Triple Berry Cobbler

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Today's recipe is one I made for my grandma's birthday dinner last weekend. We all got together and my mum and my aunt made stuffed veal breast (because that's what my grandma always made for big family-meals). We ate our own weight in cheese at the farmers market, and then we brought even more home. I baked a cake, or two. And then there was the berry cobbler.
When I was in high school I used to make this apple and berry cobbler whenever I had people over. The main reason was that you could bake it in advance, take it out of the oven slightly early and then just stick it back in when people were nearly done eating their pasta.
I like pasta. A lot. And if I'm having people over for dinner chances are fairly hight that  it's going to involve pasta. I don't know about you, but I don't see the point in slaving in the kitchen all day long when people come over for the company. So why not eat something that's simple and will allow everybody do focus on what's important - gossip :)
Anyhow, how did we end up with the pasta? Let's get back to dessert!
So, what can I tell you about the cobbler, other than that I tend to stop talking and focus on eating as much as I can when anything involving a cobbler or crumble or buckle or a crisp is sitting in front of me. Because somehow these dishes make a bad day seem much better and a good day (like this time I made it) just phenomenal.
This cobbler is a twist on the one I used to make in high school which was based on a recipe in one of the early Jamie Oliver cookbooks (before he went off to save the world and whatnot).

Triple Berry Cobbler
1kg Blueberries, Blackberries, and Strawberries (not each but that's the combined weight)
2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
100g Sugar
2 tsp Cornflour
200g Flour
1 scant tsp Baking Powder
1 scant tsp Salt
200ml Milk
150g Butter
Juice of 1/2 Lime
Cinnamon & Nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 180˚C.
Combine the berries (half or quarter the strawberries), balsamic vinegar and 150g of the sugar in a saucepan and heat over a medium heat for a few minutes. The berries will begin to sweat. Add the cornflour, stir until everything is combined and transfer into a 23cm or so pie dish (one of those deep ones).
Mix the milk and lime and set aside (I  started doing this when I didn't have any buttermilk at home with some lemon juice, but the lime juice adds a lovely flavour you don't get when you're using buttermilk, hence the extra step).
Combine the flour, baking powder, dals and remaining 50g sugar in a bowl, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add a generous pinch of nutmeg, then stir in the milk.
Drop pieces of the (fairly sticky) dough onto the berries. They don't have to be pretty or completely equal in size, I tend to aim for plum-sized blobs of dough.
Sprinkle with some cinnamon and perhaps another tablespoon or so of sugar and then it's off into the oven for 40-50 minutes until the biscuits are golden and the fruit is bubbling from between the biscuits.
This cobbler is lovely by itself, but ice-cream or whipped cream or even custard obviously don't hurt either.

Half-Baked Blueberry Pie

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Are you enjoying the end of a lovely blueberry season as much as I am?
Two years ago this blueberry pie recipe was making it's way around the blogs I was reading. People were raving about how amazing it was. And the trick was that part of the blueberries were cooked (giving you the amazing depth of flavour you get in a baked blueberry pie) and then uncooked blueberries were folded into the cooked mix (giving you the tart, juicy, incredibly fresh flavour you get in those blueberry tartlets). To me that sounded like the best of both worlds. But by the time I had some time to give it a go all I found were super expensive blueberries from Namibia (or wherever they grow blueberries in the winter). And then I forgot about it. Until I was confronted with boxes upon boxes of blueberries. I tried to trace down the blog where I first read about the recipe but I was unsuccessful but I found the post things seem to have originated from (on Shockingly Delicious). And then I changed everything....
I used Elana's gluten-free tart crust recipe but if you don't like almonds, just make a standard one or buy one. For the filling I used ground chia seeds as a thickener because I read about that the other night and wanted to give it a go, but if you can't find any or if you don't like them, the original recipe uses cornflour so just follow that recipe. And lastly, I used agave syrup and stevia as my sweeteners but if you want to use sugar, again, have a look at the original recipe.

Half Baked Blueberry Pie
-Elana's Tart Crust (from Elana's Pantry)
200g Almond Flour
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
2 tbsp Coconut Oil
1 Egg

-Blueberry filling
500g Blueberries
150 ml Water
3 tbsp Chia Seeds
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
Stevia (equivalent to 2 tsp sugar, I find when I use more it becomes too sweet)
1 tbsp Agave Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tbsp Lime Juice

To make the crust:
Preheat your oven to 165˚C.
Mix all ingredients together. Elana suggest pulsing them in a food processor. I ended up kneading the mix together with my hands because I only have one of those hand blender sticks and while they're amazing for lots of things - pulsing dry ingredients is not their forte.
Pat the dough into a 23cm/9inch flan dish and bake for 10-15 minutes (mine needed the whole 15 minutes).
Allow the pie crust to cool before you fill it.

To make the blueberry filling:
Mix the water, chia seeds, salt, and cinnamon in a saucepan  and bring to a boil. Add 250 g of the blueberries and and heat until the blueberries are heated through. This shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. Next you need a hand blender stick or a blender that is ok with high temperatures. Blend the mixture until it is smooth. By doing this you not only get a really pretty filling for the pie but, in my opinion, more importantly the chia seeds end up broken down into little pieces and you are less likely to have chia seeds stuck to your teeth after eating the pie :)
Add the stevia, agave syrup, vanilla extract and lime juice, then fold in another 150 g of the blueberries.
Pour the blueberry mixture into the cold pie crust and distribute the blueberries evenly within the mix. Top with the remaining blueberries (100g), cover with cling film, and refrigerate for a few hours. This allows the filling to become slightly less liquid.

When you are ready to serve the pie, allow it to come back to room temperature and then serve it with sour cream, ice cream or whipped cream (can you detect a trend here?). We had it with sour cream at our lab lunch today and I was a big fan of that combination.

I hope you have a fantastic end of your week!

Citrusy Blueberry Muffins

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Today's recipe is for Valentin who just handed in his Master's thesis. I am so excited for you!!!
And to have the last word in our conversation about muffins from ages ago, here's my take on the blueberry muffin :)
These muffins are based on the blueberry muffins in Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito's 'Baked' and since they have blueberries in them I believe eating more than one will bring you closer to your five-a-day :)
Anyhow, they are super fast (25 minutes from when I started pulling the butter out of the fridge to taking the baked muffins out of the oven) so they would also make a lovely breakfast treat.

Citrusy Blueberry Muffins
Zest of 1 Satsuma and 1 Lime
125 ml Orange Juice
125 ml Milk
2 Egg Whites
60 g Butter (melt it, then let it cool)
40 g Ground Almonds
20 g Flaked Almonds
110 g Plain Flour
110 g Kamut Flour
170 g Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
75 g Blueberries

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and line a muffin pan with 12 cups.
Mix all the liquid ingredients and the zest in a jug. In a medium bowl mix all the dry ingredients (make sure the baking powder is well distributed and there's no lumps - trust me, it really won't taste nice!). In a tiny bowl toss the blueberries in some flour (this will stop them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins).
Fold the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until they are just combined (remember: well-mixed muffins = chewy muffins), then fold in the blueberries.
Spoon the batter into the paper cases, then bake for 15 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
Take the pan out of the oven and after another 15 minutes remove the muffins from the pan.
Enjoy your muffins with a glass of milk or a relaxing afternoon coffee and keep telling yourself that spring is nearly properly here :)