homemade...cherry cobblestone tutorial

Cherry season is fleeting. If you blink your eyes, it’s over. In fact, it is over here. So I’m not sure how many will actually get to make use of this before cherries are no longer in season, but it can be used with all sorts of berries, peaches, and apples too.

If you need a quick dessert that is not only delicious but really easy to make, this is the one. It is a miracle of sorts because the ingredients rearrange themselves in the process of baking. We call it cobblestone because that is what the finished dessert looks like, and I guess there is some controversy over what a cobbler really is. Some say it has to have dropped biscuit like dough on top to be a true cobbler. Whatever you want to call it is just fine with me…we call it yummy cobblestone!

Here we go…

The hardest part about making a fresh cherry cobblestone is pitting the cherries. I don’t have a cherry pitter, but a sturdy straw works wonderfully and makes a lot less mess. (The only reason I am assuming that this is less messy is that I am reading Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver and one of the characters makes cherry preserves and describes her kitchen looking like a murder scene after pitting her cherries with an antique cherry pitter. That was enough to convince me my method works just fine.) I just push the straw into the middle of the cherry and slide the cherry up the straw. The pit stays in the straw, and then I squeeze it out into waste bowl. I used a quart of cherries (see top photo), but if you had more you could use another pint or so.

Once you have your cherries pitted, put a stick of butter into a 9’ x 13’ baking dish.

Put the butter in the oven while preheating to 350 F.

Depending on how sweet your cherries are you can add a little bit of sugar. I used sweet cherries and really didn’t need much sugar at all, but I used a bit too much in my opinion. Sour cherries, of course, will need more sugar. Try 2 tablespoons- ½ cup depending on the sweetness of the cherries. And add 1 tablespoon of flour.

In another bowl, mix together 1 cup of white whole wheat flour, ¾ cups sugar ( I would like to try sucanat or a mix of sucanat with turbinado sugar), 1 teaspoon baking powder.

Add 1 cup of milk and stir until all the ingredients are blended thoroughly. (Ignore that cut lemon in the background. It has nothing to do with the cobblestone.)

Check in the oven to see if your butter has melted. Pour the batter mixture over the butter and do not mix or stir.

Pour cherries evenly over the butter and batter and do not stir or mix. Place the dish into the oven and cook for almost an hour. I would check on it at 45 minutes and continue cooking until the batter is golden brown. Serve warm and enjoy!

Fresh cherry cobblestone

What you need:

½ cup of butter

1 cup of white whole wheat flour + 1 Tablespoon of white whole wheat flour

¾ cup sugar (or a mix of sucanat and turbinado)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup milk

1 quart of pitted cherries

2 T-1/2 cup of sugar depending on the sweetness of the cherries

What you need to do:

1. Melt butter in a 9’ x 13’ baking dish in a 350F oven.

2. Mix together flour, ¾ cup sugar, baking soda in a bowl. Pour in 1 cup of milk and blend until smooth.

3. Pour batter over melted butter. Do not stir or blend.

4. Add the amount of sugar needed for the pitted cherries and 1 T of flour. Stir to coat the cherries.

5. Distribute the cherries evenly over the butter and batter. Do not stir or blend.

6. Cook for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm. Enjoy!

I failed to take any really good pictures of the finished cobblestone. I was more interested in eating it than taking a decent picture apparently. But this shows you what you should pull out of the oven. Don't judge the taste by this horrible photo!