Summer Berries & Cherries

Summer memories for me involve memories of the summer fruits - watermelons, berries and cherries are my favorites.  As watermelon isn't known for its good baking qualities, my baking interest turns to berries and cherries.  This first recipe is somewhere between a cobbler and a clafouti - but it is super easy and a delicious way to finish off some summer cherries.  I've tried this with mixed berries (blackberries, blueberries and raspberries) and it just doesn't come out as well.  You can vary the amount of sugar in the batter to suit your own tastes - the recipe calls for 3/4 cup and that is my optimal level but you could probably make it with as little as 1/2 a cup.  Also, if you don't have a cherry pitter...run out and get one.  I only got my cherry pitter a few weeks ago (in advance of our French dinner party) and I fell in love with it instantly. 

Cherry Cobbler:

Ingredients

½ cup butter
1 cup flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup whole milk
3 - 4 cups pitted cherries
¾ cup white sugar
1 tablespoon flour

Method:

Preheat oven to 175C.  Place butter in 9 x 13 pan to melt (give or take 5 minutes, but make sure not to brown the butter).

Stir together 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and the baking powder.  Mix in the milk until well blended.  Pour in pan over butter.  DO NOT STIR. (sorry for yelling - but you really don't want to stir)

Toss the cherries with  ¾ cup sugar and 1 T flour.  Distribute over batter.  DO NOT STIR. (again, sorry for yelling...really don't stir this okay?)

Bake 50 – 60 minutes.

If you are looking for something delicious to do with some blueberries, blueberry scones are a nice idea.  I've made this recipe a few times, and they are a real treat.  I like to serve them with some lemon butter, and that flavor combination just makes me melt.  I use fresh blueberries in this recipe, but I do freeze them so that they are easier to work with and less likely to give you bright purple scones.

Blueberry Scones:

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
150gr blueberries

Method

Preheat oven to 200C.  Spray a shallow 20cm round pan with some non-stick spray.

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl.  Pour in enough buttermilk to mix to a sticky dough - you may not need the full 1 ¼ cups of buttermilk, so take it slowly. Fold in blueberries.

Gently knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth.  Use hand to flatten out dough to about 3cm thick.  Cut 8 5.5cm rounds from dough.  Place rounds, slightly touching, in prepared pan. 

Bake, uncovered, in hot oven about 20 minutes or until browned lightly.