Traditional Blackberry Cobbler Recipe

Full of irresistible flavour, in a British pudding kind-of-way, with no awards for appearances. A cobbler is a baked dish made with fruit and batter, it’s stodgy, filling and easy to make. Just as satisfying as bread pudding, using blackberries as a flavouring makes it a classic for September. Oh, September has ended? Well, your frozen blackberries could also end up in this dish, just defrost them first.

The history of the cobbler

This type of pudding was actually promoted by the Ministry of Food in the 2nd world war. It was a way of ensuring that the British people were satiated, able to enjoy puddings that used little butter (which was rationed) and eating wild fruits (which were aplenty). Since the war, many wild foods grew out of fashion, as affluence slowly returned to the country and foraged ingredients were associated with poverty. Money was gained and wild foods were lost.

Several decades later the interest and value of wild food has been revived, mostly not for austerity reasons but for acknowledging the nutrition, flavour and benefits in eating local food that grows wild on our doorsteps.

Blackberry Cobbler Recipe

A traditional autumn recipe that I've tweaked to include wholemeal flour and brown sugar. How fashions change from encouraging people to eat stodge, to eating unrefined foods. Basically, natural foods are good for us and this is low in food miles too.

Ingredients

55 g melted butter, plus more for greasing pan

90 g brown sugar plus 2 tbsp

90 g white flour

35 g wholemeal flour

250 ml whole milk

240 g blackberries

Whipped cream, pouring cream or ice cream, for serving (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 23cm x 33cm baking dish with butter. In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar with the flour and milk. Whisk in the melted butter. Pour the batter into the baking dish and sprinkle the blackberries evenly over the top of the batter. Bake for 1 hour, or until golden brown and bubbly. 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time, sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar over the top. Serve hot with cream or ice cream or just have it on its own.

You might think you know everything about blackberries, though I share a blackberry muffin recipe in my wild food foraging book, and here's my best blackberry jam recipe, an awesome blackberry coulis recipe and I share much about foraging on my courses and on my instagram feed. Happy blackberrying.