Stewed fruit and pear cobbler

Well hello,

Yesterday marked day one of my new "send me your ingredients and i'll come up with ideas" activity. It's a working title guys, I'm taking suggestions.

I had two friends of mine send me a list of ingredients that they had and both of them seemed to have some excess fruit sitting around. So I figured that maybe there's a few of you out there in the same position.

So let's talk fruit. I go through fruit phases which means I buy a heap of fruit then loose interest in it two days later so it tends to go bad before I can get to it. Last week I had some delicious home grown pears (Thanks Nat's mum!) sitting in my fruit bowl which needed some TLC. So I did what I knew best, added some sugar, butter and cooked them over low heat. Then I found a recipe for cobbler, something I've never made but decided would be easy enough and it was!

First let's talk about fruit and what you can do with it, then scroll on down to the pear cobbler recipe for the step-by-step. Feel free to replace the pears with whatever fruit you have.

What fruit can I stew?

- Pome fruit, think apples and pears

- Stone fruit, think peaches, nectarines and plums

- Rhubarb, technically a vegetable but legally a fruit (google said so).

- Berries, the berry kind.

Let's talk about citrus for a second, while I won't be making an orange or grapefruit cobbler any time soon you can make it into a compote instead, which is a really similar process to stewing. Instead try serving it with crepes and pancakes or vanilla ice cream.

psst if you only have marg or nuttelex, that's totes fine.

The basics to stewing fruit is

Fruit, sugar and a low heat. Some fruit you may want to add some water for example with rhubarb and granny smith apples. 

I also use butter, but that's because butter makes everything better and I spent a year living in France. So what I'm saying is butter is good.

If you want to replace the sugar with an alternative sweetner, go for it. I reccomend tasting as you go to make sure it's as sweet as you want it. 

Okay let's get to the main event, the cobbler recipe.

No self raising flour?

Make a crumble instead, here's two options.

1.Oats and/or nuts; crush the nuts and combine with some melted butter and sweetner (sugar, honey, maple whatever you've got), cinnamon if you have it and sprinkle it on top of the fruit and bake until golden. Watch those nuts though, they're good at burning. you can toast this crumble separately if you prefer.

2. Plain Flour; 2/3 cup of plain flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 4 tbls melted butter (add cinnamon if you have it), mix until crumb like. Put ontop of the fruit and bake until golden brown.

Add coconut to either of these if you have it.

Pear Cobbler Recipe

You'll Need

Stewed Fruit

2 cups offruit(I used pears)

1/4 cupsugar (you can replace this with another sweetner)

2 tblslemon(or other citrus or no citrus, it's not vital)

1/4 cupfrozen berries(not necessary)

Water(not always needed)

Vanilla(great if you've got it, not terrible if you don't)

Cobbler (see crumble recipe above if you'd prefer that)

1 cupself-raising flour

1/2 cupsugar

100gbutter

50mlmilk

1/4 cup coconutflakes/shredded

1/4 cup oats

Stew the fruit

1. Mix everything into the pan 

2. Place on a medium-low heat and bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer. The aim here is to get the fruit tender and the liquid to a thick-ish syrup. If you want to add water to loosen it a bit go for it. 

*How to know if it's thick enough- get a metal spoon and dip the back of it in the liquid. When you lift the spoon out it should have coated the back of the spoon. Try wiping your finger down the back of the spoon and it should leave a clear line.

3. Once it's done, remove from the heat and transfer to a pie dish, glass or ceramic is best (oven proof).

Make the cobbler

1. In a big bowl or food processor or blender if you've got one mix the flour, sugar and butter together until it resembles a breadcrumb

2. Gradually add in the milk and continue to mix

3. By hand, stir in the coconut and oats, the mixtrure should be lumpy and dough like. It tastes delicious raw FYI, if you're into that kind of thing.

4. Spread evenly (important, I didn't and some parts werent cooked properly) over the top. Sprinkle with some flakey salt.

5. Bake uncovered at 180*C for 30minutes.

Delicious served as dessert breakfast, or for whatever meal you like. We're making our own rules now right?

As always, if you have any questions feel free to DM me or reply to this email. If you make this recipe don't forget to take a pic and tag me on insta @grumbleandquench. 

Happy Eating,

S