Mama'a Cobbler

 My husband's family is southern, and they know what to do with peaches. I have been graciously grafted into the family and have had the privilege to sit under the tutelage of some amazing southern cooks. Ladies who learned to use what they had around them, stretch it to feed a crowd, make it delicious, and look beautiful and graceful at the same time. It is a sacred thing to stand in a hot kitchen with a master and watch her craft something amazing. My heart hurts just a little as I write this because we have lost a few of these magnificent ladies recently, and I miss them. I also realize that it is important to recognize that it is because of them that I started this blog.

Part of my grafting was this cookbook:

At my wedding shower I was presented with this book, partially filled out with the recipes that my husband's grandmothers and mother knew were his favorite. Over the years I filled it with my own family's favorite recipes, ones I never wanted to loose because they work perfectly every time. But the book got full, and gross. the pages are stained brown with splashes of vanilla, and the edges are gritty with flour. I started this blog to keep these family recipes, and new ones I came across so I could always find them. This recipe is from my Husband's great grandmother, Mama Long. It is one of the easiest recipes I have ever done. My boys know it, they know how to make it, (look out ladies) they know where it comes from, and they love to eat it. Eating and cooking with your family is a sacred cultural ritual. Here is a little slice of our family culture. I hope you enjoy it and make it your own.


Mama's Cobbler
This recipe is made in a 9x9, but it is easily doubled in a 9x13 for a crowd

Ingredients:

2 cups fruit (peaches, peeled and sliced or berries work well, but you can use whatever you have)
1/4 cup sugar

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk

1 stick of butter

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, combine fruit and 1/4 cup of sugar. Let it sit while you prepare the rest of the recipe. the sugar will dissolve with the juices of the fruit, this helps create the filling.

3. Before you begin the batter, place a 9x9 baking dish in the oven with the stick of butter. This step is important! You want to melt the butter and heat up the pan. It is going to do something amazing!

4. In a different medium bowl combine flour, 1 cup sugar and baking powder. (I also like to shake in some cinnamon depending on what fruit I am using) Add milk, and whisk with a fork to remove lumps. It should look runny like pancake batter.

5. When the butter in the pan that is in the oven is melted you are ready to put the whole thing together. Carefully open your oven, if you can safely reach your baking pan while it is in the oven by sliding out your rack, do that. If not, carefully remove the melted butter in your baking dish from the oven. First, pour the batter into the hot butter dish, Then gently spoon the fruit on top of the cobbler batter.
*I know, you all are reading this thinking...that's not right...that's backwards. Trust me. These are not family recipes for nothing. The ingredients literally invert themselves. It's amazing.*

What do you do for 45 minutes while the cobbler is cooking? Take silly family selfies of course!

6. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling. It is good to let the cobbler rest so the juices set, but that never happens in my house. We also believer it is served best with ice cream.

Apple Pie Cake

Our family gets really excited about apple desserts. I found this recipe and it just seemed like it would meet the Riddle standard, minimal ingredients and prep, delicious sweet apple dessert. We tried it last night to bring to our Be The Bridge group, and it was a hit. Just so that you know...this desert works well as breakfast too!

This here folks is the last piece. I had to fight to get a picture.

At first glance you may think this dessert has an identity crisis being both pie and cake. But what I have found is that this recipe takes the best parts of both cake and pie and combined them into something beautiful. Super easy prep. There is a biscuit-like dough to prepare that gets pressed in as the crust, apples with just lemon and cinnamon go on top, and then more of the same dough sprinkled on the apples. At some point in the oven the apples release their juice combining with the crust and sprinkled bits, and it becomes a magical mash-up of cake and pie. It cooks for a while, so go read a book or fold some laundry, but it is worth the wait, I assure you.

Apple Pie Cake

Ingredients:
2 Cups flour
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of Salt
1/2 lb (2 sticks) cold butter cut into pieces
5 lbs (about 12 medium) apples
   -Granny Smith apples hold up well in this cake/pie
2 tbsp lemon juice, or the juice of one lemon

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, salt and 1 tsp of cinnamon. Using a pastry blender or two table knives, cut in the butter until it is incorporated in pea-size pieces. (this is just like making scones or biscuits) The mix will be dry and crumbly, but will stick together if you pinch it with your fingers.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Cut apples into thin slices. *some people peel their apples here. I don't. No one in my family cares enough, and I like the peels, but do what you like* Toss apple slices with remaining cinnamon and lemon juice. (I also used a pinch of cloves, allspice and cardamom)

4. Press 2/3 of the flour mix into a 9 inch spring-form pan. You will want to press the mix to cover the bottom and work it up the sides of the pan to make a crust.

5. Pour the apples into the prepared crust. Press the apples down as much as you can into the crust. They will mound over the rim of the pan, that's ok.

6. Sprinkle the remaining flour mixture on top of the apples.

7. Bake on the middle rack of your oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until golden brown on top and you see the apples bubbling. It is a good idea to put a baking sheet on the rack beneath the pie/cake while it cooks. The apples release a lot of juice. (which is part of the magic of this dessert, but it may make a mess if it comes out all over your oven)

8. Remove the pie/cake from your oven, and allow it to cool completely in the pan before you remove the outer band. Serve and enjoy!