Blueberries For Sure

In case you haven't noticed blueberries are in season. We lost most of our local crop due to the late frost but there are nice supplies coming in from other places. I got two pounds yesterday for only $5.99 at Whole Foods. They were New Jersey grown. What did I do with two pounds of blueberries? I made a cobbler, of course, and was it ever good. Now I'll share the recipe.

This is a two phase recipe. First you need to get the blueberries cooking. You'll need a 9 inch deep glass or ceramic pie dish or an 8 inch square casserole. Put the rack in the lower third of your oven and preheat it to 375 degrees.

For the berries
6 cups (or 30 oz.) of fresh blueberries that you have washed and picked through. You'll find little stems on some of the berries so get all those off that you see.
In a mixing bowl add to the blueberries
1/2 cup of sugar
1 & 1/2 Tablespoons of corn starch
1 & 1/2 Teaspoons of grated lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
a pinch of cinnamon

Mix all of this together gently and pour it into your pie dish and put the dish on a lipped pan (pizza pan) and put this in the oven for a half hour or so until the berries start to bubble around the edges. you might want to stir the berries after about 20 minutes. The dish is going to pretty full to start but the berries will cook down a little.

For the topping I use a sweetened biscuit mixture. You have to do the wet and dry in two separate bowls and bring them together only when you are ready to put it on the berries.
Wet bowl- beat together
1/3 cup buttermilk
4 Tablespoons of melted unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Dry bowl - mix together
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons of stone ground corn meal
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 Tsp kosher salt
1/4 Tsp baking soda
2 Tsp baking powder

When the berries are bubbling remove them from the oven and turn the oven up to 425 degrees. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together and stir until they are mixed and there are no dry spots. Don't over mix or it will toughen the dough. When all mixed you should be able to divide the dough into 8 equal bits and gently shape each into a little cake about 1/2 inch thick (a little biscuit) the dough will be a little greasy with all the butter and it shouldn't stick to your hands. Put your little pieces of dough on top of the hot berries trying to leave at least a half inch between the pieces. I sometimes sprinkle the dough with a little sugar or cinnamon sugar. Put the dish back in the oven and 15 - 20 minutes later the biscuit topping should have browned nicely. Remove to a rack and let cool for 20 minutes before serving. Great with cream, lightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

PS. This will work for blackberries too and if you weren't so lazy you'd go out and pick you a quart and a half and have a cobbler for dinner.