Cherry Cobbler

I've always had a goal of being able to cook like my Granny. My Granny has always had a goal to cook like her mother. In the past, I’ve made a few attempts at some of my Granny’s recipes.  I say attempts because when Granny cooks she rarely follows a recipe.  I, on the other hand, NEED a recipe or I end up with quite the mess (sometimes it’s a mess with a recipe).  

When I showed up at Granny’s this past Saturday she was just getting prepped to make a cherry cobbler. Yippers! It’s both of our favorites! Granny said I could have at it, but I knew this was one mess I was not willing to make …Granny doesn’t make cherry cobbler often, so I could only imagine the family's disappointment if I screwed it up.  What I was willing to do was grab my camera (okay so it was my Mom’s) and take pictures of each step of the process + I take a few notes. I could try it later when nobody was watching. 

A note about Granny's cobblers: 

When I said cobbler you probably had visions of fruit topped off by flaky biscuits dancing in your head. ...Well that's not so with Granny's cobblers.  Think of them as fruit swaddled in golden, flaky blanket of crusty goodness.  I don't know if it's a regional or cultural thing to make cobblers this way, but trust me, it's the best way! She usually uses fresh fruit, but since cherries aren't in season yet she opted for the fresh from the can variety.

So here is what we Granny did:

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Gather up the above ingredients. (Although margarine is shown here Granny actually used salted butter.)

Next add the cherries, butter and about a cup to 2 cups of sugar (Granny says just enough sugar to make them sweet, so adjust as needed) to a sauce pan and heat over medium heat until the sugar and butter are melted.

  cherry soup

While the cherries are being morphed into a figure friendly cherry soup, begin the crust by adding 2 cups of flour, ½ tsp. of salt, 1 1/2  tbsp. of butter, and 2 tbsp. of Crisco to a large bowl. Did I mention she didn't measure any of this.  She just "eyed" it. She also told me this would probably be the worst cobbler she ever made since I kept stopping her to take pictures.

And start the kneading. Once the dough is a crumbly mixture begin adding icy water a little teaspoon at a time until the dough reaches the right consistency.  Granny says it should be "rubbery."  It shouldn't be so sticky and wet that it sticks to the rolling pin, nor should it be too hard.  Dust the work surface with flour then, roll it so it begins to resemble a nice little blanket of dough. 

Don't stop rolling... I did when I tried to make the cobbler a few days later and my crust was... doughy and thick.  When I called Granny to see where I went wrong, She said I didn't roll it thin enough and it would probably help if I would buy a rolling pin (I used a big drinking glass).  ....Oops, I'll have to try again!
When it's thin enough it will make a nice lining for the dish like so:

 Spoon in about half of the cherry soup.  Granny added a few dumpling she saved from the dough before adding the remaining cherries.   She swaddled it all up and put it in the oven at 425° for approximately 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown. 

Once the cobbler is nice and golden and bubbly and smelling like the stuff dreams are made of, remove it from the oven and brush the crust with a little butter. 

Of course, you can spoon some out and eat it as is, but why would you do that when you can have it with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream? So that's what we (and I can say we at this point) did!

 Granny admitted that this was one of the best pie crust she had ever made.  I told her she should thank me for documenting the process so she can do it again ....soon!

CLICK HERE for a printable version of Granny's Cherry Cobbler recipe.