Blackberry Cobbler

I had some blackberries in my fridge and I needed to try something new so I made some cobbler. The recipe I used is from Allrecipes, from where I get most of the recipes I use on a regular basis.

The cobbler was pretty good and especially easy to put together, but I will continue looking for the perfect cobbler recipe. Still, yummy enough to serve for you family on a crisp fall evening. I sure enjoyed it. Plus, you can use whatever fruit or berries you have at hand. Easy, easy, easy!

Blackberry Cobbler

2 Tbsp butter

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

2 cups berries or fruit

1 Tbsp sugar

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place butter in a 9-inch pie plate and place in the oven until butter is melted. Remove pan from oven. (I placed the pie plate on a baking sheet in case of batter overflow during baking.)

2. While butter is melting, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Whisk in milk until smooth batter forms. Pour batter into pan and scatter fruit/berries evenly over batter. Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tbsp of sugar,

3. Bake until golden brown and fruit/berries bubble, 50 to 60 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!

Note: Next time I may add some cinnamon to the batter. And depending on fruit, I might add more of it.

Monkey Bread

This is D's new favorite. He'd have this over cinnamon rolls, which to me is quite incomprehensible. Not that I don't love this recipe, but give me a cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting and I'm in heaven...

Monkey/pull-apart bread usually uses refrigerated biscuit dough, but mine is made with the dough recipe I use for my cinnamon rolls. Toss ingredients in your bread machine, and once dough cycle is done, there's only few things you need to do. Pretty simple, and so delicious!

Monkey Bread

1 recipe of cinnamon roll dough

1 cup white sugar

2 tsps ground cinnamon

3/4 cup ( 1 1/2 sticks) butter

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1. Prepare dough as directed. Combine white sugar and cinnamon in a Ziploc bag. Set aside. 

2. Once dough is done, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease one Bundt pan and one 9x5 loaf pan. (The dough makes too much just for the Bundt pan. Believe me, I made the mistake of putting all of it in the Bundt pan, and the syrup overflowed, forming a nice, fragrant burnt sugar layer on the bottom of my oven...)

3. Pull small chunks off the dough, rolling them into 1 inch balls with your palms. Drop a few dough balls in sugar-cinnamon mixture, shaking the bag so balls are evenly coated. place balls in pans, staggering layers so ball is placed over the space between two other ones. Use about 2/3 of dough for the bundt pan, 1/3 for the loaf pan.

4. Melt butter in a small saucepan and add brown sugar. Boild for 1 minute, then our over dough balls, again using 2/3 for Bundt pan, 1/3 for loaf pan. Cover pans with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place, for 30 minutes to an hour. Bake one pan at a time until golden brown, for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and turn over on a plate and remove pan. Bread should slide out pretty easily. 

Then just EAT!

My Apologies

I made you cookies. Lots and lots of cookies! Every single day. Just for you. Will you forgive me?

But really, I'm sorry I've been gone. I've been busy with things. I don't remember what those things were, but still... I have been baking though. Monkey bread, broccoli quiche, banana cream pie, blackberry cobbler... but writing about it has been a challenge. All in due time.

Oh, and the sugar cookies? I tested some Halloween ones. Didn't have black food coloring though so had to live with purple. They do need a little tweaking. We'll see about those on October 31st.

The moons, leaves and pumpkins? They were just for fun, and I loved brushing the icing on. Now I consider them my lazy cookies. No piping, no waiting. Just brush and sprinkle, and eat. Makes me wonder why I didn't try that before.

Speaking of sugar cookies, if you'd like to see some amazing and inspiring decorated cookies, visit Bake at 350. Just click on Cookie Index and browse away. My favorite? Beer and Hot Dogs!