Mulberry Cobbler

I'm back! Wow, I can't believe how long I have gone without a post.  This farmers' market gig is wonderful, but it has taken up more of my time than I initially thought it would. But to be completely honest, I have loved it, and so has Mr. HFA! We have met the best people, customers and other vendors. It really has been a great experience and one that we are going to continue for the rest of this summer.

Speaking of meeting great people, we were fortunate enough to become friends with another vendor. She does wonderful woodworking and makes some great homemade noodles that she sells. They invited us over this past weekend to pick cherries and mulberries. We were excited at the thought of getting both as we do not have either on our farm.

We were able to pick a bucket of cherries and a bucket of mulberries. This weekend, I made a mulberry cobbler using my mother-in-law's blackberry cobbler recipe. I thought it would be perfect to share with you.

This recipe is so easy!  It is not your regular cobbler.  Growing up I had one grandmother that would make cobbler that had a cake-like crust which was yummy. The other grandmother would make her cobbler using pie crust, which was equally good!  I have found that there are several different ways to make cobbler, and I have not met a cobbler yet that I do not get a long with! For this recipe, it uses a crumb-like topping which makes it very easy and very fast to put together.

Beautiful berries. These were so sweet and juicy!

Preheat your oven to 375°F. Next you need to wash your mulberries. Aren't these beautiful? They look a lot like a blackberry. I have to say that I had a hard time not eating them as I was picking them!

After they are washed, put them in an 8x8 dish and put 1 tablespoon of lemon juice over them, then set them aside.

Ingredients. I am missing the butter.

Then mix together 1 large egg, 1 cup of flour, and 1 cup of sugar. Mix until it resembles crumbs, like below.

Make sure that you mix it up until it resembles crumbs.

Take this mixture and pour over the berries, making sure that it is even and they are covered. Next, melt 6 tablespoons of butter and pour over the flour mixture that you just put on your berries. (Sorry I forgot to include butter in the ingredients picture above).

Flour mixture is on berries, and then butter is poured on top of that.

Put this into your preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes or until it is golden brown.

A beautiful golden brown. This looks delicious!

Doesn't this look amazing? It was hard to keep from diving right into this dessert, but we somehow managed to show some restraint and were able to wait until after supper for this special treat.

This looks so good, but it really needs a friend.

I spooned some out into a bowl, but then I decided that while it looked good, it looked lonely. So what makes cobbler better? Well...

Now my cobbler is happy! Cobbler and ice cream, what a treat!

Vanilla ice cream! The only thing that could make this any better is if that ice cream were home made. But alas, we can't have everything!

As you can see the recipe is super simple, and super quick. The perfect dessert for when you are having company and don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. This dessert would also work well with blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

Would you like a printed version of the recipe? Click here.

Let me know what think about the recipe in the comments below! Also how do you use your mulberries?

Leave a Comment cobbler, desserts, farm, farmers' market, mulberries, recipes

25 Days of Giving Update and a Cookie Recipe!

Well my December challenge has been more of a challenge for me than I originally thought.  I mentioned in one of my previous posts that the giving part was not going as planned.  To be honest I'm not sure what I really thought would happen with this challenge.  I guess I was thinking that everyday I would be volunteering or donating items to a charity, giving money, and making the world a better place.

What I have found is that it is the small giving that can mean so much.  I do believe that it is important to donate food and gifts to families in need, and that I have done.  I also believe that it is important to support your favorite charities with monetary donations.  That I have done also, but it is the little things that sometimes we forget to do that can make giving easy, and life so much better.

Some of these things I am talking about include:

• Allow someone to go in front of you in the check-out line for absolutely no reason.
• Pay for the person behind you in the drive-in lane at a restaurant.
• Volunteer to help when asked.
• Hold the door open for the person behind you.
• Smile and say hello to people you don't know.
• When your child has to bring money in for a class party, give extra in case a student can't afford it.
• If you shop at ALDI, give your cart to someone without asking for the quarter.
• Instead of yelling at the person who just cut you off in traffic, pray for them instead to get to their destination safely.

Doing all of these and more can really make a difference.  This is giving of the best kind...the giving of kindness and it can make someone's life a little brighter.

Now for the cookie recipe.  This recipe is one that I made based on a recipe that I found at Eating on a Dime.  I needed a good recipe for our church's cookie reception and it needed to be quick, easy, one that I had all the ingredients for, and something different than chocolate chip.

This recipe I found sounded great! Plus they were quick to make and easy.  The one problem is that it called for a brownie mix, and I don't normally use store bought mixes.  In fact I make my brownies from scratch (I see another recipe post in the near future).  So I decided to use my brownie recipe to make a "mix" and I had to tweak a few other things, but I was able to make these delicious cookies from scratch and they were just as easy as using a store bought mix.  

So this is what you have been waiting for the ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of cocoa
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup of oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1/2 cup of 

First sift the dry ingredients together.  If you don't have a sifter (really you should) just put the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together well.  Next add in the wet ingredients.  I did not add the wet ingredients together and then combine, I just threw the eggs, oil, and vanilla right into the dry ingredients.

You can see how thick it is!

Then mix this all together.  I will say that I started mixing this with a spoon.  I knew it was going to be thick, but this is super thick.  I soon abandoned the spoon and dove right in with my hand.

Carly making the cookie balls...please forgive my messy kitchen!

Once it is mixed well, start making balls with the dough.  I used my cookie scoop to get uniform cookies.  Then roll the dough ball into powdered sugar.  This is where my little girl helped.  She loved making the dough into balls and rolling them into the powdered sugar.  And I love being able to cook with her and pass on my knowledge!

Carly rolling the balls in powdered sugar.

Once you are done, then bake them in a preheated 350°F oven.  The original recipe said for 8-10 minutes, but her cookies must have been much smaller than mine, or perhaps my oven temperature is a little off.  Not sure, but I had to bake my cookies for at least 18 minutes before they were done.  I would suggest to start checking them around the 10 minute mark.

Ready for the oven.

 The cookies were a huge hit at our church function and they were soon gone.  I was so glad that I saved a few for us at home.  I will definitely be making these cookies again.  They would be perfect for a cookie exchange or if you are planning on making some treats as gifts during the holidays.

Cooling on the rack, it was hard to keep everybody out of them!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and if you try it, please let me know in the comments below what you think.

If you would like a printable version of the recipe, click HERE.

1 comment celebrations, cookies, December, desserts, giving, holidays, recipes

Throw Back Thursday: Chocolate Chip Coffee Cookies

The throw-back Thursday recipe post is back!  I know some of you have missed it and to tell you the truth, so have I.  I really enjoy making these recipes and I enjoy remembering the story behind them as well.

Today's recipe comes from my husband.  When we were dating 12 years ago, he decided to try and impress me with his baking ability.  At that time his cooking abilities were just ok at best and so I was a little leery of him cooking me anything.  He went through several recipes and instead of sticking with one (which I thought he should do), he combined several recipes together to make chocolate chip coffee cookies, because he knew I loved chocolate and coffee.

I can admit know that I was worried about tasting them when they were done.  But boy did he surprise me!  He made the most wonderful cookies.  One bite and I was hooked...on the cookie and the man!

I thought I would share that recipe with you today and hope you enjoy it as much as we do.  He still makes them for me, in fact he really wanted to make them for this post, but I asked if I could try my hand at it.  While these cookies turned out really good, I think I should have let him make them.  He definitely has that special touch.

Cookie Ingredients

So let me say a little something about the ingredients.  It calls for instant coffee.  I normally have instant coffee at home.  Not to drink of course, blech, but to use in various recipes.  Of course when I went to retrieve it, I found out that I was out.  So I decided to try it with regular coffee, but still follow the instructions.  THEN I found out that my husband just makes extra strong coffee and uses that!  Geez! I wish I would have known.  So in the coming pictures you are going to see coffee grounds in the cookies.  Guess what?  It ain't so bad!

First you want to dissolve 1/3 cup of instant coffee in 2 tablespoons of hot water.  Then while it is dissolving (and cooling at the same time), cream together 1 cup of butter and 1 1/4 cups of sugar.

Butter and sugar creamed together.

Once the coffee has cooled, add it to the butter and sugar mixture along with 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and mix well.

See? Coffee grounds.

Then in a separate bowl, mix together 2 2/3 cups of flour, 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Add that to the coffee ground mixture. Once you have that mixed well.  Add in 2 cups or one 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips.

Cookie batter, yum, yum!

Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet, or in my case a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Ready to go into the oven.

Once they are done, let them cool on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Yummy cookies!

These are so good, even with the coffee grounds.  I love the flavor of coffee and chocolate together and these were perfect.  Well almost perfect. ;-)

If you want a printable version of the recipe, then click HERE.

Try this recipe out and let me know in the comments below what you think.

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Throw Back Thursday: Lazy Woman's Cobbler

 I can't tell you how excited I am about sharing this recipe with you.  This is one of my favorite desserts!  This recipe comes from my grandmother, but don't let the name of the recipe fool you, she was anything but a lazy woman!

What I love about this recipe is how quick and easy it is!  And sometimes, that is what you need.  In fact it is one of those recipes that you can quickly put together if you have surprise company come.  The great thing is that they will think you spent a lot of time on this one.

So without further ado...the ingredients are all staples that you probably have in your pantry.  For the topping or filling, you can use any fruit or pie filling you like.  My favorite is to use apple pie filling.  My mom likes to use a can of peaches that she spices up with a little cinnamon and nutmeg.  Whatever you choose, you really can't go wrong.

The players...

 The first thing to do is to get that stick of butter and melt it.  But you want to do it the easy way.  While you are preheating the oven to 350°F, put the butter in your 9x13" pan and let the oven melt it for you.

Next, you want to mix together 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of milk, 2 teaspoons of baking powder and a pinch of salt to make your batter.

Batter consistency...

This cobbler has a cake-like consistency rather than a pie.  Which is probably why I like it so much! Once your butter is melted, pour the batter right in the pan with the melted butter. 

Batter swimming in a sea of butter...yum!

Then you can add your fruit or pie filling.  Like I said, I love to use apple pie filling.  The only other thing that I add is a little bit of apple pie spice on top.

Ready to go into the oven

Then bake in the preheated oven for around 45 minutes or until golden brown. 

All it needs is a little ice cream!

Once you dip into this you get a cakey, fruity goodness that just can't be beat!  It is so good warm and a little scoop of ice cream on top. 

So try out this recipe and let me know what you think of it.  Let me know in the comments below what your favorite fruit would be to use with this recipe.  Cherry would also be great, but I have another recipe that uses cherry pie filling to make a Cherry Slice Cake.  That post will be coming soon!

And of course, to get the printable version of the recipe, click HERE.

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Throw Back Thursday: Raisin Pie

My dad's 80th birthday was not that long ago.  Instead of a cake, he requested that I make him a raisin pie.  He grew up with his mom making these quite a bit.  In fact I remember when I was little she would always make them whenever we got together for a big family gathering.  And let me tell you our family gatherings were big!  My dad had 10 brothers and 1 sister.

I used my grandmother's raisin pie recipe to make this, but I did use my mom's blue ribbon pie crust recipe for the crust.  So this post is just about the filling.  To me it is so good and not too sweet.  And of course it brings back great memories of my grandmother.

To start out you will need to boil the raisins in some water to plump them up.  Here I  have combined the water and the raisins and will bring them to a boil, then turn down the burner and let them simmer for about 25 minutes.

Getting ready to boil

While you are waiting on them to cook, you can go ahead and roll out the pie dough.  After that mix together the sugar, corn starch, and pinch of salt in a separate bowl to add to the raisins later.

After the raisins have simmered, add in the lemon juice, and the butter and stir.  Then add in the corn starch, sugar, and salt mixture to the raisins and mix well.

Pour it into an unbaked pie shell and top it with a top crust and bake it in a preheated 375°F oven for about 45 minutes.  Be sure and check after about 20 minutes to make sure that the edges of the crust aren't burning.  If they are, cover just the edges with foil and continue baking.

Fresh baked pie!

 Once done, take out of oven and let cool.  I made this one day ahead of time.  I normally like warm pie, but in this case I needed that extra day to have plenty of time to make the pie.

Sliced pie

And here is the pie at my dad's birthday party.  I had just sliced it and was getting ready to give him the first piece.

My dad taking the first bite.  Baby Jasper wants a bite, Papa!

Dad gave me the thumbs up on the pie.  So glad that he liked it and that I could make it for him for such a momentous birthday!

Check out my YouTube video of making this raisin pie HERE.

And to print a copy of the raisin pie filling recipe, click HERE.

I hope you all enjoyed this recipe.  Let me know...have you ever had raisin pie?

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