Homemade Blackberry Cobbler

I recall so many wonderful things about my mom's cooking as I was growing up. Some of my earliest memories are of being in the kitchen with my mother, eating dough and licking spoons. As I got older and started school, often times she had fresh cookies or homemade popsicles ready for my sister and me to snack on when we came home. One of my favorite memories of my mom's cooking began on a hot, Texas summer day.

What is it about August's dog days that seem to make such an impression on us? For you it might be that it's baseball's most exciting time, or that it's BBQ season, or the fact that summer's almost over and real life is about to begin again. For me it was picking blackberries with my sweet young friends.

At the end of our street lay an open field, tall with weeds and overgrown with blackberry vines. To a young girl in elementary school it was heaven. There's nothing quite like a truly ripe, sweet, warmed-by-the-sun blackberry. I didn't care that I came home with more scratches on my body than blackberries in my bucket. I was spending a summer afternoon with my friends, laughing — talking about boys I'm sure — and picking blackberries.

On this particular summer day, after eating our fill of wild blackberries, my friend and I presented what was left for my mother to admire. Of course she noted the scratches and our berry-stained faces, but smiled as if she did not notice, took the berries and sent us on our way. Later in the day, to our surprise, my mother had made two blackberry cobblers — one for our family and one for my friend's. I remember thinking what a wonder my mother was. Not only had she shared her talents with our friends but she made these cobblers with such quiet ease. There was no need to run to the store for fancy ingredients or extra time spent in the kitchen, or so it seemed. For my mother, cooking never appeared to be difficult, time-consuming or commonplace. She could easily turn a bucket of wild blackberries into a simply delicious cobbler.

Looking back now it reminds me that what shapes us along the way isn't always life's "main events" but the smaller, more familiar daily stuff. I realize what a wonderful lesson my mother taught me at such a young age. Cooking doesn't have to be hard or always extraordinary. It can be simple, easy and memorable. Take a trip down memory lane and see what you come back with.

Homemade Blackberry Cobbler
You can easily throw together this cobbler in minutes using fresh berries from the grocery store 
or farmer's market. I'm lucky enough to have them growing in my yard! Yay for summer in Texas!
MAKES 1 13 X 9-inch COBBLER

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups fresh Blackberries, picked over and cleaned
• 1 1/4 sticks Butter, divided
• 3 tablespoons Flour
• 3/4 to 1 cup Sugar, depending on the sweetness of the berries; plus extra for dusting top of cobbler

CRUST

• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups Crisco shortening
• 4 to 5 tablespoons ice cold water

WHAT TO DO

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• For crust: Stir together flour and salt. Cut in shortening until it resembles small peas. Add water and stir lightly until dough comes together into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and rest in fridge while making cobbler.
• Dot 1/2 stick butter in the bottom of a 13 X 9 inch pan.
• Combine blackberries, flour and sugar and pour over butter in pan. 
• Remove dough from fridge, unwrap and gently roll out on a lightly floured surface. Cut into strips. 
• Dot blackberry mixture with an additional 1/2 cup butter and layer strips of dough over top to cover. 
• Sprinkle with a few tablespoons sugar and dot with remaining 1/4 cup butter.
• Bake in preheated oven for 55 to 60 minutes or until blackberry juice is bubbly and crust is golden brown.
• Serve hot with Blue Bell's Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream!

blackberries, picking, summer, memories, cobbler, homemade, mother, heirloom, easy, quick, delicious,