Picking wild dewberries in the Spring has become a family tradition. My grown children love to ride four wheelers through the pasture looking for the ripest dewberries (all while wearing snake boots I might add!) I picked them with my mom when I was a child, and once she was too busy teaching school and all the other multitude of things she was doing my dad would come home with enough of them for her to make a cobbler. None of us liked the millions of seeds so she made a seedless cobbler. It was heavenly, especially with the dollop of homemade vanilla ice cream she would always pair with it. Yes, I was spoiled by delicious food, and I have managed to pick up where my mama left off. My children are following that lead as well and are all excellent cooks and definitely lovers of good food -- hence Eric naming this blog Bella Vista Food Snob, since we live on Bella Vista Trail! So, now that it is past dewberry season I decided to use the recipe and make blackberry cobbler, especially since I had forgotten to take a picture of the dewberry cobblers I made this Spring. Blackberries are a little sweeter than dewberries so I adjusted the amount of sugar, but otherwise the recipe is the same. Our HEB had the biggest, juiciest, sweetest blackberries I have ever found, and it was hard not to eat them instead of using them in the cobbler, so I asked Logan to back to the store and get some more so we could just eat them! I think this cobbler is "moanable" -- especially if you put a dollop of Blue Bell vanilla on it.
6 generous cups of dewberries or blackberries, rinsed
1-1/2 to 2 c. sugar *
4 TB flour
1/2 stick unsalted butter
pinch of Kosher salt
3 TB cornstarch
2 pie crusts **
1 egg white
Put the berries in a medium sized pot and barely cover with water. With the smaller dewberries it took about 2 cups water, and with the huge blackberries it took 3 cups water. Bring the water to a boil and let them simmer to make juice. Press on the berries with a potato masher or the back of a spoon periodically to release the juice.
Pass the berry mixture through a fine mesh sieve to removed the seeds and pulp, stirring and mashing the berries to squeeze out all the juice. Discard the seeds and pulp. Return the juice to the pot and add the sugar, starting with the least amount and with a small spoon tasting the juice until you like the sweetness. Put the flour in a small container with a lid and add just enough juice to be able to shake it up until all the flour is mixed into it and then add it to the juice in the pot. Be sure to scrape all the flour mixture out of the container. Add the butter and salt. Whisk well to be sure there aren't any lumps.
Bring to a slow boil. Mix the cornstarch in 1/3 cup of water and add to the boiling mixture. Whisk until thickened and glossy, only about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heavily grease a 9" square baking dish with butter. Cut the pie crusts into approximately 1" strips.
Smear a little of the berry mixture on the bottom of the dish. Criss-cross pie crust on it. Pour half of the berry mixture on it. Count your strips of pie crust and determine how many you need for the top. Put the rest of them on this layer, but you probably won't have enough to criss-cross on this layer. Pour the rest of the berry mixture and then criss crops the last of the pie crust on top.
Mix the egg white with 1 teaspoon water and gently brush the top crust. Sprinkle the crust lightly with sugar.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling. Let cool about 30 minutes before serving. Serve with heavy cream or vanilla ice cream, if you prefer your cobbler ala mode, like we do. Store leftovers in the refrigerator, if there are any!
*For the dewberries I ended up using 2 cups of sugar, and for the sweet blackberries I only used 1-1/2 cups of sugar. You definitely want to taste as you add sugar to the juice to determine your level of sweetness.
**You can make your own crust, but I use the Pillsbury pie crusts in the long red box that is sold in the refrigerated biscuit section of the grocery store. There are two rolls of crust in each box. Lay them out about 15 minutes or more to soften before using them.
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