Nectarine, Apricot, Plum, and Berry Cobbler

From the book The Basic Gourmet Entertains by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, and Kathleen Taggart

Introduction

It is hard to imagine anything more wonderful than a cobbler, crisp, or pie at the end of a dinner alfresco. Serve with a little ice cream, frozen yogurt, or whipped cream.

Ingredients

Filling

Biscuits

Steps

1. To make filling, in a large mixing bowl, combine apricots, nectarines, plums, blueberries, and ginger root. Gently mix. In a small mixing bowl, blend brown sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice until sugar and cornstarch are dissolved. Add to reserved fruit and stir gently to blend. Spoon into a 10-by-14-inch glass or ceramic baking dish with sides 2 to 2½ inches high. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 400ºF. To make biscuits, in a large bowl, combine flour, ½ cup sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Cut butter into small cubes and scatter over flour mixture. Working quickly, blend butter into flour with your fingertips or a pastry blender until it is the texture of coarse meal. In a small bowl, combine vanilla and buttermilk. Use a spoon to blend buttermilk mixture into flour and stir until all moisture is absorbed. Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Dust top of dough with flour, then roll dough into a circle ½ to ¾ inch thick. Cut biscuits with a 3-inch round cookie cutter. Press scraps together and form additional biscuits. You should have 12 to 15 biscuits.
3. Place biscuits close together over the fruit. Brush biscuits with milk using a pastry brush, then sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake cobbler until biscuits are nicely browned, 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Set aside at room temperature until serving.

Notes

• The biscuit dough can be mixed in a food processor fitted with the metal blade or in a mixer with a pastry paddle. Follow the same steps—mix dry ingredients, cut in butter, then add liquid and process just until combined
• The cobbler is best made the day of serving. It can certainly be assembled and baked in the morning, kept at room temperature, and served in the evening.

This content is from the book The Basic Gourmet Entertains by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, and Kathleen Taggart.