Dee's Forest Fruit Cobbler

Fruit Cobbler

This is a fantastic American recipe equivalent to our crumble. Particularly good with strawberries and rhubarb, but you can use any fruit combo you like; about 680g/1Vlb of fruit should do it..

Serves 6

For the fruit
1 punnet of blackberries
1 punnet of blueberries
1 punnet of raspberries
(or 2 big cartons of frozen fruit - easier to find in winter)
5 tablespoons sugar
a good glug of balsamic vinegar

For the topping
6 heaped tablespoons butter, chilled
225g/8oz self-raising flour
70g/2Voz sugar
a large pinch of salt
130ml/4Vfl oz buttermilk
a little extra sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 1901⁄4C/3751⁄4F/gas 5.
Put the fruit into a pan with the sugar and the balsamic vinegar, put the pan over the heat, and cook gently until the juices begin to run from the berries. Pour into an ovenproof dish.

Meanwhile make the topping. Rub the cold butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and salt, stir well, then add the buttermilk to form a loose scone-type mixture. Spoon this over the hot fruit (to get a cobbled effect, flick balls of dough randomly over the fruit), sprinkle with a little caster sugar, and bake in your preheated oven for 30 minutes until golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream.