Dewberry cobbler is your reward
Picking dewberries is a wonderful warm-day pastime. When I was young, my friends and I would march out to the wilder parts of my suburban Houston neighborhood—such as the bayou, vacant lots or the rough patch next to the golf course—and brave water moccasins, thorns and poison ivy to score some of these black orbs, warm from the sun and ready to pop in your mouth.
Usually, we’d eat them straight from the bush, smearing our t-shirts and shorts with the dark, sticky juice. But sometimes we’d be more organized and bring a container so we could pick them and then take them home to our parents so they could make dewberry cobbler for dessert.
Spending plenty of time on a farm, I know that when you venture into a bramble you need to wear strong boots filled with sulfur to keep those chiggers at bay. But what was cool at the farm was not cool in Houston, and so we’d usually be wearing at best tennis shoes and at worst flip flops as we made our way through the berry patch. Needless to say, you can get scuffed up something ugly after a bout of picking dewberries if you’re not properly clothed. But no matter—the joy of finding food in the wild mitigated any cosmetic damage done to our legs.
Between my mom’s organic garden in the backyard and my family’s farms, I had plenty of experience with food coming out of the ground. But there was something special about dewberries. Perhaps it was because we suffered greatly to get to them. Or perhaps it was because there were never any grown-ups involved in our foraging adventures. Or perhaps it was just because this wild food tasted so darn good.
Some argue that blackberries and dewberries are one and the same. I don’t know the answer to this. And sadly, I haven’t seen dewberries growing in any New York City vacant lots or in Central Park (though if there are dewberries here, please let me know!) so I can’t do an immediate taste comparison. But we do have blackberries and they are a decent substitute for dewberries.
I like to make a cobbler with my berries, though they could also be made into jam, juice or tarts. What do you make with yours?
And don’t get me wrong—a blackberry cobbler is nothing to sniff at. But I know that it would taste even better if I had made it with berries I had picked myself, berries still glistening with the morning’s mist that gives the berry its proper name—dewberry.
Dewberry cobbler
Ingredients
Filling ingredients:
- 4 cups dewberries or blackberries
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Crust ingredients:
- 1/2 stick of butter
- 1 cup of flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup of buttermilk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Place the rinsed berries in a large cast-iron skillet or 9-inch round cake pan, and toss the berries with the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and lemon juice. Let them macerate for 20 minutes.
- To make the crust, melt the butter on low in a pan, and then stir in the flour, sugar, baking powder, buttermilk, and salt. The dough will be slightly sticky, moist yet pliable.
- Pat out the dough and place it over the berries.
- Bake 40 minutes or until light brown and bubbling.
Eric–Thank you–and I feel the same way.
Radish–Exactly! Snacking while you pick makes the work all the more fun.
Kickpleat–Oh, no! This situation must change!
Whitney–It was exciting, wasn’t it?
Mrs Chronic-Shock–Sounds like a berry-picking expedition to DC is in order!
Laura–Ha! How very Peter Rabbit!
Spork–That sounds like it would be delicious! And would probably be ready by Thanksgiving and I bet it’s wonderful with turkey.
Bee–You’re going to love you iron skillet–and it’s perfect for cobblers. I also make in my cast-iron skillet a cobbler similar to your peach cobbler recipe on your site–that batter on the bottom, do-not-stir method.
JAS–Thanks for reminding me–I need to have my mom save some for when I get home.
TejasJeff–Blueberries in blueberry ice cream? Now that’s decadent!
Tommy–Did they? I didn’t watch that show. They would make a lovely compote.
Lynda–Well, there you go–now we know!
Toiling Ant–I didn’t either, but some people say there are. A friend told me today that they’re definitely not, however, so I’m not going to worry about it anymore.
Kate–It’s quite alright to be a Texas snob around these here parts! And thank you for a very eloquent explanation.
Cookingschoolconfidential–Have fun baking!
Miss Meat and Potatoes–My legs were dotted with red all summer long, but well worth it.
Jill–You’re very welcome.
Amy–Chiggers can be such nasty little buggers. Do you have dewberries in Mississippi?
Katie–Perhaps it is–enjoy the bounty!
Deepa–Yes! They would be awesome in pancakes!
Goodness gracious, my husband would be salivating all over the monitor if he saw this. Dewberry cobbler was at the top of his food chain, and every summer when we visit our Texas kin, he always asks if there are any in the freezer for a cobbler.
Can’t wait to move back home in a few years and taste those babies fresh from the vine.
jas
wow i don’t think i’ve ever seen a dewberry, but we are surrounded by blackberries and raspberries.
Wow, brings back memories. When I was a child we would dress in our “farm clothes”, rubber boots and gloves to go dewberry picking near the rice fields of SE Texas. My dad would bring an Axe Handle…what he called a snake stick to poke around the vegetation before picking.
Once I had heard that the dewberry grew on more of a vine and a blackberry grew on more of a bush or vice versa. I never confirmed truth to this but it just may be.
Dewberry was a contestant. He was a pastry chef from the South. Ramsay called him Blueberry a few times.
AS you might have guessed, he didn’t last very long.