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By Sarah Condley

Columnist

Well, I’m still searching for a good whole wheat blackberry cobbler recipe due to my husband, Brad’s, allergy to white flour. A few weeks ago, I searched for recipes onlinet and found a couple I wanted to try. I tried one and told you about it right after my search. If you remember, it wasn’t the best. Since wild blackberries are beginning to come on our vines, I wanted to try another recipe, using some of the blackberries in our freezer (I need to free up some space for this year’s crop). So, the second recipe I found on the Internet, at the allrecipes.com website, is called Jason’s Whole Wheat Blackberry Cobbler. The author stated he’d never found a whole wheat cobbler he truly enjoyed, so he set out to create his own, and this recipe is what he came up with.

The first thing I did was let a bag of blackberries thaw then added them to a saucepan along with the sugar. After whisking the warm water and cornstarch, I added it to the berries and began heating the mixture on the stove. While I wanted the berries to boil, I turned on the oven to preheat. I observed the berries and stirred often until the blackberries were broken down and thickened. This process took about ten minutes. I turned the stove off and turned to making the cobbler batter.

Whisking the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together took no time at all, and I used a pastry blender to cut in the cold butter that I’d cubed up. Once the mixture was crumbly, I poured in the milk and had a smooth, rather thick batter.

The blackberry mixture went into the pan, and I dropped the cobbler batter over the top. I baked the cobbler for 35 minutes, testing the batter topping with a toothpick to ensure it was done.

Brad and I were visiting our daughter and taking this cobbler with us to share with her family. After our evening meal, we of course, dove right into the dessert. As usual, I heated mine up but everyone else ate theirs at room temperature.

After everyone had gobbled up their serving of Jason’s Whole Wheat Blackberry Cobbler, our consensus was that this recipe was much better than the first whole wheat cobbler I fixed and was definitely a Nailed It. I’ll be removing the other recipe I tried and will be replacing it with this one until I find one that beats this one – if I do.

Jason’s Whole Wheat Blackberry Cobbler

Instructions

Fruit

• 2 cups fresh blackberries

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 cup warm water

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Cobbler Batter

• 1 cup whole wheat flour

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 cup butter, cut into small chunks

• 1/2 milk, or more as needed

Ingredients

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Lightly oil and 8-inch square or 8-inch round baking dish.

• Combine blackberries and 1 cup sugar in a saucepan.  Whisk warm water and cornstarch together in a bowl until smooth; stir into blackberries.  Bring blackberry mixture to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring frequently, until berries break down and thicken, 5-10 minutes.

• Whisk flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.  Cut butter into flour mixture using a pastry cutter or your hands until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir milk into flour-butter mixture until a smooth, thick batter forms.

• Pour berry mixture into the prepared baking dish.  Drop spoonful of batter over the berries.

• Bake in the preheat oven until a firm and golden crust forms, 30-40 minutes.

Note: If you find the taste of whole wheat flour to be bitter, add a tablespoon of orange juice to your flour mixture.