Barbara’s Blackberry Cobbler

There are two recipes which are famous in my family. Both came from the glorious hippie days of the early 70′s when my mom Heather and her friend Barbara lived in a shared house on the banks of the Fraser River. Between them they had 5 kids from infant to 6 years old.

So, 5 hippie kids running around half naked all summer long need a lot of entertaining, right? What better than to send them all to the blackberry bushes surrounding the back yard!

Legend has it that one entire summer was filled with us little ones picking blackberries (and no doubt eating many before they hit the bowl) while Barbara put her food sciences training to use and perfected…

Barbara’s Blackberry Cobbler

In a bowl, cream together well:

• 3 tbsp soft butter
• ¾ cup white sugar

In another bowl, mix together:

• 1½ cups flour
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt

Add the dry mix to the creamed butter/sugar, alternately with 1 cup fresh or sour milk

Basically you end up with a kind of white cake batter. Spread that batter in a greased 9×12 pan (Mom says glass works best, I’ve never tried metal but I could see it being harder to clean).

• Spread 4 cups of berries on top
• Sprinkle ¾ cup sugar on top
• Pour approx 2 cups water over the berries (enough to cover them)

Finally, bake at 350 degrees about 45 minutes until brown on top.

Some of the cake will rise up between the berries, and the blackberry-water-sugar will make a kind of jelly-saucy stuff. Dee-lish.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Game to try it? Send me a picture of yours and I’ll post it here with a link to you, if you like. Otherwise I’ll post a photo next time I make one.

And as for that other recipe? That’s the one thing we’ll violently defend from poaching siblings around the dining table: Heather’s Cheesecake with Sour Cream Topping. You might have to talk me into sharing that one