Once you’ve eaten your fill of fresh summer berries and made jam for the year to come, what next? This classic Raspberry Cobbler recipe takes fresh raspberries from your crop and turns them into a beautiful dessert.
What Is a Raspberry Cobbler?
A fruit cobbler is a type of dessert with stewed fruit as the base, topped with a pie crust or biscuit mix, then baked in the oven. The topping is roughly shaped in irregular boulders and lumps, which crisp up in the oven. Easier to make than a pie, and heartier to eat than a crumble, a fruit cobbler has a rustic and homespun feel, and is a family favorite across America. A raspberry cobbler uses stewed raspberries as its base.
What Is the Difference between a Cobbler, a Pie, and a Crumble?
A pie has a pie crust both over and under the filling ingredients, which are contained within the pastry. A cobbler and a crumble both have stewed fruit underneath, and a flour-based topping. A crumble is typically made with a streusel topping. This means that butter, sugar, flour, and sometimes oats are rubbed together into a crumbly, bread crumb like mix. Cobbler toppings have a rougher, more rustic, and usually contain milk as well, as a biscuit mix does.
How to Make Raspberry Cobbler Filling
Making the filling for raspberry cobbler is simplicity itself. Just put the fruit into a pan with a little sugar and heat gently for a few minutes until the fruit collapses into a rough sauce. I also chose to add a little lemon zest and juice for extra flavor. I used fresh berries here, because I had a glut of raspberries, but you could use frozen berries instead if you like. For this recipe, it makes very little difference.
Once the fruit has released some liquid in the pan, we add a little cornstarch slurry and continue heating until the mixture thickens slightly. At this point, you can turn off the heat and leave to cool. It’s ready to use immediately, but you can also refrigerate or freeze it for later assembly.
How to Make Raspberry Cobbler Topping
The topping for raspberry cobbler is easy, but it’s important to make sure that your butter is cold. Because there is quite a lot of butter in the mixture, it can easily get too soft as the butter starts to melt. This won’t have much of an effect on the end result, but it does make it a much messier job to mix! If your cobbler topping is getting too soft, just put it in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up, before carrying on.
If you want to get ahead, you can make the butter/flour mixture in advance, and leave it in the fridge for up to 2 hours. But once you add the milk, the liquid will activate the baking powder, so it’s important only to do this last step right before baking.
How to Assemble Raspberry Cobbler
Pour the filling into a small oven proof dish. Then scoop out walnut sized chunks of the topping, and dot them all over the filling. You should still have a little of the topping left in the bowl at the end; use this in smaller pieces to fill in any gaps. At the end, the filling should be mostly covered with irregular lumps of the topping, although you will still be able to see the red raspberries peeking through in places.
Then just bake, until the topping is golden brown and beautiful.
What to Serve with Raspberry Cobbler?
Serve raspberry cobbler alone if you like; it’s perfectly nice with nothing else, warm out of the oven. But it really comes into its own when served with vanilla ice cream! Warm raspberry cobbler and cold vanilla ice cream are heavenly together. If ice cream feels too juvenile for you, cold heavy cream or crème fraîche are also very good with this dessert.
Storage Notes
Store the baked raspberry cobbler in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days, although be aware that the topping will soak up the raspberry filling, and it will become softer. You can eat it cold if you like, but I prefer it warm. If you have a larger amount to heat, put into an oven proof dish and reheat in the oven at around 200°F for around 15 minutes until heated through.
Use the microwave to warm up a smaller quantity of cobbler. Cover to prevent splashes, and heat for a short amount of time at medium-low wattage.
More Seasonal Dessert Recipes
Looking for more dessert ideas for seasonal fruits? Try one of these:
Conclusion
Now you know the basics, what’s stopping you? Use up that glut of raspberries and make this delicious seasonal dessert – I promise you won’t be disappointed! Did you get your hands messy with the topping, like I did? Maybe you added some extra strawberries for a mixed summer berry cobbler? Let me know in the comments how it goes for you.
Raspberry Cobbler
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 1 lb raspberries fresh or frozen
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 1/2 lemon juice and zest
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp water
For the Topping
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 stick cold butter grated, or cut into little cubes
- 1/4 cup milk
Instructions
For the Filling
- Put the raspberries into a pan with the sugar, lemon zest, and half the lemon juice.
- Set over medium-low heat, and cook gently until the raspberries have given off some liquid.
- Meanwhile, mix the cornstarch with the water into a slurry.
- Add the cornstarch to the raspberries and continue cooking for about 6-8 minutes, until the fruit has completely collapsed, and the raspberry mixture has thickened slightly.
- Taste, and add more lemon juice and/or sugar if necessary. Set aside to cool.
For the Topping
- Mix the butter with the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Rub between your finger until the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
- Add just enough of the milk to bring together into a soft dough.
To Assemble and Bake
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Pour the raspberry mixture into a small baking dish.
- Dot the topping dough in irregular pieces all over the filling, until the raspberries are almost entirely covered.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the raspberries are bubbling at the edges.
- Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream, heavy cream, or crème fraîche.
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