A Question about Cobblers (the dessert)

3113

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Nothing to do with erotica or writing, but I figure someone might know the answer, so why not ask? So, here's the deal: I was not raised in a household where there was a lot of baking (cookies now and then, sometimes brownies were about it). I am familiar with cobblers only by way of having visited a "cobbler" shop once upon a time. The cobbler I ate was the sort with fruit and a biscuit topping.

I am now doing a lot of baking and I decided to make a cobbler. In going through recipes, however, I found that there are two kinds: one is the type I've had—baked fruit with a biscuit (biscuit-like) topping. The other is made by scattering fruit (like berries) into a batter poured and baked up in a pan.

So, now I'm curious. They seem so very different from each other. Is the difference a regional thing? In one part of the country the biscuit topping one is the cobbler and pretty much everyone makes it that way, in the other part of the country the baked-in-batter-fruit is a cobbler and pretty much everyone makes it that way? Or are both types made wherever cobblers are made and it's just a matter of which recipe someone wants to go with? :confused:
 
Most cobblers are old family recipes made up from when there wasn't a lot of food, unless you grew it yourself.

So yes they vary from region to region. What would be in season in one area wouldn't be in another till much latter.

But they also vary from family to family. My recipe comes from my grandmother. I roll out really thin sheets of dough and cut it into strips, brush with melted butter, that I then layer with the fruit ( I marinade the fruit over night in sugar and cinnamon , as i said old recipe) I bake it, then brush it with some of the marinade a few minutes before it's done cooking.

My wife's family involves pouring the dough in as a batter, similar to pancake batter.


Just put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and they are both good.
 
I've only heard of the kind of cobbler which is like pie filling with a layer of biscuit/dough on top. The other sounds kind of like a tart.

Personally I'd recommend baking a crisp rather than a cobbler; they are a lot more popular in my experience.
 
Thanks for explaining that. I was a little mystified when I started reading recipes with the batter rather than the biscuit topping. :cattail:
 
Cobbler dates from colonial times when the new settlers had limited ingredients and equipment with which to make the more traditional sweet or savoury suet puddings. Not surprisingly, different people dealt with this problem in different ways; and so, today, there are probably at least a dozen different ways of making cobbler, some using a scone dough, some using bread or biscuit crumbs, others using batter. In my experience, they generally all taste good. :)
 
Cobble: to put together roughly or hastily.

I have always felt like the point of cobbler is that it is completely lacking in uniformity and unrestricted by any sort of tradition or rules. It is sweet stuff cooked together with some ice cream on top.
 
Cobbler

I don't have any idea on how to bake anything! I will be first in line to taste test in case you need any testers. Good luck.
 
To confuse matters just a wee bit more, around our house cobblers were fruit baked with a light crispy pie crust on top. Well, except for in my husband's opinion ~ he thinks it's a biscuit topping.

He's wrong.
 
Let me add to the confusion here. The second you 3113 described sounds like what I was taught is a "Dump Cake". Mix up cake batter evenly scatter fruit over the top of the batter then bake as usual. When it is done the fruit ends up on the bottom covered by a cake.

When I Googled dump cake I found several recipes for a different version. Here is one from Pioneer Woman.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/04/dump-cake-a-potluckers-paradise/

Good luck with your baking no matter which one you decide to make.

Mike
 
Let me add to the confusion here. The second you 3113 described sounds like what I was taught is a "Dump Cake". Mix up cake batter evenly scatter fruit over the top of the batter then bake as usual. When it is done the fruit ends up on the bottom covered by a cake.

When I Googled dump cake I found several recipes for a different version. Here is one from Pioneer Woman.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/04/dump-cake-a-potluckers-paradise/

Good luck with your baking no matter which one you decide to make.

Mike

That's funny, when I googled "Dump Cake" it brought up some weird German site. It doesn't appear culinary in nature but I'm going to click anyway and--oh sweet God, that's not frosting! Burn it from my eyes! Kill it with fire, kill it with fire!
 
I've only heard of the kind of cobbler which is like pie filling with a layer of biscuit/dough on top. The other sounds kind of like a tart.
It's not a tart...at least, I wouldn't define it as such. Tarts aren't cake-like with fruit scattered throughout, are they?

Biscuit topping:

b0319e27151e2dd4b68f7c92b16dade3.jpg


Fruit in batter:

e5a034884703bae857e6ce4df6a0a248.jpg

Personally I'd recommend baking a crisp rather than a cobbler
I prefer crisps myself, but I'm making this for my husband who is a cobbler fan.
I don't have any idea on how to bake anything! I will be first in line to taste test in case you need any testers.
:D Honestly, I would love testers. My husband is happy enough to oblige, but I'd love to bake up goodies for more than him.
To confuse matters just a wee bit more, around our house cobblers were fruit baked with a light crispy pie crust on top.
Um...isn't that a pie? :confused:
 
Originally Posted by JustaSCOUNDREL View Post
Let me add to the confusion here. The second you 3113 described sounds like what I was taught is a "Dump Cake".
Actually, THAT makes totally sense to me. What confuses me is calling them both cobblers when they seem to have a key difference in style. It'd save me a lot of wrong turns in finding useful recipes if the cake-batter-cum-fruit was labeled "dump cake" rather than "cobbler," and only the recipes with the biscuit topping were called cobblers.

This sort of confusion doesn't happen when I type in "fruit pie." I don't get a recipe for a fruit cake that someone's grandmother called a "fruit pie." I get recipes with fruit filling and a crust or two. So what's the deal with the "cobbler" label? :confused:
 
It's just something 'cobbled together' for a meal.
Beef cobbler is rather nice!
 
When my son was in the scouts, we did a cobbler in a dutch oven on an open fire. We mixed a yellow cake mix with the peach syrup and put it in the dutch oven, then put the peaches on top. Put the lid on and set it on the hot coals, added a bunch on the top.

Twenty minutes later, we had peaches on the bottom with a great cake top. It was magic.

You can do the same thing in an oven and a baking dish.

ETA: didn't see your post Justa until after I posted this.
 
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It's not a tart...at least, I wouldn't define it as such. Tarts aren't cake-like with fruit scattered throughout, are they?
Maybe I mis-read what you said - I thought there was the phrase "a layer of dough with fruit on top", which does describe a very plain tart:
berry-tart-recipe.jpg

Some tarts have the berries in custard or cheesecake, but not in a bread of any kind.
Berry_tart.JPG

If the fruit is in the cake I'd call it a scone or a quick bread or a coffee cake or a pound cake or a bread pudding, depending, but definitely not a cobbler. That's just me though.
 
When my son was in the scouts, we did a cobbler in a dutch oven on an open fire. We mixed a yellow cake mix with the peach syrup and put it in the dutch oven, then put the peaches on top. Put the lid on and set it on the hot coals, added a bunch on the top.

Twenty minutes later, we had peaches on the bottom with a great cake top. It was magic.

You can do the same thing in an oven and a baking dish.

ETA: didn't see your post Justa until after I posted this.
So basically a peach version of pineapple upside-down cake? Sounds tasty. :cattail:
 
So basically a peach version of pineapple upside-down cake? Sounds tasty. :cattail:

Kind of, but no. Pineapple upside-down cake is baked with the pineapples on the bottom to begin with.

A cobbler starts with the fruit on the top which eventually winds up on the bottom. :D
 
The Joy of Cooking fifth edition has a section about "Cobblers, Crisps, and Gates" and I don't remember if the Brombecks made any distinction- and I've never heard of a fruit gate anywhere else. Probably an americanisation of "gateau, now that I think about it."
 
Kind of, but no. Pineapple upside-down cake is baked with the pineapples on the bottom to begin with.

A cobbler starts with the fruit on the top which eventually winds up on the bottom. :D

How would the cobbler turn out different if you started with the fruit on the bottom?

With a pineapple upside-down cake, if you started with the fruit on top it would still migrate to the bottom, it just wouldn't be as pretty because there would be bits of batter stuck to the pineapples and they wouldn't be arranged nicely. But it would taste the same.
 
How would the cobbler turn out different if you started with the fruit on the bottom?

With a pineapple upside-down cake, if you started with the fruit on top it would still migrate to the bottom, it just wouldn't be as pretty because there would be bits of batter stuck to the pineapples and they wouldn't be arranged nicely. But it would taste the same.

Would it taste the same?

Prove it with three proofs and a summary of your conclusions in triplicate by 9 to morrow morning. ;)
 
Prove it with three proofs and a summary of your conclusions in triplicate by 9 to morrow morning. ;)
Actually, this sounds more like a scientific experiment. We need to create three cakes, one with the pineapple on the bottom, one with it on the top and the third with it mixed in. If it tastes the same all three ways, then conclusion proved.

HOWEVER, I believe the idea of the pineapple upside down isn't merely to flip the pan and have the pineapple on top, but to get it all caramelized while it's there on the bottom (like a tartin with cake instead of crust). Doing it that way also allows the cake "on top" (soon to be on the bottom) to bake up light and dry. If the fruit mixes in, it will add moisture to the batter, altering how the cake will come out as well.

Bake with the pineapple unadulterated by batter on the bottom and you not only get it caramelized, but also get a the right sort of cake. So, not the same. But I can't prove that without actually baking up some in different ways and tasting the results. :cattail:
 
The more taste-testers, the more accurate the findings . . . be sure to post some over to me :D This thread is making me verrrryyy hungry
 
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