Happy (belated) Fourth of July, dear readers! Among the many American traditions that go along with Independence Day, one of the greatest is EATING! This dish is based on a recipe from one of my favorite old fashioned American cooks: Nathalie Dupree. She calls this deliciously fresh dessert “Liberty Cobbler” for its red, white, and blue hues. It is essentially a strawberry cobbler with a blueberry sauce. The flavors are every bit as colorful as these pictures portray: a terrific combination of crispy cobbler, sweet-tart berries, and cool and creamy topping.

My dad even said that this was the best cobbler he had ever eaten. It’s definitely a winner!

PS: I need to add a special thank you to my father-in-law for picking the blueberries I used in this recipe from his blueberry patch!

Liberty Cobbler
Adapted from Natalie Dupree’s recipe in New Southern Cooking (1986)

Cobbler:
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
2 cups strawberries, sliced
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 scant cup milk

Blueberry Sauce:
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups blueberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Topping:
Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix 1/4 cup of the sugar with the sliced strawberries. Toss gently and set aside.

Put the butter in a 9×13 inch baking dish and place in oven to melt. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Using a whisk, stir in the milk and the remaining cup of sugar to make a smooth batter.

When the butter has melted, remove the dish from the oven. Pour the batter into the melted butter. Spoon the strawberries and any juice evenly over the batter.

Return to the oven and bake about 30 minutes. You will know the cobbler is done when the batter has risen up around the berries and turned golden brown.

To make the sauce, combine the water and sugar in a saucepan. Put the pan over medium-high heat so that the mixture boils. Meanwhile, coarsely puree 1 1/2 cups of the blueberries in a food processor. Add the puree to the sugar syrup along with the lemon juice. Bring the mixture back to a boil, and cook for about 2 minutes. Add all but a few of the remaining whole blueberries to the mixture. (The rest will be for garnish.) Cook for about 1 more minute, until the whole berries begin to soften.

Serve the sauce warm over the cobbler topped with either whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

I wanted to create a really hearty yet sophisticated dessert using some beautiful seasonal pears that I had on hand.  As I’ve mentioned before, I love making up a good crisp or cobbler recipe on the fly!  I thought that honey would be a wonderful flavor to pair with the pears, and with a subtle hint of spices and some toasty walnuts on top, this Honey Pear Crisp turned out absolutely perfect.

Honey Pear Crisp

3-4 large pears, peeled and thinly sliced
4 tablespoons salted butter, divided
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of ginger
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a small oven-safe dish – an 8×8″ square will work fine.

Layer the pear slices in the prepared dish. Dot the top with 1 tablespoon of the butter. Drizzle the honey over the top of the pears.

In a small bowl, combine the rest of the butter, the oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Use a fork or a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the pears. Finally, sprinkle the walnuts on top.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the topping is browned and the filling is bubbly. Serve warm with whipped cream, ice cream, or frozen yogurt.

What better way to ring in the new year, dear readers, than to share one of my very favorite family traditions with you.  Every Christmas, Nanny makes her famous tarts!  They are really a unique little treat: flaky pastry filled with jam and topped with buttery yellow cake.  We usually serve them along side our usual pies for dessert at our big Christmas dinner.  But they are also excellent with a cup of coffee for breakfast, or – my personal favorite – in the afternoon with a cup of Earl Grey tea!

Nanny’s Raspberry Tarts

Batter:

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups milk

Pastry:
2 cups flour
1 cup shortening
about 3/4 cup ice water

Filling:
Seedless raspberry jam

First, make the batter.  In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and the flour and the baking powder.

Next, add the flour and the milk alternately to the creamed mixture, starting and ending with the flour.  It usually takes about 3 additions of each.  Beat the batter until very light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Set the batter aside, and make the pastry.

Sift the flour into a bowl.  Add the shortening, and cut it into the flour using a pastry blender until the mixture resembles course crumbs.

Next, add the ice water.  Sprinkle it all over the mixture and use your hands to work it in until it all comes together in a ball.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll the crust out very thin, to about 1/8 inch thickness.  Cut the dough into about 3-inch rounds, and fit the dough into your tin the same way you would fit a pie crust into a pie dish!

These are Nanny’s tart tins.  They came from her mother (my great-grandmother) in England.  They really resemble sort of a slightly deeper-than-usual mini muffin tin.  Nanny has always used this old tea cup to cut the crust, as it is the perfect size to fit her tart tins!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

To assemble the tarts, place about a tablespoon of raspberry jam into the bottom of each crust.  Then top the jam with a spoonful of cake batter, sealing to the crust around the top.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the tops turn golden brown.  Enjoy!!!

The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts all on a summer’s day;
The Knave of Hearts he stole the tarts and took them clean away.
The King of Hearts called for the tarts and beat the Knave full sore
The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts and vowed he’d steal no more.

-Lewis Carroll

Yes, dear readers, I know I just posted a recipe for peach cobbler a mere three days ago, but are you seriously complaining?? Peach cobbler is the best!! And this one is different – you’ll see . . .

So this recipe comes from our across-the-street neighbor when I was growing up – my mom’s friend Mary. It used to be that people thought I was crazy when I would make this recipe, but nowadays, I think there are a few similar versions floating around the internet.

Basically, you melt a stick of butter in a pan. (This is the way any good southern recipe starts, right?!?) Then you pour your batter into the melted butter and pour your peaches over the top of the batter. The best part is that you aren’t supposed to stir! How easy can this get?

And the final product? Crispy butter-fried dough puffs up and bakes all around the juicy-sweet peach slices. Again, the hint of cinnamon (barely a whiff) really brings out the depth of that golden peach flavor.

Georgia Peach Cobbler
From my mom’s friend Mary

4 cups fresh Georgia peaches, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
A dash of salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the sliced peaches and the 1/2 cup sugar in a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate for several hours, until the juices start to run.

Place the butter in a 9×13″ baking dish. Put it in the oven for 3-4 minutes, until the butter is completely melted.

Meanwhile, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the milk and stir just until combined.

Remove the dish with the butter from the oven. Pour the prepared batter over the butter. Do not stir!

Next, pour the peaches over the batter and butter. Do not stir!

Finally, sprinkle the cinnamon evenly over the top. Return the dish to the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes, until the batter sets and turns a golden brown on top. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

It’s no mystery around here that I am a Georgia girl, through and through. One of the best things about being in my beautiful state at this time of year is PEACHES.

I can (and do?) eat fresh Georgia peaches morning, noon, and night when they are in season. I like them cut into juicy-tart chunks on top of my cereal in the morning, I like them sliced and peeled next to my sandwich at lunch time, I like them in my salsa with a cold drink in the afternoon, and I like them underneath a fluffy-moist, crispy-sweet biscuit crust after dinner throughout the summertime.

Throw in some blueberries if you must, but the peaches are the star of this dish! I made this one up on the fly – it’s very versatile – you will fall head over heels for the subtle flavor that the honey lends to the fruit and to the crust!!

Peach-and-Blueberry Cobbler

3 cups of fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon honey (local is best!)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar
A pinch of salt

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter, cold
1 cup buttermilk
An extra drizzle of honey
An extra sprinkle of sugar

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a deep pie dish or a 9×9 baking dish and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the peaches, blueberries, honey, lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Set aside to let the juices get to flowin’!

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Using a pastry blender, cut in the cold butter until a flaky mixture forms. Pour in the buttermilk and stir just until a soft and supple dough forms.

Next, pour the fruit with all their yummy juices into your prepared baking dish. Then dollop the biscuit dough over the top by spoonfuls. Finally, use a spoon to drizzle some extra honey over the top of the dough. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and pop it into the oven for about 30 minutes, until the crust is a deep golden brown and the fruit is bubbly. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

For years now, I’ve heard stories of my husband’s grandmother, who passed away shortly before he and I met. Granny is a legendary cook – I wish I could find her secret recipe book. Although most of them were probably never written down.

One of her dishes that I’ve been wanting to re-create is her Blackberry Pie. My husband, who raves about this concoction every time a blackberry pops into our lives, was actually not very helpful in describing the dish to me. So I went to his parents. Granny taught my mother-in-law how to make many of her signature recipes (including her biscuits, which is another story altogether). So I played 20 questions with my extremely patient and helpful mother-in-law before attempting to make Granny’s Blackberry Pie.

So here it is: my humble attempt to recreate a dish that my husband ate at his Granny’s house when he was a little boy. I think my version doesn’t have quite as much sugar as Granny’s did. She would also strain the blackberries so that just the juice remained, but I kept the berries whole to add some more bulk to the filling. The crust is actually my Nanny’s recipe, and I think I took some creative liberties in making the crust a bit thicker around the edges – Granny apparently just made a square and let the juices bubble up around the edges. The one thing they all remembered quite clearly, though, was the generous coating of cinnamon sugar on top – an extra little sumthin’-sumthin’ that, in my humble opinion, make this dish a truly memorable one!

Granny’s Blackberry Pie
from hubby’s Granny

4 cups fresh blackberries
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
A pinch of salt

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
6 tablespoons shortening
1 ounce (1/8 cup) ice cold water

1 egg, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9×9-inch baking dish and set aside.

In a heavy medium saucepan, combine the blackberries, sugar, water, and salt. Cook over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer, and smash up the berries using the back of a spoon or other utensil. Continue to simmer for about 30 minutes, until the mixture begins to thicken into a thin syrup. Pour the berry mixture into the prepared dish.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender until the mixture is crumbly and flaky.

Make a well in the center and pour in the ice water. Stir lightly with a fork until a loose dough forms. Then get in there with your hands to make the dough into a ball. If the dough won’t come together, then add a few more drops of cold water.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out into a 10×10-inch square. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just big enough to drape over the dish with the berries. Trim the edges, and pinch them to the edge of the dish.

Next, brush the egg over the crust. Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and sprinkle over the top. Bake for about 25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the berries are nice and bubbly. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Southern girls know how to whip up a cobbler without looking at a cookbook. One of my favorite things to do during the summer months is to eat fresh berries, peaches, and fruit baked in a cobbler after dinner. Um, and for breakfast on top of my oatmeal, too . . .

Here is a basic recipe for blueberry cobbler. The tiny touch of cinnamon really makes it special.

Blueberry Cobbler

3 pints blueberries, washed
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup shortening
1/2-2/3 cup half and half or milk
2 tablespoons sugar for sprinkling

Vanilla Ice Cream of Whipped Cream

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9×9″ (or similar sized) baking dish and set aside.

Combine the berries with the flour, sugar, and lemon juice. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder. Using a pastry blender, cut the shortening into the flour until the mixture is flaky. Create a well in the middle, and add the milk. Mix together with a fork just until a soft dough forms.

Pour the berry mixture into the prepared baking dish. Then drop the dough by spoonfuls over the top. Sprinkle the crust with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the berries are bubbly. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

People often ask me when I became so interested in baking and cooking. I usually say “pretty much since I was tall enough to see over the counter.” But that’s not entirely true, because I used to love to pull a stool up to the counter in the kitchen to help my mom with whatever she was baking.

It was for this reason that she enrolled me in a baking class for kids when I was about 8 years old. Our teacher held the classes at her house. I was soooo excited sitting around her big kitchen table for the first class, where we received a folder of the recipes we’d be making each week. And the very first entry in the folder was for Apple Crisp.

My recipe for Apple Crisp has changed over the years – to be honest it often changes from crisp-to-crisp based on what type of apples I have around the house, what spices I have on hand, etc. But here is my basic go-to recipe that I am happy to share with my dear readers!

Oatmeal Apple Crisp

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup salted butter, well-chilled
3 McIntosh apples – peeled, cored, and sliced
1 Granny Smith apple – peeled, cored, and sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9×9 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, cinnamon, salt, and brown sugar. Using a knife, cut the butter into this mixture in thin tabs. With a pastry cutter or a fork, blend the butter into the oat mixture until it is well-combined and crumbly.

Toss apples together in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla, tossing the apples until they are evenly coated. Pour the apples into your prepared baking dish. Sprinkle oat mixture over the top, spreading evenly. Bake in preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes, or until apples are bubbling and crisp is well browned. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Freshly whipped cream spiked up with a little sugar, vanilla, and Irish Whiskey is divine!