Cherry Cobbler, James Style

James was a busy young man at our house during his visit. He learned to cut grass with the riding mower, and to hook up the trailer so he could haul packages to the mailbox and mulch to the garden;

 he played with dogs, took care of the chickens, and helped Larry stake tomatoes.

Then James wanted cherry cobbler, and he wanted it bad enough to pick the cherries, run them through the cherry stoner, and bring them to me. 

So what's a Granny to do? Make cobbler, of course. My cherries are very, very sour, but the cobbler was absolutely delicious with some Bird's custard sauce over it. Mmmm....

Warm cobbler with warm custard sauce by the fire after sunset--it's a perfect ending to a day of all kinds of activities with the grandchildren.

Here's my cobbler recipe. It is by no means exact; I make it by the about-right method and it works every time.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Topping:
Put about a cup of self-rising flour in a mixing bowl. Add about 1/4 cup sugar. Mix well. Cut in about 3 Tablespoons of butter or shortening. Add milk until the consistency is about like thick oatmeal.

Filling:
Put the pitted cherries (or other fruit) in a 9" square baking pan. You'll need 2-3 cups of fruit. Add sugar to taste (these cherries took quite a bit, maybe 1/3-1/2 cup), almond extract to taste, and corn starch to thicken (about 2 Tablespoons--more is thicker, less is thinner sauce).

Dob the topping over the filling by tablespoonfuls. Bake at 450 degrees until the topping is nicely golden and cooked through, 30-45 minutes.

That's about how I make all my cobblers, varying the sugar, exchanging almond for vanilla extract and/or adding cinnamon, depending on the fruit I am using.

photo from Wikipedia

Bird's Custard is an English thing--an egg free powdered custard mix first made by Albert Bird in 1837. I ordered a box of the mix from Amazon. It's very easy to make and the thickness can be varied depending on how much milk is added. Mine is the non-instant original kind, requiring the addition of milk and sugar. One container goes a long, long way. The history of this custard on Wikipedia is interesting reading. It makes a nice vanilla-flavored topping, or a tasty dessert by iteslf.

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