It’s berry season where we are! When Anna said she was going to write a post about all she learned while berry picking with her family at River Ridge Farm, it reminded me that we haven’t been berry picking in a LONG time. What do you do with all of your u-pick berries? Her post also reminded me of all the ways I serve berries in my house. My favorite way is to make mixed berry cobbler!
Mixed Berry Cobbler
Cobbler is relatively simple to make and it offers an easy opportunity for kids to help in the kitchen: rinsing berries, mixing them with sugar and lemon juice and zest, mixing the cobbler and adding the cobbler on top of the berries.
Serve the cobbler warm from the oven with either a scoop of ice cream or a good amount of cream poured over. It also tastes great the next morning at breakfast, warmed a bit and with cream.
How to rinse berries
I don’t rinse delicate berries, like raspberries and black raspberries, until shortly before I’m going to use them. Otherwise, they start to go bad. However, other more sturdy berries, such as strawberries, blueberries
To rinse berries, place the berries in a colander. Then, fill a bowl big enough to hold the colander with tap water. Set the colander containing the berries in the bowl of water and move it around just a bit. Then, let the berries soak in the water for a minute or two. Remove the colander from the water. (Do this a couple more times with strawberries).
Place the berries on a paper towel-lined baking sheet or dish and store them in the refrigerator. They’ll stay fresher longer if you store them in a single layer. You can also transfer them to a paper towel-lined container and place a lid on it.
Simple steps to freeze berries
Anna brought their extra blueberries home and froze them. It’s really simple. You just have to create a little space in your freezer.
- Rinse the berries and then spread them on a sheet pan in a single layer. (No paper towel this time. You can use parchment paper or just place them directly on the pan).
- Place the pan with the berries in the freezer. Leave them there for a few hours or even overnight.
- Lable freezer bags with the date so you’ll know how long the berries have been in the freezer. (Most sources will say use them within six months. But I have used frozen fruits and veggies that I’ve had for a year and they’ve been fine).
- Remove the pan from the freezer and scoop the berries with a large serving spoon into quart-sized freezer bags.
- Seal the bags and place them back in the freezer until you’re ready to use the berries.
More ways to serve berries
- Add berries to salads, cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles
- Sprinkle with sugar and pour cream over them. My grandmother used to serve this for dessert in the summer
- Add berries to toast with nut butter or sun butter
- Serve them on their own
- Freeze them and use them later in smoothies, muffins, cakes, and other baked goods
- Make freezer jam
- Make sauces (my mother-in-law makes a simple blackberry mustard sauce for roast pork)
- Fruit leather (I’ve never made this, but am going to give it a try)
- Popsicles and sorbet
What’s your favorite way to serve berries?
PrintMixed Berry Cobbler
Recipe adapted from The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Russo and Sheila Lukins
A delicious cobbler made even more delicious by serving it warm with cream or half and half to pour over it or topping it with vanilla ice cream. If there are leftovers, they make a great breakfast the next day!
Ingredients
Filling
1 pint blueberries
1 pint blackberries
1 pint raspberries
⅓ cup granulated sugar
Zest of half a lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Cobbler Topping
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ cup unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and chilled
⅓ cup milk
1 egg
Plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar for sprinkling on the cobbler topping before it goes in the oven
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Rinse the berries. Place them bowl and mix with the ⅓ cup granulated sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice.
In a medium mixing bowl gently whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and using a pastry blender, 2 forks or your hands and gently work the butter and flour mixture together until it resembles very coarse cornmeal.
Lightly whisk the egg into the milk and add to the flour-butter mixture. Using a fork, stir until the ingredients begin to come together. Then gently knead the mixture about 10-15 times to bring it all together.
*Place the berries into an 11 inch oval baking dish or about a 6 inch x 10 inch baking dish. Pull off small pieces of dough and place them on top of the berries. The pieces of dough will be touching each other and you won’t really be able to see the berries if you’re using the smaller size baking dish. Sprinkle with about 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Place the baking dish on a sheet pan and place in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes or until the the berry mixture is bubbling around the edges and the cobbler topping has begun to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes before serving.
Top with vanilla ice cream or some heavy cream.
Notes
*A standard 9 inch x 13 inch baking dish will also work if you’d like the cobbler topping ratio to be less cobbler to berries. I’d also use an additional pint of berries in the filling. You’ll leave spaces between the pieces of cobbler you put on top of the berries.
Serve with heavy cream or half and half to pour over or top each serving with vanilla ice cream.
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