Blueberry Cobbler with Cornmeal Biscuits
In my last post I mentioned that corn didn’t play much of a role on the Italian culinary stage (recap: it usually comes from a can, not fresh from the cob; you can find it mainly in pasta salads and green salads). But as I sat down to write this post, I had a revelation: fresh corn may be a bit underappreciated here in Italy, but what about cornmeal, its byproduct? After all, the north of my adopted country prides itself on polenta, or cornmeal cooked with water or milk and finished with lots of butter and cheese. Here in the Lazio region of Italy you’ll find the divine polenta con salsicce e spuntature, or polenta topped with sausages and braised pork in a tomato sauce. In the U.S — especially in the South — cornmeal is also a much-used ingredient, called upon to whip up everything from grits to spoonbread to hush puppies to cornbread. I myself am a big fan — it’s pleasantly coarse texture lends a bit of heft and complexity to the finished dish — as exemplified by these muffins and these pancakes.
I love a good cobbler, crisp, or crumble in the summertime (as evidenced here) but was looking for a way to shake things up this year. After 9+ years of blogging, I’d felt I’d ran the gamut of the triple Cs — there’s this nectarine and blueberry crumble, this apricot pistachio crisp, and this peach cobbler, among others — and was looking for a way to shake things up. Enter the aforementioned cornmeal, which is whisked into the classic cobbler biscuit topping to make for a truly stellar, more nuanced summer fruit dessert: Blueberry Cobbler with Cornmeal biscuits.
(An important note, before I proceed: the word “biscuit” is a tricky one, with more than one meaning. In the UK, a biscuit is what us Americans would call a “cookie.” In the U.S, it’s a flaky, buttery deal, reminiscent of a British scone [if we’re looking to make things more confusing] and can be savory or sweet.)
Now that we’ve cleared that up: on to the recipe! Here a heap of night-sky-blue blueberries are baked until sweet and syrupy, crowned with a layer of daisy-yellow, cornmeal-kissed, (American-style!) biscuits. They’re buttery, crumbly, and a little more-ish thanks to a pinch of salt, with a pleasant crunch. These are not overly sweet biscuits — just mildly so — making them the perfect vehicle to mix and mingle with the blueberry juice that’s bubbled up merrily from the fruit below. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again (and probably many more times after this): vanilla ice cream, served on the still-warm cobbler, is mandatory. The temperature contrast of cold ice cream + warm cobbler can’t be beat, and a scoop quickly transforms into little ice cream rivers that trickle into the blueberries and biscuits, making it truly swoon-worthy. Bonus: The mix of golden yellow and sapphire blue is also especially pretty. Verdict: if you make one more summer dessert as the season draws to an end, make sure it’s this one.
A couple of notes: If your blueberries are very juicy, you could find that theres a bit of extra liquid in your cobbler. This happened to me on one of my trial runs testing this recipe. If this is the case, don’t fret; just use a slotted spoon when divvying up the cobbler to make sure that the servings aren’t overly juicy. I feel like raspberries and strawberries go equally nicely with corn/cornmeal, so feel free to experiment with those.
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BLUEBERRY COBBLER WITH CORNMEAL BISCUITS
Serves 8. Recipe adapted from Spoon Fork Bacon.
Ingredients for the fruit:
5 cups (about 725 grams) fresh blueberries
1/2 cup (50 grams) sugar
3 tablespoons (30 grams) cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A good pinch of salt
Ingredients for the biscuit topping:
1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (100 grams) finely ground yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons (7 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) salt
1/2 cup (1 stick, 112 grams) cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes
1 cup (240mL) heavy cream
Sugar for sprinkling
Vanilla ice cream
Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 375˚F. Grease a 10 inch rectangular pan with butter. Set aside. Combine all filling ingredients in a large bowl, and set this aside too.
2.) For the biscuits, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugars, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and cut into the flour mixture until a fine, mealy texture evenly forms. Gently stir in cream until a loose dough forms.
3.) Pour the blueberry mixture into the prepared pan. Top with scoopfuls of dough, evenly spaced over blueberry mixture. Sprinkle sugar over cobbler and bake for 40-45 minutes, until filling is bubbling and the biscuits are golden brown and cooked through. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool for 15 to 20 minutes before serving (with vanilla ice cream).
