It’s that time of year when we put the best of summer’s fruit into a buttered baking dish, top it with any sort of buttered crumble and bake it until everything browns and bubbles. There are about a million ways to make a cobbler and this is my favorite of the unfussy versions. This is the easiest cookie-topped fruit cobbler made with any summer fruit and flavored with browned butter and brown sugar.–Joy Wilson
HOW DO I KNOW WHEN MY COBBLER IS DONE?
There’s nothing more heartbreaking than an underdone cobbler, is there? Except maybe an overdone one? It’s time to pull that fruit-filled beaut out of the oven when the edges are all bubbly and the topping is golden rather than just starting to get toasty. A little extra insurance, for those of you who love the numbers, when a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the topping reads 200°F everything is cooked through.
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Joy the Baker’s Strawberry Blueberry Cobbler
Ingredients
For the fruit
- 1 tablespoon butter, softened or melted, for the pan
- 1/3 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- Pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
- 2 pints fresh strawberries, rinsed and sliced about 1/2-inch (12-mm) thick
For the cobbler topping
- 1 1/2 sticks (6 oz) unsalted butter
- 1 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 large egg divided, yolk for the dough and egg white to brush on top of the dough
- Splash of milk
- 1/3 cup turbinado sugar (optional but nice)
- Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving
Instructions
Prepare the fruit
- Place a rack in the upper third of your oven and preheat to 375°F (190°C). Lightly slick a 9-by 13-inch (23-by 33-cm) baking dish with softened or melted butter.
- In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, cornstarch, ginger, and salt until evenly combined.
- Place the blueberries and sliced strawberries in the prepared baking dish. Add the sugar mixture and toss gently until evenly coated. Let the strawberries and blueberries macerate in the sugar while you prepare the topping. They’ll begin to release juice and that’s a good thing.
Make the cobbler topping
- In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the butter just until the milk solids toast and brown and the butter is very fragrant, 5 to 8 minutes. [Editor’s note: You are going to want to watch the butter closely as it can burn very quickly.] Pour the browned butter into a medium bowl to cool slightly.
- Add the sugar, vanilla, flour, baking powder, and salt to the bowl with butter. Stir in the beaten egg yolk and use a fork or your fingers to work the ingredients into a shaggy dough.
- Use your hands to shape the dough into rough coins about 3 inches (8 cm) in diameter. Layer atop the prepared strawberries and blueberries, covering the fruit as much as possible—though it’s ok if bits of fruit peek through.
- In a small bowl whisk together egg white and a splash of milk. Lightly brush the cobbler top and sprinkle generously with turbinado sugar, if using.
- Bake until the fruit is bubbling and the top is lightly golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Rotate the dish in the oven halfway through baking to evenly brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes to cool just slightly before scooping and serving with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Cobbler is delicious at room temperature or cold from the fridge. There’s no wrong way to enjoy it! Cobbler is best enjoyed on the day it is made but will last, covered in the refrigerator, for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
A friend invited us to an impromptu dinner party and the hostess asked if I would bring dessert. I needed something special but quick and easy. It’s always risky to take something to a dinner party that you are preparing for the first time but I was feeling brave. I chose Joy the Baker’s Strawberry Blueberry Cobbler, and I’m so glad I did. This strawberry blueberry browned butter cobbler filled the quick and easy requirement and was delicious. I had fresh local strawberries and found nice plump blueberries at the grocery.
I have lots of cobbler recipes but this will be my new go-to preparation. The browned butter added a new flavor dimension and the turbinado sugar, while listed as optional, in my opinion, was the finishing touch that shouldn’t be skipped. I made several coins with the cobbler topping as instructed but it was very crumbly and didn’t hold together well so I just crumbled it over the fruit with my fingers. This may have altered the appearance slightly but it was still visually appealing. I served this at room temperature with a good vanilla bean ice cream and it was enjoyed by all.
Joy the Baker’s strawberry blueberry cobbler is a recipe that celebrates the very best of the early summer fruits! The contrasts of the dish are a delight from the start with the vibrant color of the bright red strawberries and the dark-hued blueberries as they are laid in the baking dish waiting to be covered with the coins of dough.
The contrast is carried through to the finished product with the perfect bite consisting of cold vanilla ice cream, warm fruit cobbler and ending with the crunch of the turbinado sugar. The browned butter adds notes of caramel to the dough which you smell as soon as the dough is being mixed.
Joy the Baker’s strawberry blueberry cobbler is nothing short of a showstopper. This simple recipe takes super simple summer flavors and brings them together in the most magnificent way. The nuttiness of the brown butter balances out the sweetness and tartness of the summer berries. This recipe could easily work with any berries or summer fruit if you don’t have strawberries or blueberries around but I would suggest reducing the sugar in the fruit so that it’s not overly sweet.
A tip, brown butter is totally worth it but patience is a virtue! Don’t rush it and don’t crank up the heat. The butter will do weird things like foam and make noises but just trust this process and you will be rewarded. Also, DO NOT take your eyes off of it because brown butter can go from nutty and delicious to burnt in a blink of an eye!
I served this warm with vanilla ice cream and it should be enjoyed outside on a warm summer evening. If you somehow manage not to finish this in one sitting, the topping warms up beautifully in the microwave and doesn’t get soggy when reheated.
Many cobblers exist online and so the bar for scoring is necessarily high. The best part about this Joy the Baker’s strawberry blueberry cobbler is the browned butter. The smell both in the making of the browned butter and the baking of the cobbler itself fills the room.
For the fruit filling, you could add more fruit or alter the fruit combination to your taste. The filling wasn’t too sweet. If you don’t like ginger, you can substitute cinnamon or some lemon zest might be a good addition. For the topping, the butter goes through several stages. Initially, there are lots of bubbles all across the top, and as it cooks these bubbles are replaced by a calmer smooth top.
