Homestyle blueberry cobbler

I’ve never known exactly what to call this. I got the recipe from my mom, who got it from a neighbor, who got it from someone else, and it’s been passed down as a blueberry “cobbler.” When I think cobbler, though, I think of a sweetened mass of fruit sitting beneath either a pie-crust-type pastry or a biscuit-like drop-topping. I’m tempted to call it a coffee cake, but those I imagine with a crumbly brown sugar layer on top. It’s baked in a pie plate and cut into wedges, but it’s certainly not a pie. It seems like a cake of some sort, but it’s FAR moister, and it’s definitely not meant to be frosted. Is it a betty, clafoutis, grunt, pandowdy, slump? Can anyone help me out here?!

Whatever you want to call it, this recipe is ridiculously easy, naturally eggless, blessedly quick to throw together, and timelessly delicious.

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 (scant) cup sugar
1 cup vanilla (or plain) soymilk
1T lemon juice
1/4 cup Earth Balance, melted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup berries, fresh or frozen, any kind

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9-inch glass pie plate. Put the lemon juice in a measuring cup, and pour in the soymilk till it reaches the 1 cup mark. Set aside for at least 5 minutes—this will make “buttermilk.” Meanwhile, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, and whisk together.



Melt the Earth Balance if you haven’t already. (Note: I have tried making this with canola oil instead, but for whatever reason, it just didn’t work right.) Pour the lemon juice-soymilk mixture and the melted Earth Balance into the bowl with the flour mixture.



Using a spatula (not the whisk), gently mix everything together until just combined. There will probably be lumps, which is a-ok. Pour the batter into the greased pie plate.



Now, break out the berries. Blackberries are by far my favorite berries to make this with; however, since I made something with blackberries rather recently, AND since blueberries were on sale a couple weeks ago, I defaulted to the berry of the original recipe. This is great with raspberries, too, and I’ve always wanted to try it with chopped apples and a dash of cinnamon.

Take your choice of berries and drop them into the batter. You can do it neatly and daintily, like I did, or you can just dump a pile of them in there; they’ll spread out anyway. Put as many or as few berries as you like; 1 cup is just a round suggestion.



If you have one of those pie-crust-protector-circle-things, I’d put that on there. If not, you may just want to check it halfway through and put some foil around the edges if they look too brown. The outside always cooks significantly faster than the inside, for me. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool at least 10-15 minutes.



Then simply slice and serve! It’s plenty sweet as-is, but you can dust it lightly with powdered sugar if you want. The blueberries will have burst during baking and permeated the cake with their juicy goodness. The cakey part is light, fluffy, and über-moist—and somehow even more so the next day. It’s great as dessert, breakfast, or just a snack. Call it whatever you choose, but do give this one a try. Perhaps you can even pass it along to someone in your own family.



Yield: 8-10 slices. Per slice (8): 206 calories, 6.3g fat (1.8g sat), 35g carbs, 3.1g fiber, 2.6g protein.
Per slice (10): 165 calories, 5g fat (1.5g sat), 28g carbs, 2.5g fiber, 2.1g protein.

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