Blueberry Cobbler with a Cornmeal Sugar Cookie Crust

Deep Run Roots

This is a different take on a cobbler, with the crust being more crumbly cookie (because of the cornmeal) than the usual fluffy dough.

While it calls for a mixer, you could certainly put this together with a strong arm and a sturdy spoon, especially since the dough isn't a dry one. So no special equipment necessary and there's nothing fiddly about it.

You can find the recipe here: https://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/blueberry-cobbler-cornmeal-sugar-cookie-crust/

Captions

[00:04]: hello
[00:05]: and welcome to cooking the books with
[00:06]: heather today
[00:08]: it is blueberry season again in north
[00:10]: carolina actually it's been for a while
[00:11]: we're probably near the tail end but
[00:13]: we've got a ton of blueberries
[00:16]: um because one of my kids won't eat them
[00:18]: and
[00:20]: so they've been just sort of sitting in
[00:21]: the refrigerator and we've got a lot
[00:23]: from our produce box we wanted to use
[00:24]: them up
[00:25]: so today we're going to be making a
[00:28]: blueberry cobbler with a cornmeal sugar
[00:30]: cookie crust out of
[00:32]: the deep run roots cookbook because
[00:36]: yeah blueberries are
[00:40]: grow very well in eastern north carolina
[00:42]: and there are a lot of blueberry farms
[00:43]: so
[00:43]: we get a lot of blueberries and there's
[00:45]: a whole blueberry section in the book
[00:47]: we don't make a lot of blueberry stuff
[00:49]: like because like i said one of my kids
[00:50]: won't eat them but
[00:53]: anyway the first step here is to get the
[00:56]: filling ready because it has to
[00:58]: sort of hang out in the refrigerator for
[00:59]: a little while um
[01:02]: so i you start with quite a bit of
[01:05]: blueberries we're going to bake this in
[01:06]: a 9x13 pan so the crust the filling is
[01:08]: going to
[01:09]: you know have to fill that up pretty
[01:11]: well i've already weighed these out
[01:13]: i washed them weighed them out and
[01:16]: kind of went through them to see if i
[01:18]: could find any
[01:20]: uh any stems because sometimes there are
[01:22]: stems and
[01:23]: i take them out if i can find them but
[01:24]: if they're in a few are in there it's
[01:26]: fine also she says you can use older
[01:28]: fruit for this
[01:30]: like i said some of these have been
[01:31]: hanging out in the refrigerator for a
[01:32]: while so i tried to pick out
[01:33]: well i look i checked for any moldy bits
[01:35]: but there weren't any
[01:37]: blueberries are great for that honestly
[01:38]: they have such a
[01:40]: tough skin that unlike strawberries
[01:44]: they last in the refrigerator for quite
[01:46]: a while
[01:47]: a lot longer than strawberry
[01:48]: strawberries you have max a week
[01:51]: anyway so we have the blueberries um
[01:54]: go ahead and put sugar there's a decent
[01:58]: amount of sugar in this but
[02:00]: blueberries have a bit of a tartness to
[02:03]: them so you know sugar is not bad
[02:05]: uh oh yeah let me go ahead and add a
[02:07]: little bit of salt
[02:08]: you know always add a little bit of salt
[02:11]: even in sweet things
[02:13]: and then i have lemon zest
[02:17]: that took off with a microplane
[02:20]: if you don't have one of those get one
[02:22]: they're not that expensive and
[02:26]: they're not that expensive and they are
[02:27]: so useful for zesting
[02:30]: and uh parmesan cheese and things like
[02:32]: that i use them all the time oh and
[02:35]: ginger love
[02:36]: it love it love it
[02:40]: and then lemon juice
[02:44]: so i am going to confess that this is
[02:46]: not all
[02:48]: entirely fresh lemon juice
[02:52]: the amount the recipe called for was a
[02:53]: little bit more than the amount of
[02:56]: zested lemons that it called for my
[02:58]: lemons didn't have as much juice as the
[02:60]: recipe called for
[03:01]: so i augmented with a little bit of
[03:02]: bottled lemon juice
[03:04]: it's fine um now do i think that she
[03:08]: measures the lemon juice when she makes
[03:10]: this probably not
[03:11]: my guess is she zests the lemons and
[03:13]: then uses the juice from them and then
[03:15]: you know
[03:17]: in a book having exact measurements is
[03:21]: important um
[03:25]: but i'm guessing she probably just uses
[03:26]: the amount that come from the lemons
[03:28]: that she zested
[03:29]: anyway so now we sort of mix this up
[03:32]: and we want to try to break
[03:36]: about half of the berries
[03:39]: break the skins so that they
[03:43]: um release their juices like i said they
[03:46]: have a very tough skin
[03:47]: and unlike strawberries where you know
[03:50]: you slice them up
[03:52]: because they're larger and you know add
[03:55]: juice
[03:56]: or add sugar and then they will macerate
[03:58]: and release their juices without doing
[04:00]: this blueberries you have to kind of
[04:03]: mash a little bit
[04:04]: if that's what you are aiming for
[04:07]: so i'm just trying to mash up
[04:11]: some but not all i considered using a
[04:15]: potato masher but honestly i don't think
[04:16]: it would work all that well so
[04:20]: i think they would probably just slip
[04:22]: out in between
[04:25]: the times of the kind of potato masher
[04:27]: that i have
[04:29]: all right i think i'm about there i
[04:32]: think i've got enough
[04:33]: you know sort of blueberry juices in
[04:36]: here that we will probably be okay for
[04:39]: the next step
[04:41]: and she says that this should hang out
[04:42]: in the refrigerator for
[04:44]: two hours up to overnight we're just
[04:46]: gonna have it later today
[04:48]: and so next time uh you'll see me we'll
[04:51]: be making the crust
[04:53]: um the cornmeal
[04:56]: sugar cookie crust but that is supposed
[04:58]: to be at room temperature
[05:01]: when you add it to
[05:04]: the cobbler so i'm just going to make it
[05:07]: right before
[05:08]: we bake it you can make it beforehand
[05:12]: you can make all of this the night
[05:14]: before and then just put it together and
[05:16]: bake it
[05:18]: when you need it i'm not going to do
[05:20]: that today
[05:21]: but that seems to be
[05:25]: it and we'll be right back
[05:29]: so now it's been almost two hours
[05:32]: that our blueberries have been in the
[05:33]: refrigerator and we're gonna start
[05:35]: assembling the crust
[05:37]: um first this goes together like
[05:40]: a cookie as the title suggests
[05:44]: but so first we're going to combine the
[05:47]: dry ingredients we've got
[05:48]: cornmeal here and some plain
[05:52]: all-purpose flour
[05:56]: and then we have to add some salt
[06:03]: and some baking powder
[06:06]: and we're just gonna mix this together
[06:15]: so it'll be ready to add
[06:21]: do our wet ingredients and i'm of course
[06:23]: going to make a mess like i always do
[06:33]: all right that is
[06:36]: pretty well combined so now i have to
[06:37]: get my mixer out because we're going to
[06:39]: use
[06:40]: that for this next step second
[06:43]: my mixer is now set up with the paddle
[06:47]: attachment
[06:48]: and you start with
[06:52]: three full sticks of butter this is not
[06:54]: a typo
[06:56]: there is a lot of butter in this crust
[06:59]: also i'm going to keep these
[07:02]: wrappers and use them to butter the 9x13
[07:06]: dish there's plenty left on it and i'm
[07:08]: not going to worry about scraping it all
[07:10]: off because i'm just going to use the
[07:11]: wrappers to butter the dish
[07:13]: good tip
[07:19]: so what's one
[07:29]: two
[07:34]: and three love butter
[07:41]: okay we're going to cream this with
[07:44]: these sugars
[07:45]: so i have mostly white sugar just a
[07:48]: little bit of light
[07:49]: brown sugar here and we're going to
[07:53]: cream this
[07:53]: until it is light and fluffy just like
[07:56]: um
[07:56]: any other cookie recipe
[08:04]: okay i think this is good for now
[08:07]: it's pretty creamy it's not super
[08:09]: granulated anymore it's very light and
[08:12]: fluffy
[08:14]: and stopped and scraped it down a couple
[08:16]: times just like usual and i'm going to
[08:18]: add
[08:18]: an egg
[08:26]: and the vanilla
[08:34]: so just a little vanilla extract
[08:49]: [Music]
[08:53]: so
[08:55]: okay i'm going to give this just a
[08:57]: little bit more just to get that
[08:58]: incorporated
[09:07]: well
[09:08]: and now i'm going to add this a little
[09:10]: bit at a time i think a little bit of
[09:12]: time
[09:15]: [Music]
[09:17]: yeah slowly add the dry ingredients
[09:20]: until it sort of just comes together i'm
[09:22]: just going to leave it on stir
[09:24]: and add a spoonful at a time or so as it
[09:26]: takes it
[09:27]: um i don't want it
[09:30]: if you add a lot and then turn it on and
[09:32]: turn it on high you get
[09:33]: a big puff of flour so
[09:44]: i've got half of it in and i'm just
[09:45]: going to kind of scrape it off of here
[09:48]: off of the paddle and off the sides just
[09:51]: kind of
[09:51]: make sure everything gets incorporated
[09:53]: well
[09:56]: just one more time you don't want to
[09:58]: over mix it once you start adding the
[09:60]: flour
[10:02]: because you'll develop the gluten and it
[10:04]: won't be
[10:05]: as crumbly
[10:11]: there we go just want to get it all
[10:13]: combined no
[10:14]: dry spots
[10:19]: i think we're good um now you can if
[10:22]: you're waiting
[10:23]: uh to make this you're making this ahead
[10:25]: of time
[10:26]: you can put wrap this up put it in the
[10:28]: refrigerator
[10:29]: and do the rest later i'm going to bake
[10:33]: mine
[10:34]: really soon um but like i said this has
[10:36]: to be at room temperature
[10:38]: when you put it on top of the cobbler
[10:40]: because it's supposed to be
[10:42]: a sticky sticky
[10:46]: mess right now kind of like a cookie
[10:48]: dough
[10:49]: um as the
[10:52]: name recipe title suggests so
[10:56]: i'll try and get as much out of here off
[10:57]: of here as i can and then we'll
[11:02]: put uh the mixer away and
[11:06]: start putting it all together
[11:09]: okay so i have all my parts
[11:13]: together and now i can assemble the
[11:14]: whole thing like i said
[11:16]: sorry like i said i use the butter
[11:19]: wrappers to butter
[11:20]: my dish you can do these in single
[11:23]: serving
[11:24]: uh ramekins whatever you have pretty
[11:27]: little things if you want to do it that
[11:28]: way
[11:29]: she says what's important is the ratio
[11:31]: you want
[11:32]: basically three parts filling to one
[11:35]: part
[11:37]: crust so however deep your
[11:40]: ramekins are your serving vessels do
[11:42]: whatever she says about one and a half
[11:43]: inches
[11:44]: of um filling to half an inch of crust
[11:48]: so you know three to one
[11:49]: so we're just gonna spoon this in here
[11:53]: i don't know why we're not just pouring
[11:54]: it but
[12:04]: [Music]
[12:09]: all right
[12:12]: [Music]
[12:13]: certainly smell the lemon and there's a
[12:15]: lot of juices in there so i think
[12:16]: that'll be good
[12:18]: i don't feel like we're an inch and a
[12:21]: half
[12:22]: deep but maybe we are whatever
[12:26]: and now i've washed my hands because we
[12:29]: use
[12:29]: your use your hands for this it's a very
[12:31]: sticky dough she says usually you'd be
[12:34]: instructed to you know roll this out
[12:37]: but in this case no use your hands
[12:41]: so that's what i'm gonna do and just
[12:43]: take
[12:44]: a bit of it and make it about a half an
[12:47]: inch thick
[12:48]: and pat it out and then
[12:53]: about half an inch thick lay it on top
[12:57]: and continue doing that
[13:01]: until you have um almost
[13:04]: covered you want a few bits poking out
[13:08]: and you don't want to
[13:10]: overlap this crust
[13:15]: this was super sticky and it's all over
[13:18]: my hands
[13:18]: and i may have gotten a little bit too
[13:22]: thick on my first ones as i have been um
[13:25]: admonished
[13:26]: but i think we're just about right
[13:28]: honestly because we've covered just
[13:30]: about all of it
[13:31]: um have a few pieces back
[13:34]: under there a few pieces sort of areas
[13:37]: where it's
[13:40]: um you can see the filling so it can
[13:43]: bubble up and be beautiful
[13:47]: and that's it so now we're i've got my
[13:50]: um
[13:51]: my oven heated to
[13:55]: um 350
[13:59]: and i'm going to put this in the oven uh
[14:02]: for about an
[14:03]: hour so first i'm gonna wash my hands
[14:07]: see when it's done i've just taken this
[14:09]: out of the oven uh for
[14:10]: us it cooked a little bit more than an
[14:12]: hour maybe hour 10 hour 15.
[14:15]: um at an hour the middle was not
[14:19]: quite brown not quite puffy yet but so
[14:21]: you're looking for
[14:23]: the dark side of golden brown which i
[14:26]: think we are
[14:27]: and um the edges look a little crispy
[14:30]: so i think we're there this is super hot
[14:33]: uh we're gonna wait until it cools
[14:36]: a little bit but we're gonna serve it
[14:37]: warm with some
[14:39]: vanilla ice cream as you know generally
[14:42]: people serve
[14:43]: cobblers she does say that you can use
[14:46]: any other fruit that you want with this
[14:48]: recipe
[14:49]: um you can add spices
[14:52]: that you know go with the the fruit
[14:54]: she's even done it in the winter with
[14:56]: like
[14:57]: apples and and that kind of thing so i'm
[14:60]: looking forward to seeing how this
[15:01]: tastes and
[15:02]: we'll let you know what we think
[15:15]: on this episode of cooking the books
[15:16]: with heather you watched me make
[15:18]: blueberry cobbler with a cornmeal sugar
[15:20]: cookie crust
[15:22]: from the deep brown roots cookbook um it
[15:26]: was
[15:28]: pretty easy if you can make cookies you
[15:31]: can make
[15:31]: the the crust i really enjoyed well i
[15:34]: really like that you didn't have to make
[15:36]: it
[15:36]: and let it sit in the refrigerator
[15:38]: overnight or let it
[15:41]: sit for hours before that that was that
[15:43]: was very
[15:44]: that made it much easier for me in my
[15:46]: life i could just put it together
[15:48]: and then bake it right immediately
[15:52]: you do have to let the blueberry filling
[15:54]: sit for a little bit
[15:57]: excuse me to sort of
[16:01]: get the juices together um
[16:05]: that wasn't too hard you could
[16:06]: definitely do that the night before and
[16:08]: then just
[16:09]: when you're ready to have this go ahead
[16:10]: or when you're gonna have this in
[16:12]: an hour and a half or two hours go ahead
[16:14]: and bake it off
[16:15]: um pretty easy
[16:18]: i would say it's pretty easy um it does
[16:22]: take three sticks of butter
[16:24]: but the topping didn't feel
[16:27]: greasy it was it was good i think the
[16:30]: cornmeal really sort of
[16:32]: absorbs that a lot more than flour
[16:35]: plain flour would so it was delicious
[16:39]: um the sugar cookie crust was very
[16:42]: crumbly and buttery
[16:44]: and delicious the blueberry stuff was a
[16:46]: little heavy on the lemon
[16:48]: for me um i would not back off on the
[16:52]: lemon juice
[16:53]: but maybe back off on the lemon zest
[16:57]: if you don't want it to be super lemony
[17:01]: it wasn't too sweet it was
[17:04]: um it was really good and all of the
[17:07]: adults loved it
[17:08]: the kids didn't want it but then again
[17:10]: half of them don't like blueberries in
[17:12]: general
[17:12]: the other half don't generally eat
[17:14]: desserts like this anyway they'd rather
[17:17]: have cookies
[17:18]: or ice cream i think they ate ice cream
[17:21]: that night
[17:21]: cookies or ice cream or popsicles or
[17:23]: things like that and that's fine we just
[17:25]: didn't share
[17:26]: so uh yeah all in all pretty easy
[17:30]: no special equipment required beyond the
[17:32]: mixer for the
[17:34]: for the um the cookie dough
[17:38]: but that's that's a relatively you could
[17:40]: do that with a hand mixer
[17:41]: honestly um yeah
[17:45]: so we enjoyed the recipe i hope you
[17:48]: enjoyed watching me make it
[17:50]: and uh if you did give me a thumbs up
[17:52]: hit the subscribe button and come back
[17:54]: and watch me make something else