"cobbler" news and stories

I've never loved that old adage about taking the bitter with the sweet, but in the case of rhubarb and strawberries I make an exception. This pairing is classic because it's pretty hard for it to go wrong, the strength of the rhubarb tempering the sweet berries, and the berries taking the edge off what might be an overpowering bitterness on its own -- helped along by our old friend sugar. Here they meet up in a homey cobbler of buttery biscuits, in a recipe from Melissa Murphy's Sweet Melissa Baking Book. (You might want to dig into that cobbler on a warm summer afternoon in the shady garden of Murphy's Sweet Melissa Patisserie, in Park Slope, Brooklyn.)

Experiment with rhubarb. There are dozens of varieties, like the deep red Valentine and juicy Holstein's Bloodred, and the pink Sunrise. And try it in an airy dessert -- Ruth Cousineau's Kitchen Daily recipe for meringue nests with roasted rhubarb-and-strawberry sauce.

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Happy National Peach Cobbler Day!

As American as apple pie, peach cobblers actually pre-date pies in the American culinary landscape, stemming back to colonial times, when cooks lacking ovens could prepare the dessert in pots over open fires. In fact, one Washington Post writer argues that the cobbler in fact deserves the moniker attributed to American pie: "It cuts across socio-economic lines and is eaten in red and blue states alike. Its history is one of immigrant innovative spirit. How's that for American?"

For those unfamiliar with the technical difference between pie and cobbler, "In these types of pies, a filling made of fruit, meat or vegetable goes into a pot first; then a skin of dough is placed over the filling, followed by the pot's lid. As cobblers cook, the filling stews and creates its own sauce and gravy, while the pastry puffs up and dries," according to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Volume 2. With the sweet base of peaches, a buttery cobbler crust topped with a bowl of vanilla ice cream, there isn't much more American -- or summery -- than a slice of this classic dessert.

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Photo: ImipolexG, Flickr

The mercury's dropping which means it's time to break out that trusty crock pot for set-it-and-forget-it cold weather cooking.

Move over pot roast -- did you ever think of making cobbler in a slow cooker? The ice cream on top might be worth the extra wintry chill down your spine. Try replacing the blueberries in this recipe with frozen or canned peaches.

Any dessert that involves fruit is a good dessert, but a cobbler is something special. Cobblers are the epitome of simple, homey fruit desserts, the type of recipe that even the least competent baker can put together because there is no crust to roll out and no special preparation of the fruit needed in the vast majority of cobbler recipes. Cobblers is a brand new book that starts with the easy, well-known classic cobblers and evolves them into the sort of desserts you'd expect to find at a four star restaurant, everything from Apple to Apricot and Lavender cobblers are covered, all with the same basic method. The book also offers some unique variations on what seems like a standard dish, with a dark chocolate cobbler, and even some savory cobbler recipes that a laden with veggies.

Source

Rhubarb is a stalk vegetable that is usually eaten as a fruit. In appearance, rhubarb very closely resembles celery and ranges in color from a light pinkish green to a deep, brilliant fuchsia. The plant is actually a member of the buckwheat family and only the stalks are edible, since the leaves contain a fairly high amount of oxalic acid, a compound which can be lethal (though you would have to eat quite a bit to reach that dose). In small amounts, oxalic acid inhibits calcium absorption and can detract from the nutritional value of foods.

The vegetables are native to Asia, but gained popularity, especially in England, during the 17th century and have been cultivated ever since. Nutritionally, rhubarb is very low in calories and is a reasonably good source of fiber and vitamins C and K. It has a high calcium content, but very little of it, if any, can be used by the body as the oxalic acid will counteract efforts to absorb it.