Just Desserts

Blackberry-Peach Cobbler

OK. So I roughly stole this from chef Emily Luchetti's Stars Desserts cookbook (Harper-Collins; 1991) but added non-copyrighted blackberries and a hyphen instead of her hyphen-less boysenberry suggestions. If you live where boysenberries grow in the supermarket aisles, by all means--go out and pick 'em. I happen to be pro-bramble and prefer to stand in the sun, thigh-deep in prickers with purple hands and ruined nails meditatively plucking the juicy beauties myself. Bake while dinner is cooking and top either with fresh whipped cream or good vanilla ice cream while it is still steaming seductively.


The filling:

    6 large peaches or nectarines, peeled and sliced
    2 T tapioca flour (I used regular flour and nothing bad happened)
    5 T white sugar
    1 tsp fresh lemon juice
    pinch salt
    1 1/2 cups or however many you can get your hands on of blackberries or boysenberries

Preheat the oven to 350. In a large bowl combine all of the above ingredients, adding the berries last to prevent crushing them helplessly. Turn into a baking dish.


To make the topping:

    2 cups flour
    1/2 tsp salt
    1/4 cup packed brown sugar
    2 tsps baking powder
    3/4 stick cold unsalted butter
    3/4 cup plus 2 T heavy cream (I only had nonfat milk in the fridge and still swooned with happiness over how this turned out. The moral is: don't fret nuthin.')

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients well. Cut the butter into small pieces and, using either a pastry cutter or your hands, incorporate the butter until the flour mixture breaks up into pieces the size of large peas. Slowly add the cream. Turn out onto a floured board and lightly knead and flatten. Use a decorative cookie cutter or a skillful wrist to cut shapes from the dough. (They suggest making stars as Luchetti was the pastry chef at the San Francisco-based Stars restaurant; I wrinkled my nose in corporate disgust but did it anyway and had to admit that they looked damned good.) Cover the fruit with the cut-outs, brush with the remaining 2 T's of cream, and sprinkle some white sugar atop. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown and dripping burnily onto the bottom of your stove.

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