ambrosia: Strawberry-Rhubarb Cobbler

I can't explain to you how happy I am to finally be sharing the recipe for this strawberry-rhubarb cobbler. No, it's not that I've been waiting and waiting until the perfect moment to share the recipe. It's also not because I made it several weeks ago and just forgot to share it. No, my excitement has nothing to do with that. I'm mostly excited about sharing this recipe because I was able to simply make it. You wouldn't believe the amount of trouble I had finding rhubarb this spring. My local supermarket typically carries it for a super short time in the spring and you just have to be lucky enough to be in the supermarket at that time to buy it, but this year, they just weren't carrying it. In fact, none of the markets near me were stocking rhubarb. I called several stores to ask if they had any rhubarb, and while a few of them actually said yes, by the time I made it over, it was all gone. This meant that in the ten minutes it took me to get from my house to the store, some lucky person grabbed the last of the rhubarb. I was getting frustrated and disheartened. I'd been searching for the stuff for three weeks and just couldn't seem to catch a break! My craving for rhubarb-anything wasn't going anywhere though, so I knew I had to keep trying.

Fortunately for me, my mom decided to help me out with my rhubarb search, and she actually got lucky and found it! I don't know how she did it, but I was so glad. The search was over! I came home on Saturday night to five beautiful stalks of ruby red rhubarb sitting in pitcher of water on my kitchen counter, and it was an amazing sight to see. It was also perfectly timed, because my mom was having her best friend come over for dinner on Mother's Day, and she goes crazy for anything with rhubarb and strawberries. Now that I had secured the rhubarb, it was time to figure out what to do with it!

I was debating between making a pie and making a crisp. I really wanted to make a beautiful strawberry-rhubarb pie with a lovely lattice crust, but I felt that I was a little too short on time on Sunday to make it before my mom's friend arrived at our house without getting flustered. I knew a crisp would be the easiest way to go about the strawberry-rhubarb flavor, but for some reason, I just wasn't entirely convinced. I love crisps and crumbles, don't get me wrong, but I wanted something with a little bit more wow-factor that would still be just as easy and fast to prepare. Cobblers somehow jumped into my head and I knew that was it. Sweet cooked fruit with buttery and flaky biscuits on top- who wouldn't want to eat that!? I had never actually prepared, let alone eaten a cobbler at that moment in time, but I knew that it would be absolutely delicious- there was just no way it could be anything less than that.

I have a feeling that cobblers are going to become my go-to summer dessert. They're rustic and simple to prepare, and the fact that they can be prepared with just about any combination of fruit that you want makes them a great dish to have up your sleeve. The fruit element is completely versatile, and the biscuit topping can be made in all of about five minutes. This cobbler recipe isn't really from any one particular source. I sort of just took elements from different cobbler recipes and mixed up something that sounded right to me, which is another great thing about this type of dessert. You can just take this recipe as a guide and adjust it to your liking! While I loved the way my cobbler came out, I thought it was just a tad too sweet and the tartness of the rhubarb wasn't coming out as much as I would have liked. I'd add maybe a scant 1/2 cup of granulated sugar next time, but you could even lower it to a 1/3 cup of sugar if you really like to taste the tartness of the rhubarb. I can't wait until summer to begin making lots and lots of fruit cobblers; now I have a huuuuge craving for a peach and blueberry version!

It goes without saying that this cobbler was a huge success on Mother's Day. My mom's friend was so excited when I told her that there was a strawberry-rhubarb dessert on the menu, and we all thought the cobbler was delicious. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, this strawberry rhubarb cobbler is a combination that can't be beat. The fruit on the bottom is sweet and full of flavor, and the biscuits on top are rich and buttery, and are the perfect vessel for soaking up all that sweet fruit syrup that is left on your plate. This cobbler was so good, that my dad, the most anti-desserts person I know, asked for seconds! That's when you know a dessert is a winner!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Cobbler
recipe inspired from a bunch of places!

Ingredients

For the Fruit Filling

1 pound rhubarb, sliced (I used 5 stalks)
1 pound fresh strawberries, washed and quartered
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
pinch of salt

For the Biscuit Topping

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
3/4 cup milk + 2 tablespoons
sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the rhubarb, strawberries and vanilla. In a small mixing bowl, mix together the cornstarch, both sugars, and pinch of salt. Add the sugar mixture to the bowl with the rhubarb and strawberries and toss to coat. Pour the fruit mixture into a 10-inch cast iron skillet or a shallow 2-quart baking dish, and set aside while you prepare the biscuit topping.

To make the biscuit topping, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the cold butter until it resembles the size of small peas. Stir in 3/4 cup of milk with a wooden spoon until you have a shaggy dough. Using a spoon or an ice cream scoop, drop rounds of the biscuit dough all over the top of the fruit. Brush the remaining milk over the biscuit dough and sprinkle the tops with sugar.

Place the skillet/baking dish on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes, until the fruit juice is bubbling and the tops of the biscuits are golden brown. Let the the cobbler cool on a wire rack. Serve the cobbler warm or at room temperature with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. Enjoy!