Pear and Blueberry Cobbler

We weren’t big dessert eaters growing up. Mum wasn’t a sweet tooth, much to Dad’s chagrin, so for her the purchase and preparation of sweets just wasn’t a priority. The occasional tub of ice cream would appear when I badgered her at the supermarket, sometimes jelly and other times a packet pudding when the urge took hold, but until I was a teen and keen cook myself no dessert.

My dad the sweet tooth would lean into tinned fruit as a substitute or when he was particularly motivated stewed fruit. I wasn’t a big fruit eater as a child so the idea of cooked fruit was a big stretch, unless of course it was wrapped in pastry or hiding under a crumble topping. Like many Australian households our cupboards were well filled with cans of preserved fruit, peaches, apricots, pears and the ubiquitous two fruits not that I’m sure what two actually constituted ‘Two Fruits.’ I never really favoured those either to be honest though Dad always said ‘eat some fruit, it’s good for you.’ So muddle through I would though not a fan of the texture and sweetness of the canned variety.

I think on reflection it’s a generational thing. My parents, both the offspring of war and great depression survivors, had been served fruit prepared like this as an economic alternative. Fresh fruit wasn’t as widely consumed or favoured, nor indeed available. Whilst in more recent history we’ve turned to fresh fruit for lunch boxes and snacks and have been able to offer a wide variety of options to our kids. They’re convenient, easily eaten and if purchased in season affordable. Perhaps this variety and availability has pulled us away from stewed and preserved fruit and our tastebuds become unfamiliar. Maybe our perceptions of fruit of this nature is almost skewed and seen as lesser in some ways.

Last year though cooked fruit and I reacquainted ourselves. Call it curiosity or a craving, I’m not really sure what drove it but I had a yearning for a poached pear. Leaning on google of course this lovely simple dish by famed David Liebowitz was my starting point. I happily enjoyed pears for days for dessert, breakfast and in between. Then this year during a shoot was lucky enough to eat these ruby jewelled delights prepared by my client and realised something. Aside from how delicious poached/stewed/cooked fruit is it’s a bit of a metaphor for how our food knowledge has grown. Previous generations would have cooked fruit in water and sugar. Too many other ingredients wouldn’t have been imagined or considered. Perhaps they’d be seen as indulgent and an unnecessary expense and quite possibly palates of a less adventurous spirit such as those of earlier generations wouldn’t have been enticed by extra flavours. I also realised I’m a similar age to that which my dad was when encouraging me to eat fruit like this. A sign of age? Possibly but probably musings for another day.

So back to that cooked fruit. As I said I’m quite partial to desserts in which fruit is wrapped or topped by something. Whilst I love making pastry, I also love a simple dish that’s moreish, comforting and most importantly easy to throw together. Years ago I was introduced to the idea of a cobbler by a friend. Whilst I’d heard of them on American tv I had no idea what they actually were. I became hooked. This is my version of one perfect for the shift of seasons from autumn to winter. Whilst blueberries have been expensive in parts of Australia recently prices are settling, however if they’re still unavailable in your area you might like to sub in your favourite berry or just leave them out and pay homage to all the gorgeous pears available.

Ingredients:

Fruit:

4 pears, peeled, cored and sliced into 8 wedges. Any variety is fine.

100 gm caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla paste

3 tsp (15ml) apple cider vinegar

200 gm blueberries

1 Tb Water

Cobbler topping:

180 gm butter, cold and cubed

Rind of 1 lemon

½ tsp ground ginger

220 gm self-raising flour

70 gm caster sugar

150 ml butter milk

1 tbs demerara or raw sugar crystals

Method:

Preheat oven to 180c and butter a suitably sized ceramic or glass baking dish. You want the fruit to cover the base in a tightly packed single’ish layer.

Place the fruit, sugar, vanilla, vinegar and water in a wide based saucepan over a low heat. Simmer gently until a syrup forms from the juices seeping out, the sugar has dissolved, the blueberries have softened and the pears are starting to soften but not cooked through, there’ll be purple streaks from the berries starting to stain the syrup. The pears will finish in the oven. Leave to cool slightly in the pot.

Now here’s the game changer. In a food processor or blender in this order place the butter cubes, lemon rind, then all the dry ingredients except the demerara sugar. Pulse 3-4 times until the butter and flour are rubbed together similarly to if you were making scones, little lumps of butter not completely rubbed in is fine. You can of course do this with your hands if you don’t have the relevant appliance. Tip this into a bowl and stir in the buttermilk gently until just combined. It will be wetter than a scone mixture almost like a too thick cake mixture or too wet scone mixture with some dry, buttery crumbs.

In your prepared dish, spread the fruit and syrup across the base. Dollop spoonful’s of cobbler mixture across the top covering the fruit as best you can but don’t worry too much about gaps, the mixture will expand and fill most of these gaps upon cooking. Sprinkle over the demerara sugar and cook for 40-45 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Allow to cool for 15 mins before serving letting the syrup temper and not be too hot to eat. Serve with your favourite creamy addition. I love cream or custard, but hubby likes ice cream, both are delicious.