dough out to a rectangle around 6 by 9 inches and fold into thirds, like you would a letter. Repeat two or three more times. Pat or roll the dough out until it’s ½ inch thick. Cut out biscuits with a round cookie cutter. Dip the cutter in flour and then press the cutter down into the dough. Do not make a twisting motion. I like to make them 2.5 inches in diameter. You could also cut them into squares with a knife. Reroll the dough, pat out to 1 inch thickness again, and cut out more biscuits.
4. Pour the filling into a pan or oven safe skillet and top with the biscuits. Brush the biscuits with buttermilk and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
5. Bake for 45 minutes. The filling will be thick and bubbly, and the biscuits will be golden brown. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.