3-Berry Crumble
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I know you’ve all been there… You have this amazing food experience that is inextricably woven with a memorable setting, an incredible dining partner or just an unforgettable mood or ambiance that leaves you wondering if that meal or that certain dish might have tasted differently in another setting or at another moment in time or with someone else.
Such was the case for me with this scrumptious berry cobbler. I threw it together on a whim just because I had berries I wanted to use up and I’d had this recipe in the file for like 30 years and it was time to get it made up. I only had enough berries to make half a recipe, which was fine because it was just the two of us. When I tell you that this is an easy dessert to assemble, I'm not even kidding... 10 minutes tops No crust to make, nothing tricky, especially if you've got a food processor.
So after watching the most recent episodes of Outlander a couple of weeks ago, we grabbed two spoons and that little cobbler up there and went out onto the porch on a warm summer’s evening and proceeded to eat the entire thing, all the while being serenaded by a million crickets and entertained by the last couple of fireflies of the season, twinkling and dancing in the moonlight.
We were completely and totally blown away by how good this cobbler was and were still talking about it the next morning. But I had a niggling sense that on such an evening at such a moment with that particular guy sitting next to me, a bowl of cheerios might have seemed magical.
So before I could sell this to you as the spectacularly delicious dessert I remembered, I was just going to have to make it again. To determine if it was as good as I remembered, I wanted an objective experience of this cobbler and decided to take a scientific approach in order to be completely sure. I hadn’t thought to eat this second crumble by myself in a dark room, but I sort of planned that this taste test would be a bit more clinical than our experience two weeks ago.
So last night after we finished watching the most recent episodes of Outlander, we grabbed a couple of spoons and headed out to the porch and a gorgeous summer evening in which a million crickets serenaded us with... um. I pretty much suck at science. But lucky for us, I am apparently very good at making berry crumbles. It was every bit as good as we remembered, but to be truly convinced, I guess you’ll have to try it for yourself. Here’s the recipe…
3-Berry Crumble
Click here for a printable recipe
This is such an incredibly delicious dessert for so little effort. The crunchy, caramel-y topping is just ever so good next to those sweet, juicy berries. I added a little mulberry jam and it created a wonderfully jammy texture to the fruit. As I mentioned below, you can quickly and easily make the crumble topping for this in the food processor. One note of caution... do not use more berries than the recipe calls for as that will throw off the ratio of crumble to filling which makes this so good. If you're making 1/2 recipe, reduce the baking time to about 25 or 30 minutes.
4-6 cups of fresh berries (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries)
3 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup blackberry, blueberry or raspberry jam (optional)
The Topping:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
1 stick cold butter
Preheat oven to 350º.
Toss the berries with the flour and sugar and stir in the jam. Pour into a 2-quart baking dish, preferably rather shallow (more surface area for the crumble).
For the topping: Mix together flour, brown sugar and salt. Cut butter into small pieces. Using your hands, work in butter until large, moist clumps form. (you can do this in the food processor, pulsing several times until you have pea-sized clumps).
Crumble the topping over the berry mixture.
Bake for 45 minutes, or until bubbly and light golden brown.
Serves 6-8
