Lazy Man Fruit Cobbler‏

This is a versatile recipe that comes from my Mother's Mother, GrandMomma Cunningham.

My GrandMomma was a strong, loyal, no nonsense kind of woman and Granddaddy Cunningham was a dreamer, risk taker and businessman. GrandMomma worked as a nurses aide at the local hospital. When she wasn't there she was helping Granddaddy run his General Store, or his chicken farm, or whatever new business venture he had come up with next (coordinating wrestling tournaments, the occasional midget wrestling tournament, buying and selling properties, farming vegetables, crop dusting, etc.).

So GrandMomma didn't have as much time to cook as she would have liked. But her and Granddaddy both had a sweet tooth. GrandMomma made Divinity candy and Fudge. Divinity was her favorite but making it is completely dependent on the weather and the humidity. And well, living in West Tennessee not too far from the Mighty Mississippi River does not lend itself to too many days with low humidity levels. But my favorite recipe from her didn't depend on the weather. This dessert she frequently made was weather proof, quick, easy and cheap to make: Lazy Man Fruit Cobbler. ‏

My Momma, my sister and I made it frequently growing up and know the recipe by heart. It is a fail-safe, go to dessert for us... well so long as I don't attempt to make it Gluten Free. (That was a disaster as Sarith can attest to for me.) And since we had large harvests of blueberries and blackberries from our backyard each year when we were growing up, we often had blueberry or blackberry cobbler. 

My sister even got into it with a male friend of hers over whose Momma's fruit cobbler was better. So when she was invited to his parent's house for dinner along with the rest of their friends, she proceeded to make the cobbler as her contribution and took it over to their house to prove that her family recipe was superior (where she gets this behavior from remains a complete mystery to me, for surely I have never, ever done such a thing.) His parents said that they actually preferred Katie's cobbler to their usual cobbler and asked her for the recipe. Katie felt as if she won some food network show. Personally, I don't know if they were just being polite or if they did prefer our family recipe. But I wasn't about to burst her bubble. 

We traditionally make this with water. So it is lactose free if you use margarine, instead of butter. It is also egg free. A rarity in baked desserts.  

You can use any fruit or combination of fruits you prefer. I tend to stick to traditional flavors such as Blackberry, Peach, Blueberry, Mixed Berry, or Cherry. However, a Blueberry and Peach cobbler is tasty. The classic Apple is yummy. A Blueberry Lemon with lemon zest tossed with the blueberries and a little lemon juice in the batter would be delicious as well. Or a Cranberry and Pear cobbler for Thanksgiving.

The cobbler is best using fresh fruit that is currently in season. But frozen fruit (defrosted) or canned fruit, such as peaches, work really well in the cobbler in the winter and early spring when fruits are not in season. Your options are limitless, I've even seen a pineapple cobbler. But I would recommend tossing the blackberries with sugar if they are tart or adding a little cinnamon, nutmeg or apple spice mixture to the apples before baking.

Now on to the baking! Preheat the oven to 350. 


Melt the butter/margarine in the baking dish you will be using. (My family typically used a round 2 quart baking dish with a lid. The lid was for when we stored the left over cobbler in the fridge, not while the cobbler was baking.)

Mix together the self-rising flour, sugar and the water (or milk) to make the batter.
 
Pour the batter into the baking dish on top of the melted butter.
 
Dump the fruit on top of the batter.
 
Bake for 1 hour.
 
Serve warm with ice cream of choice.

Our default ice cream for the cobbler was vanilla because it goes with everything. But a small scoop of chocolate ice cream over a cherry cobbler is delightful and reminds me of the Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream. I would also suggest the chocolate ice cream with a blackberry cobbler. (Godiva used to sell these chocolate cups filled with fresh blackberries. They were little bites of heaven.) Peach ice cream pairs well with a blueberry cobbler, or if you really love peaches, with a peach cobbler. I would think that a apple cobbler would pair well with a butter pecan, Breyer's Caramel Praline Crunch or Ben & Jerry's Cinnamon Bun ice cream (caramel ice cream with cinnamon bun dough & a cinnamon streusel swirl). Or maybe even serving a pineapple cobbler with Ben & Jerry's Pina Colada ice cream while the song Escape by Rupert Holmes plays in the background. Ok, I may have gone a little too far with the last suggestion. So I will stop while I am ahead.  


Lazy Man Fruit Cobbler

Ingredients‏ 

• 1 stick of Butter or Margerine, melted
• 1 cup Self-Rising Flour
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Water or Milk (Your preference. We aways used water but I have often seen the recipe used with milk instead.)
• 2 cups Fruit
• Ice Cream is optional but highly recommended (Vanilla is the traditional but use whatever tickles your fancy or taste buds)

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Melt the butter/margerine in the baking dish you will be using. 
3. Mix together the self-rising flour, sugar and the water (or milk) to make the batter.
4. Pour the batter into the baking dish on top of the melted butter.
5. Dump the fruit on top of the batter.
6. Bake for 1 hour.
7. Serve with immediately with your choice of ice cream on top.