Cherry-Peach-Blueberry Cobbler

We eat a lot of fruit salad around here. We're quite indulgent that way. I chop the fruit, squirt some lime or lemon juice, sprinkle some sugar and call it a meal. I could eat the stuff pretty much all the time, and I cringed at the thought of baking all that delicious fruit into something syrupy and mushy, suffocating under dry biscuits. I needed a company dessert, however, and the peaches were pretty soft, so I gave cobbler a shot.

I saw a recipe on Smitten Kitchen for a cobbler with cornmeal biscuits, which sounded promising, and I chose my fruit carefully, because as a rule I do not like cooked fruit. I hate mixed berry pie with raspberries and blackberries, and for gosh sakes keep the hawaiian pizza away from me.

I realize I am not starting off with a tempting description of this amazing cobbler, but I wanted you to understand what it was up against first. In my mind, the only thing going for it was that it could be eaten with ice cream.

HOWEVER, I am please to announce that this fruit cobbler is delicious. It is warm and homey, with the added interest of cornmeal and with juices that complement ice cream just perfectly. In fact, I think I am won over to the cobbler camp. I think I'm even going to try again soon, maybe with an oatmeal topping next time!

Cobbler recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

I doubled the cornmeal biscuit topping recipe below, and if you want to know what I'd do next time, I think I'd only 1 1/2 it instead.

Use whatever berries or stone fruits strike your fancy. I used:

3 cups blueberries

2 peaches, cut in dice

1 cup cherries, cut in half

Mix the fruit with:

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 T flour

2 T lemon or lime juice

1/2 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t salt

Place fruit mixture in the bottom of a baking dish. Make the cornmeal biscuit topping:

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

2 T brown sugar

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

2 T cold butter, cubed

1/2 cup buttermilk

Mix together the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Rub the butter into the flour mixture, then stir in the buttermilk. The dough will be sticky.

Plop the dough onto the fruit. I know my entire cobbler is covered with topping, but I think it's more aesthetically pleasing if the fruit can bubble up in gaps between the biscuit, so leave some spaces.

Bake until the fruit is bubbly and the biscuit is browned on top. This will take 20-30 minutes. Let it cool for a few minutes before scooping into bowls and serving with ice cream. You can tell people it is your grandmother's secret recipe when they inquire about the origin of this heavenly cobbler.