Summer Cobblers and Worldwide Fame

When my mom and I set out to make American dessert for a group of young adults (ranging from 19-30) from Ireland, Scotland, Korea, and the UK I had no intention of blogging about these recipes.  This will explain why the only pictures of the night I have are these of the practically devoured leftover portions.  And yes, I know the picture quality is less than stellar.

Why the blog post, you ask?  I must make you wait in suspense, because I rarely get to share such an exciting story and I want to milk this one.  It is good.

We made a peach cobbler, and a berry crisp.  I enjoyed them both, and they were especially delicious when combined in the same bowl with some Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla.  When serving this to our guests, I made a great point of telling them that nowhere else in the country would they have better ice cream than this night.  I think they found my love for this creamy taste of heaven to be pretty amusing.

I cannot remember where my mom found the recipe for the peach cobbler, but I must find out because I would make it again.  The topping is so delicious, sweet and crunchy.  The berry crisp recipe I found on epicurious.com.  Here is the link.  The recipe can be found at the bottom of the post as well.  I made absolutely no changes, and wouldn’t make any in the future.  This is an incredibly easy and homey dessert.

NOW for my incredible story.  The group that had dessert in Round Rock was driving cross country in a 15 passenger van.  My cousin Peter is working for a company that takes these groups around the country, stopping at various sites and camping out mostly at state and national parks.  Their tour of Texas on their way to Louisiana includes Austin, so Peter made plans to come see us and bring his group.  They were glad to get some home cooked food and to spend an evening in an air conditioned home.

After dessert, one of the girls, Sinead (forgive me if I misspell it!) complimented the dessert and my mom tells her that I helped and that I had a food blog.  The girl…who, just to remind you, is from IRELAND…asks the name of the blog and upon being told it was Hottie Biscotti says, “I’ve read that blog!”.  Can you even believe this?  I know.  Crazy.  I ended up talking to her a bit about food blogs and then about her family and how she is going back to school to get an English Literature degree and how she wants to be a writer.

Anyway, I now claim worldwide fame as a food blogger.  It may not be much, but its something.

Summer Berry Crisp

Ingredients

  • 2 cups blueberries
  • 2 cups blackberries
  • 2 cups raspberries
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Crisp topping:

  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch Pyrex pie plate.
  2. Gently combine the berries with the sugar, flour and cinnamon; place in the prepared pie plate.
  3. Prepare the topping: Combine the oats, flour, both sugars and salt in a bowl. Use a pastry blender or 2 knives to work in the butter until topping resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle evenly over the berries.
  4. Place the pie plate on a baking sheet. Bake in the center of the oven until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden brown, about 1 hour. Remove the crisp to a rack to cool slightly. Serve in dessert bowls with whipped cream or ice cream.