Wild blackberries grow prolifically throughout the South. No matter how hot the sun, when picking the musky, sweet-sour fruit it’s always a good idea to wear long sleeves and gloves. Huge brambles with thick canes like barbed wire protect the berries. In the fall, we’d put on our armor, grab a few buckets, and walk toward the pond, where the blackberries grew. My sister and I ate at least one berry for every berry that went into the bucket. We’d return an hour or so later with smiles and blackened teeth and sit in the kitchen as Meme made this homey dessert. Farm-raised blackberries are much larger than wild ones, and may be used instead if you are not able to find yourself a briar patch. Other fruit may be substituted, including sliced peaches, raspberries, blueberries, plums, cherries, and apricots. To cobble means to hastily throw together. Cobblers come in a variety of styles: biscuit, pastry, crumb, and batter. This cobbler is a batter cobbler, which is an absolute snap to assemble. And, since it’s the one I grew up on, I consider it the best! The batter is poured into a hot cast-iron skillet and immediately crisps and swells.

　　

Ingredients

serves 6 to 8

　　1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

　　4 cups fresh blackberries

　　1 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling, if needed

　　1 cup all-purpose flour

　　2 teaspoons baking powder

　　Pinch of fine sea salt

　　1 cup whole milk

　　1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

　　Whipped cream, crème fraîche, or ice cream, for accompaniment

　　

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Melt the butter in a large cast-iron skillet or ovenproof baking dish in the oven, 5 to 7 minutes.

　　

Step 2

Place the blackberries in a large bowl. Using a potato masher, mash them to release some of the juices. If the berries are tart, sprinkle over some of the sugar.

　　

Step 3

To make the batter, in another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the 1 cup sugar, milk, and vanilla extract, and stir until evenly blended. Remove the skillet from the oven and add the melted butter to the batter; stir to combine. Pour the batter all at once into the skillet, then add the blackberries and juices to the center of the batter.

　　

Step 4

Bake until the top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the batter comes out clean, about 1 hour. Serve, hot, warm, or at room temperature with whipped cream, crème fraîche, or ice cream.

　　

butter

Step 5

Butter is simply over-whipped cream. In cream, the fat floats around in a water suspension. When the cream is whipped, the fat coagulates and the remaining liquid is buttermilk (see page 57). Whereas cream is an oil-in-water emulsion, after churning, the butter is a water-in-oil emulsion. This emulsion, butter, is a complex combination of milk fat, milk solids, and water. American butter contains at least 80 percent milk fat; some European or European-style butters contain between 82 and 88 percent milk fat. For simplicity and consistency of product, I use Land o’ Lakes unsalted butter in my recipes, preferring unsalted to salted, because you can always add salt, but you cannot take it out.

　　From Bon Appétit, Y’all: Recipes and Stories From Three Generations of Southern Cooking, © 2008 by Virginia Willis. Reprinted by permission of Ten Speed Press. Buy the full book from Amazon or Abe Books.