Vivian Howard's Blueberry Cobbler with a Cornmeal Sugar-Cookie Crust

So, blueberries are in season and I always try to cook that way -  using those ingredients.  Like every year, I usually try to make some in season fruit dessert for my son - one per year as I do not like to bake.  This year, because I was reading my Vivian Howard cookbook, which I love to pieces, I decided to make him this.  Plus, he said cobblers are one of his favorite desserts.  (I only remember making ONE good cobbler for him,  this one, it was a beauty!)  I love that she (Vivian) worked at elevating something as simple as a cobbler.  Her words are below between the lines and this makes a 9 × 13-inch dish.  I HIGHLY recommend buying this cookbook!!!  I can't say enough good things about it...absolutely enthralling.

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BLUEBERRY COBBLER WAS THE GO-TO EASY DESSERT of my childhood. A box of Bisquick, some less-than-perfect fruit, a little sugar, and a scoop of ice cream to cool it down… the cobbler worked hard for its reputation as the lazy country cousin to the pie. The large number of mediocre cobblers in the world adds validity to this label, and those cobblers’ problems are easy to identify: The filling is too runny or there’s too much of it. The topping is too cakey and there’s too much or too little of it. At the restaurant we’ve worked to perfect our cobbler science for years. What we’ve come up with is a crust that’s crispy and chewy and smells like vanilla, and a filling that’s syrupy and bright. It translates equally well to any combination of fruits. You’re going to look at this recipe and assume the three sticks of butter the crust calls for is a mistake. It’s not. Roll with it. This is dessert, not salad.

Blueberry Filling:

2 pounds of very ripe blueberries (imperfect fruit is okay here)

 ¾ cup granulated sugar 

Zest of 2 lemons, removed with Microplane 

4 tablespoons lemon juice 

1 teaspoon salt

Cornmeal Sugar-Cookie Crust:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1 cup cornmeal 
• ½ teaspoon baking powder 
• ½ teaspoon salt 
• 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) butter, softened 
• 1 cup granulated sugar 
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar 
• 1 large egg 
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Make the filling: Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and press down with the back of a spoon to burst about half the berries. Stir it all together and cover. Let the berries and sugar hang out in the refrigerator for about 2 hours or overnight, stirring when it’s convenient. After about 2 hours, lots of juice will have leached out of your fruit. Strain the juice and add it to a small saucepan. Reduce the juice by half, or until it’s nice and syrupy. Add the syrupy stuff back to your fruit and stir to combine. It should coat and cling to the fruit like that scary cherry-pie filling from the can.

Make the crust: Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Cream together the butter and sugars in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and paddle to incorporate. Slowly add the dry mixture till it’s just incorporated. Remove the dough from the bowl, cover it well with plastic wrap, and let it rest. The cookie dough can be made several days in advance. You could even make a larger batch, freeze it, and whip it out when you have some dying fruit or unexpected guests on your hands.

Assemble the cobbler: Butter your 9 × 13-inch baking dish and spoon the fruity velvet into it. Alternatively, if you have a lot of cute dishes you’d like to use, make sure they can stand the oven and go for it. What’s important is the filling-to-topping ratio. For every 1 ½ inches of filling, you want ½ inch of cookie crust. If your dishes go deeper, just increase both using the same ratio. If your topping is chilled, allow it to come to room temperature. Generally for something like this, you would be instructed to flour your work surface and roll out the dough, but for this recipe, that doesn’t really work. So just take your hands, grab a nice ball of the soft, kind of sticky dough, and flatten it between your palms until it’s approximately ½ inch thick. Lay that flattened, irregular disk on top of the fruit and move on to your next handful. The goal is to pretty much cover the filling without overlap but with very little exposed fruit in between. Place the baking dish on top of a larger cookie sheet because, chances are, it’s going to bubble over, and that’s a good thing (unless I’m washing the dishes). Bake it at 350 ° F for about an hour. The top should be on the dark side of golden brown with crispy-looking edges. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

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I followed the directions exactly.  My pictures are how it went along the way.

The blueberries were hard to crush as they weren't ripe beyond ripe which would have been better.  I did get half a small saucepan of liquid after two hours though.

The sauce reduced by half but didn't get thick, so I had to use what was there.  I really didn't even want to do that step, to be honest...

Okay, I really, really detest baking - so dough is always a problem for me.  Without a fancy mixer, I had to use a hand one and then when pieces of dough started flying out, I thought I would lose my f'n mind.  It's a good reminder of why I don't bake...I end up with flour, sugar, etc. everywhere...anyway, I solved it by some good ole yelling, cursing and screaming and then I moved on...

Oh gawd, I opened the oven at 15 minutes and it looked like a pool of melted butter swimming over the blueberries.  I checked the recipe to make sure I had followed her directions properly, and I had, so I decided not to look again until almost done.

And, well, it looked and smelled beautiful when it was done!  My son was very excited and couldn't wait!  I let it cool for 15 minutes, then served it up with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Son said he loved it, so I'll take his word for it, and whew...my yearly dessert task is over.  😜