Lemony Blueberry Cobbler

Lemony Blueberry Cobbler

This weekend, I hosted a Maine-themed dinner party and for dessert, I couldn’t think of anything more representative of the beautiful northern New England state than blueberries.  To keep with the rustic feel of the party, I opted to create a comforting, biscuit-topped cobbler that I paired with Tahitian vanilla ice cream.  The result was outstanding.

Biscuit Batter Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
• 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Blueberry Filling Ingredients:

• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 64-ounce bag of frozen blueberries, thawed (or 8 cups fresh blueberries)
• 2 Tbsp. cornstarch diluted with 3 Tbsp. water

Biscuit Batter Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until coarse crumbs form.
3. Add the buttermilk and vanilla to the flour mixture and stir gently just until a biscuit-like batter forms – do not over-stir as tough dough will result.  Keep the batter in the refrigerator until ready to use, no more than 30 minutes.

Filling Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 13×9 baking dish.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the sugar, maple syrup, zest, lemon juice and water.
3. Add half of the blueberries to the pan and cook, partially covered, for about 10 minutes until hot and bubbly, stirring occasionally.
4. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the cooked blueberries, raise the heat to high, bring the mixture to a boil and cook 1 minute or until thickened.
5. Gently stir in remaining blueberries and pour the mixture in the prepared baking dish.

Biscuit Topping Directions:

1. Drop eight 1/4-cupfuls of the biscuit batter, evenly spaced, over hot filling. Sprinkle biscuits with remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.
2. Bake the cobbler for 20 minutes then turn the broiler on high and bake for 3 additional minutes to brown the tops of the biscuits.
3. Cool the dish for 5 minutes and serve warm over vanilla ice cream.

Serves 8.

Notes:  Want to shake things up a bit?  Replace the blueberries with mixed berries or straight raspberries.  For the filling, if you don’t have maple syrup, simply use 1 cup of granulated sugar instead of ¾ cup.

Recipe inspired by Woman’s Day Blue and Blackberry Cobbler.