I was raised in the Pacific Northwest. In South Eastern Washington State. When I was a kid, we lived in an old victorian house in Yakima, Washington. I remember the alley that ran behind my house as a real special place. It seemed that every yard had fresh raspberries or blackberries growing along the fence line and all you had to do was walk the alley and pick and eat the berries to your hearts delight. One of our neighbors, an older couple about two doors down were Christian Missionaries. The Knotsons (I think that's the correct spelling. It's been 30+ years) were often gone for long periods of time. Their back yard was wild. But not in the bad sense. It was more of a free form garden. But since then were traveling a lot, the wall of berries they had growing in their yard was always a great place to hunt for fresh berries. The plants cascaded over the wood fence and into the alley. You just had to beat the birds to the ripest berries.
Some of my favorite memories are of my mom in the kitchen. She canned, pickled, juiced and preserved so many different things. From homemade pickles to jams.
There were times in the late spring to early summer that our entire family gathered and went on road trips up to the coast. Either up north near the Seattle area or out west towards Portland. Grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles all wandered around with 5 gallon buckets and collected fresh black berries and raspberries that grew wild just off the roadside or along park trails. We would come home with black or red stained fingers and more than a fair share of thorn pricks. But it was well worth the effort. My mom would turn her bounty into jellies and jams, or she would lay out the berries and individually freeze the berries so that she could make pies with them.
So when it comes to desserts I have always been partial to berries and fresh fruit. I'll take a pie over a piece of cake anyway. But when you cook for people who are very weight and calorie conscience, you cant just back a whole pie and send it for two people. The better option is cobblers and crisps.
This week I found some good looking fresh rhubarb at the grocery store and I knew right away I wanted to do something special with it.
I chose a strawberry rhubarb cobbler.
A few years ago I stopped using flour or cornstarch as a thickener for my pies and fruit desserts. I read an article about tapioca and when I tried it for the first time, I found it was a great thickening agent. It is a more refined form of starch and it gives my desserts a much nicer texture. I started by reading the box of tapioca to get a sense of how much it would take to properly thicken my cobbler. But since I was not making a full pie I was a bit concerned that if I didn't have it just right, that the filling would be loose and runny. So I chose to make the filling first.
I used frozen strawberries and I put them in a sauce pan. I began to warm them slowly on the stove until their juices began to thaw. It always surprising how much juice is released. As the berries warmed and let go of their juices. I cleaned and sliced the rhubarb into chunks. and set it aside. Then before the berries could break down completely, I used a slotted spoon to remove them from the sauce. I set them aside to cool and to the pan I then added my tapioca. I have found that if you don't give the tapioca time to activate before you back your pies, it doesn't dissolve all the way. Your finished product has these little bits of uncooked tapioca. Its very unpleasant. So I knew that it might take some time to simmer and cook the tapioca before it melted completely. To tame the heat and keep the mixture from scorching, I put a heavy cast iron pan down onto the burner, warmed it and then set my pan of strawberry juice and tapioca pearls onto the cast iron pan. That way I had a much slower and even heat. It took about an hour of slow simmering and occasional stirring before the mixture thickened properly and the starch dissolved completely. Then I added the berries and the rhubarb to the thickened sauce and cooked them slightly. I added sugar to taste. I like my fillings to be a bit tart. I don't like heavy sugared fillings. I want you to know they are handmade and not some cheap canned pie filling. I want you to taste the fruit. Once the filling was done, I pulled it off the heat to cool and added a pinch of salt and a good tablespoon or so fresh lemon juice.
Then ass the filling cooled slightly I made my topping. For this, I actually used a a real recipe. I did not want to risk making a mistake by eye balling the amounts like I did with the fruit.
- 1 1/3 cups flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- This is a basic biscuit dough type method: sift and whisk the dry
- cut the butter into the dough with a pastry knife or do like I did and pulse it in a food processor. Pour the dough into a work bowl and add the wet. Mix gently to pull the dough into a cohesive dough. Roll out onto a floured surface. Then use a cookie cutter or knife to cut into your sizes and shapes to fit your needs.
I used a cookie cutter for mine. I made them to size for each of my 8 oz ramekins. I buttered the inside of each ramekin, added the filling and topped each with a biscuit. I brushed the tops with a bit of cream and sprinkled them with a touch of sugar. I placed them onto a cookie sheet and baked them at 375 for about 40 minutes. Just till the biscuit topping was golden brown and the filling was bubbling.
That's it. Simple and easy. The biscuit topping came out fantastic. Like a cross between a sugar cookie and a sweet biscuit. It was soft and tender and had just a hint of sweetness. it was a wonderful contrast between the silky smooth filling and complimented the flavor of the tart fruit.
It was all I could do to take the time to photograph them and not put the camera down and tear into them.
its well worth the effort.
Enjoy
