I have always wanted to bake a dish in my cast iron skillet and decided to also complete a goal on my Foodie Bucket List: cobbler! What is cobbler exactly? “… a fruit or savoury filling poured into a large baking dish and covered with a batter, biscuit, or dumpling (in England) before being baked“.
I had some frozen strawberries and fresh rhubarb and decided to make my own version of this strawberry rhubarb cobbler recipe. You can of course skip the cast iron baking vessel and make this in whatever baking dish you have but please note, this is cooked on the stovetop before being baked in the oven.
The Filling
For the filling you will need: 1 lb strawberries (I used whole frozen), 2 cups of sliced fresh rhubarb, 3 tbsp cornstarch, 1/2 cup-2/3 cup white sugar, pinch of salt and 1/4 cup diced butter. I used 1/2 cup sugar and this was just sweet enough. If you have a sweet tooth, add 2/3 cup of sugar.
Preheat your oven to 400 and add fruit to skillet. Add cornstarch, sugar, pinch of salt…
And butter. Stir well. Cook on stovetop over medium heat stirring regularly until bubbly and thickened. Check for sweetness.
The Biscuit Topping
For the biscuit topping you will need 1 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt…
1/4 cup cold diced butter, 3/4 cup 2% milk and 1 tsp vanilla bean paste.
While fruit filling is cooking away make biscuits by whisking together dry ingredients. Add diced butter and rub into flour until you have small crumbs.
Add the milk and vanilla and stir well, slowly bringing batter together. Add more milk if necessary.
Baking Cobbler
Once fruit filling has thickened you want to add the biscuit batter on top.
I used a large ice cream scoop to add biscuits on top.
Cover as much of the top as possible.
My skillet has a wooden handle that looks like it has been over many camp fires (I bought it second hand) so to protect it from any further damage, I covered it with foil.
Bake in a preheated 400F oven for 20-25 minutes until the biscuits get nice and golden.
Foodie Results
Reg used one word to describe this dish. “Excellent!” And I absolutely agree. Next time I might add a couple of tbsp of sugar but wow… This is so delicious!
The filling is beautiful but it is that light, airy and flaky golden biscuit topping that takes this dessert over the edge of foodie awesomeness. I have to say it even rivals my strawberry rhubarb pie and that is saying something!
It was fun to cook it on the stove and then finish it in the oven and wow, super easy and fast to make. Not a ton of effort and the flavourful results kick foodie ass. I will be making this again.
That looks so good, Suzie!
Thanks Debra! And it tastes as great as it looks which is quite shockingly awesome.
Sooozie. Can we top with a cake like dumpling. I like cake.
I don’t see why not FR, just keep an eye on it in the oven since it might have a different baking time.