Baked Apple Roses

Last night I decided to do a trial run of a recipe I hope to make the next time I have my girlfriends over. We're planning to get together at the end of the month, and in honor of the Autumn Equinox I'm going to make Baked Apple Roses!

There are tutorials for making these all over YouTube. The technique is pretty simple and the ingredient list is relatively short: apples, refrigerated sheets of puff pastry, butter, sugar, cinnamon, and any other spices that go well with apples. I made these quickly because we were in the middle of a Netflix binge watch (Ozark season 2 has landed!) and I wanted to get back to the show.

Despite being a first attempt, and a hurried one at that that, I thought these ended up looking pretty good....and they tasted great! 

Recipe--Blackberry Peach Dumpling Cobbler

As promised, here is a quick recipe for a delicious dessert that uses luscious fresh peaches and blackberries that are just becoming available this time of year. I adapted it from a recipe I found at this website Deep South Dish and it couldn't be easier (or yummier!).

Blackberry Peach Dumpling Cobbler

Ingredients:

Crust
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
 1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 tsp baking powder
1 large pinch salt

Filling
6-8 fresh peaches
2-3 cups fresh blackberries
1 cup sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3 tbsp corn starch mixed with 3 tbsp cold water

To make:
Peel and dice peaches and combine with the blackberries and sugar in a deep, oven proof skillet. Stir in one cup of sugar and lemon juice, and cook gently over medium heat on top of the stove, stirring frequently. Once the fruit is bubbling hot and the berries are bursting, stir in the corn starch/cold water mixture. Lower the heat to a gentle bubbling simmer and continue to stir frequently.

Meanwhile, mix the crust. Combine the flour, baking powder, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter, then slowly pour in the buttermilk while mixing until a soft dough forms. Preheat oven to 375. When the oven is ready, drop small spoonfuls of dough directly on top of the hot fruit mixture, like so:

 

And then put the skillet into the hot oven for around 30 minutes (or until golden brown). This is what it looks like when it comes out of the oven:

Notes:

Cobblers are famously unfussy and adaptable. Most of the measurements here are approximate. The amounts of berries and peaches (and how much sugar is added to them) is completely a matter of personal taste and the sweetness/tartness of the fruit you're working with. I didn't have buttermilk that day, so I substituted regular milk with a tablespoon of white vinegar mixed in. It worked out fine! Also, I've never really known the "correct" way to "cut in" butter, so my method is to use a cheese grater on a cold stick of butter. It may be weird, but it seems to work fine, especially on something as undemanding as cobbler.

This dessert was absolutely delicious, and would have been even more so had I had a scoop of vanilla ice cream to top it with. And it may have been even better the next day, once it was cold! I had it for breakfast with coffee---delicious!

Enjoy!