Fresh Blackberry Cobbler Baked On The Grill

 Is there anything better than a freshly picked, ripe blackberry? Maybe...but not many things can rival the flavor. Blackberries have always been a particular favorite of mine. I'd even get out there and pick them if I weren't dragging around an oxygen tank and I wasn't terrified of snakes. We do have snakes here and where they hang I out, I don't. I don't even care if they aren't venomous and all that. I. Don't. Do. Snakes. At. All.

We had some friends come up who wanted to pick. They used to be neighbors of ours in the old RV park that we lived in. She had a place to pick but I guess they either told her that she couldn't access the property any longer or they sprayed the area. I don't really know. I just know that ours are spray-free and all organic and we have plenty.

Even Rose, our Australian kelpie dog, hung out with us. This was down in our lower field along the fence line by our second gate.



So, now onto my utterly delicious and easy cobbler recipe.

First, go pick a few pints of blackberries.

They grow all over the place around here. They can actually get quite invasive.

Spray an 8x8-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Add in 2 pints of fresh blackberries.

Mix up the cobbler batter. This comes together in a snap.

Pour the batter over the berries. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of sugar over the top and put it on a metal baking sheet and put it out on a gas grill, indirect heat, holding at around 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. If it starts to brown too much on one side, spin it around. When a toothpick inserted in the middle pulls out clean, the cobbler is done.

Laurrie's Fresh Blackberry Cobbler Baked On The Grill

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup milk
1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 pints fresh blackberries

Spray an 8x8-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Spread 2 pints of fresh blackberries in the bottom. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix in milk until most of the lumps are removed. Beat in the melted butter until batter is really smooth. Add vanilla and beat until combined.
Pour over the berries evenly. Put baking dish onto a metal sheet pan and put on a grill, upper rack preferably, over indirect heat. Start checking to see if it is done after 20-25 minutes using the toothpick test.
Serve alone or with either whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.


We plan on putting several gallons into the freezers for our birds this winter. They will enjoy the treats and we will, too. You are also able to use frozen berries to make this cobbler, as well. You can switch up the berries to include your favorites, like blueberries or even cherries.

Fresh blackberries are truly one of the treasures of summer! Enjoy!

Marionberry Cobbler Baked On The Grill

 It's marionberry season here in the Pacific Northwest. Marionberries were created at Oregon State University and they are a cross between two blackberry varieties. They have notes of raspberry in the taste and I look forward to getting them every summer. I make jam, BBQ sauce and, one of our favorites, cobbler.

I do not use my propane oven in the summer. Even with 2 air conditioners going, it would just get too hot. Years ago, I figured out how to bake using the upper rack of a gas BBQ grill.

The batter is sweet. The berries are tart. This just hits the spot when you want something sweet.

I start out by spraying my glass 8x8-inch with non-stick spray.

Then I mix up the batter. The batter is super simple. It only has 6 ingredients.

Then I sprinkle the marionberries over the top of the batter and I sprinkle sugar on the top of those. Not too much sugar over the top, just 1/4-1/3 cup is all you need. The majority of the sugar goes into the batter.

Then we put the baking dish on top of a baking sheet and we put that on the top rack of the gas grill. I can't give you a definite baking time because it's all subjective. I start checking mine around 45 minutes in.

Delicious!

Marionberry Cobbler

4 cups fresh marionberries (or blackberries)
1 cup flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
1 cup milk (or half & half)

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt with 1 cup of the sugar. Reserve the rest of the sugar.
Mix in the milk and the melted butter and whisk until no lumps remain in the batter and the butter is incorporated into the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle marionberries evenly over the top of the batter. Top the berries with the reserved sugar.
**NOTE! Before you put the berries on the batter, taste one. If you think they will need more than 1/4 cup of sugar, add it in. This is purely to taste.

You can either slide this onto the top rack of your gas grill and bake it until it's gold and bubbly (that reminds me of that movie Steel Magnolias where Truvy is giving Clairie that fruit cocktail recipe) or you could put it into a 350 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Sour Cream Pie

 Our temperatures here have been fluctuating. We had beautiful sunny days, up in the 60's. We had some very cold nights. Now, we're under yet another atmospheric river and we're getting dumped on with rain. Last night, there were some wicked wind gusts. I'm glad I didn't insist that my 12-foot long portable (probably flimsy) plastic greenhouse be set up. It wouldn't have made it through. 

We finished up watching 1883 on Paramount+ this morning. I won't post any spoilers but I will say that the show was one of the best shows I've ever seen. I can't wait for more! 

I need to get my tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds going here in the next week or so. We planted a small asparagus bed, with 6 crowns for now. I do have asparagus seeds, so I'll be adding to it. We also planted 10 red raspberry bushes, 2 gold raspberries and 2 blue blueberry bushes. I'm going to be taking cuttings from my Pink Lemonade blueberries and I'm trading those for quite a few things to expand my berry garden: mulberries, 3 colors of currants: red, white and black, purple raspberries, black raspberries, (just need white to have all the colors), 2 types of figs, gooseberries and Concord grapes. I didn't realize how much these pink blueberries are sought after! Who knew??!! So, I'll be using my greenhouse for berry/fruit cuttings to get established as well as other things.

I put up another 5 pound batch of sauerkraut and will post a blog about that in a few weeks after it gets sufficiently sour for us.

Today, however, I'd like to talk about a recipe that I created this morning after looking at a Lemon Sour Cream Pie recipe. I have lemons, for sure, but I also bought some really nice looking blueberries (speaking of which, in the next few years, I plan on NOT buying blueberries again from anywhere). I wasn't exactly sure what we were going to do with the blueberries, but a quart was only $3.50, so it was one of those deals that was just too good to pass up but it was an impulse purchase. I know that Bob was talking about wanting a slice of pie the other night, so this sounded like the ticket. Anyhow, looking at sour cream lemon pies turned to perusing single crust blueberry pie recipes and this recipe is a result of that.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

It starts out as you would think with a bit of flour, a pinch of salt, some sugar and an egg.

I also used a cup of sour cream. This recipe is very helpful when you have a container of sour cream that is nearing the expiration date and you can only eat just so many baked potatoes. 

I only use the best vanilla extract. By "the best" I mean vanilla extract that I made myself, using a fifth of locally made craft vodka with around 20 to 25 vanilla beans soaking in that sucker. There's no better vanilla extract on the planet, as far as I'm concerned.

Everything is whisked together until nice and smooth.

I like that this only uses a single crust. I had some pre-made crusts hanging out in the freezer and taking up space that could be used by more important things. I'll use the other crust to make a Buttermilk pie. When I do that, I'll post about it.

The blueberries get gently mixed into the sour cream mixture. Make sure to fully coat them all.

Then pour it all into a the pie shell. It's not going to look like it's enough filling. It's supposed to look that way. You'll understand later on. I promise. Spread the blueberries out evenly throughout the crust. Pop this in the oven and set a timer for 30 minutes. 

In the meantime, make the topping for the pie. This is the standard flour, sugar, butter streusel mixture that we're all familiar with. It's pretty straight forward. 

This is what you're pie will look like when you pull it out 30 minutes later. See? I told you that there was plenty of filling in there. 

Sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly over the top of the pie and put it back into the oven for 15 or so minutes. I have a little RV propane oven, so mine took an additional 25 minutes. Just check after 15 minutes to see how it's starting to brown up. 

I don't let my streusel topping brown up too much because Bob wouldn't be able to eat it. It makes a stunning looking pie. 

No matter how you look at it, it looks scrumptious!

Blueberry Sour Cream Pie

1 pie shell for a deep dish pie, either pre-made or make your own

Filling:
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 quart fresh blueberries, rinsed and well drained

Streusel Topping:
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix all the filling ingredients, except blueberries, in a large mixing bowl, with a whisk, until completely smooth and all ingredients are well incorporated. Gently fold in blueberries, coating them all, taking care to not smash any.

Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, make the streusel topping by cutting the cold butter into the flour and sugar until all the dry ingredients have been combined. I use a fork for this. Set aside.

After 30 minutes, remove pie from oven, sprinkle streusel mixture evenly over the top of the pie. Put back into the oven between 15-25 minutes or until the struesel has browned up to your liking.

Remove from oven. Let cool thoroughly before slicing. Refrigerate leftovers.

Enjoy!

Carrot Pie

 This afternoon, I thought it would be a great day to try to turn these carrots into a pie. I hoped it would resemble a pumpkin pie.

These carrots were pretty big. I decided to use the same amount of pureed carrots as I would with pumpkin. I peeled them and boiled them until they were soft.

I decided to break out my homemade vanilla and I also opted to open up the Tung Hing cinnamon that I bought from Penzey's Spices. 

All this deliciousness gets whipped up and mixed with pureed carrots. 

I can't tell the difference by simply looking at it.

I can't tell the difference after it's baked, either. It cracked when it cooled off. 

The consensus is that the texture is just a little bit different. That's all. Other than that one minute detail, I could not tell the difference between carrot or pumpkin in this pie. I'll make more carrot pies in the future, for sure.


Carrot Pie

1 9-inch pie shell
2 cups pureed carrots (about 3 large, peeled and boiled until soft and pureed in a food processor)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
3/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until well combined. Pour into prepared pie shell.
Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, lower heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 50 minutes.
Pie is done when you can put the point of a knife into the middle and it comes out clean.
Cool completely before cutting. Refrigerate leftovers.

I do not receive compensation from Penzey's spices. This is not a sponsored post.  I just really like their products.

Vanilla Bourbon Cheesecake

 I may be channeling my inner Golden Girl here, but is there anything more delicious and decadent than a homemade cheesecake?
It's getting to be that time of year when everything turns to pumpkin spice, apples and all those delicious fall favorites. To me, it means that it is time to create a new cheesecake.

I have another blog post about making homemade vanilla extract. Click here to view that post. I find that vanilla and bourbon are a marriage made in heaven. I don't buy vanilla flavored spirits, but I will certainly make my own! I used some of my homemade vanilla Jack Daniels in this creation. These flavors scream fall to me.

This recipe starts out with 32 ounces of room temperature cream cheese. Do not use a lower fat or fat-free type of cream cheese. Now is not the time. Use the full-fat variety. Make sure it's at room temperature. Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature.

The first thing you want to do is spray a 10-inch spring-form pan with nonstick cooking spray. Then, assemble your graham cracker crust. Make sure to use brown sugar in your crust. It makes a difference in how the taste of the crust melds with the taste of the cheesecake.

Here is a photo of my homemade vanilla Jack Daniels. This is such a delightful fall flavored ingredient.

Everything gets blended up. Again, to reiterate, make sure all of your ingredients are room temperature.

The cream cheese mixture gets poured into the crust and it bakes up in just over an hour into something extraordinarily decadent and delicious.

Vanilla Bourbon Cheesecake


For the crust:

1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons pure cane sugar
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
7 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

For the filling:

32 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup pure cane sugar
2/3 cup sour cream, room temperature
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 pinch of sea salt
3 tablespoons vanilla infused bourbon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
To make crust:
Mix all crust ingredients in a large bowl and press into bottom of a 10-inch spring-form pan. Set aside.

To make filling:
Blend cream cheese, with a mixer, until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar until it is dissolved. Add sour cream and mix to just combine. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing to just combine. Add salt and vanilla infused bourbon.

Pour into prepared crust. Put in preheated oven, on center rack, for 75-85 minutes, or until the center looks jiggly, much like jello. Turn off the oven and prop open the oven door with a wooden spoon and set a timer for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove cheesecake from oven to a rack to cool for another hour. Chill in refrigerator at least 6 hours to overnight.
Refrigerate leftovers.