Blackberry Cobbler

We just celebrated July 4th in the Big Woods. 

Once July 4th is here, people in Tennessee start looking for wild blackberries to make a cobbler.

I don't always find them, but this year, I found some growing around the edges of the farm.

It takes about 2 cups of berries to make a good cobbler.

We hit this just right with our picking.

I think I managed to pick these without getting any chiggers or briar scratches.

Once I got them back to the kitchen, I washed them through at least 4 clean water cycles, being careful to handle the berries with care and remove any stems.

I started by making biscuit dough, but adding a little more Crisco than I would if making biscuits.

2 cups  self-rising flour

1/3 cup Crisco (This is what I used.)

2/3 cup milk

I pinched off a baseball size piece of dough to save for the top crust and then rolled the rest out to less than a quarter inch thickness.  I cut this into strips to be ready to pinch off for dumplings.

The berries are put in a pot and covered to the top with water.

I brought them to a boil, and then added 1 1/2 to 2 cups of sugar.

I let this cook for about 10 minutes...maybe a little longer...at medium high.

Then, I brought the berries back to a full rolling boil and added a half stick of butter.  Then, I start adding the dumplings.

You add the dumplings by taking a strip of dough and pinching off pieces and dropping in the liquid.

I would carefully stir the dumplings to be covered by the juice as I went.

After cooking the dumplings for about 10 minutes, I poured the mixture into a casserole dish.

That extra dough I saved back gets rolled into a crust and cut to fit the top of the dish.

The last step is cutting some slits in the top and sprinkling a small amount of sugar over the crust.

I baked this one at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Some people like to add butter to the top and eat their cobbler just like this.  

We like to add vanilla ice cream to ours.

Enjoy!

Blackberry Cobbler

2 cups self-rising flour

1/3 cup Crisco shortening

2/3 cup milk

2 cups blackberries

1 1/2 -2 cups sugar

1/2 stick butter

Make biscuit dough.

Save back dough for crust and roll and cut remaining dough for dumplings.

Bring berries to a boil with water covering.

Add sugar and cook on medium 10-15 minutes.

Bring back to a boil and add butter.

Drop in dumplings and cook for 10 minutes more.

Pour into casserole dish and add crust sprinkled with sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.