Today I had Apricot-Cherry Cobbler for lunch. Twice. A rare indulgence. I was outside taking pictures, the whipped cream was starting to fade–the rest of my family was headed for Cape Cod. What was I supposed to do, let it go to waste? It was a very satisfying lunch.
My tastes in dessert are embarrassingly retrograde. Nothing fancy pants. I’m like the guy in a suit who can barely box-step, gawping from the periphery of the dance floor at everyone else’s fancy footwork. Lined end to end, my favorite desserts would resemble the bit players in a movie about bistro or trattoria food from the fifties and sixties–crème caramel, crème brûlée, chocolate mousse, flourless chocolate torte, lemon tart–along with an array of treats that you might find on somebody’s death row last meal–cherry, peach or blackberry crumble or cobbler, pies–glorious pies, all kinds, but especially wild blueberry–homemade pudding, glistening jello molds with fruit suspended inside, strawberry shortcake. I’d add homemade walnut cinnamon rolls, except they’re not dessert. This week’s subject, unlike a few of the items above, requires no special expertise. Make the fruit filling, dollop it with the biscuity topping. Bake. It may be simple, but it’s as primally satisfying as a rope swing beneath a shaded tree on a summer afternoon.
As an aside, I’ll just mention that in the Ken Rivard dictionary of disappointment, apricots would earn a featured place–they never taste they way I imagine they should. That is, like something Scheherazade might offer you to spend the night. Peripatetic food writers with greater travel budgets than mine yammer on about the joys of apricots in Iran, in Armenia, in Azerbaijan, how they put the mealy little gold balls that often pass for apricots in this country to shame, etc. etc. Despite my, ah, lack of enthusiasm Jody was insistant–she wanted apricots. The result was delicious, with apricots that just held their shape. Don’t forget the whipped cream. Ken
Note: If you’re looking for something else to do with the cherries these days you might give our easy Pickled Cherries a try. On the Fourth of July we served drinks with a batch that we made last summer. Still great! Or you might stop by Sally Vargas’s blog Cooking Lessons for her take on Cherry Frozen Yogurt.
Apricot-Cherry Cobbler
Serves 8
Filling Ingredients:
- 1 pound apricots
- 1 pound cherries
- 1/3 cup sugar
- Zest of 1 lime
- ¼ cup crystallized ginger slices, chopped into 1/8 inch pieces
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornmeal
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes and chilled
- ½ cup buttermilk, cold
- 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar
- Wash the fruit. Slice each apricot in half and remove the pit and put the halves into a large bowl. Remove the pits from the cherries with a cherry pitter or cut in half and remove with your hands and add to the bowl with the apricots. Add the remaining filling ingredients and toss well.
- Transfer to a shallow overproof baking dish.
- Put all of the topping ingredients except the butter, buttermilk, and turbinado sugar into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to mix. Add the butter and pulse 4 times to breakdown the butter into pea sized pieces. Transfer to a bowl. Add the buttermilk and stir to just combine.
- Put teaspoons of the topping evenly over the fruit. Sprinkle with the turbinado sugar. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the cobbler 45 minutes or so. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.
- Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream.
Jody Notes:
This dessert is really just a baked fruit shortcake. It couldn’t be any simpler. You could do individual servings in ramekins and take them on a picnic.
Sarah Caravedi, our pastry chef at Trade, suggested this combination of fruit. It was a good call as both apricots and cherries are available now. However, I was, as Ken promised I would be, disappointed with the apricots I found so I fought back with the bold flavors of ginger and lime zest. The apricots did redeem themselves in texture as they remained nicely tender-firm after baking.
I didn’t add any thickener like cornstarch or flour to the fruit filling because I like the natural syrupy sauce that the fruit makes and the flavors remain truer. I usually make the biscuit topping for cobbler with heavy cream, but I had leftover buttermilk from last week’s soup, so I used it instead. It makes a wonderful light cobbler topping and makes room for a generous proportion of butter in the dough.
The Garum Factory 
Ken, I’m with you on the no-fancy-pants desserts (retro much?) Honestly, after creating fancy-ish desserts as a pastry chef, I’m completely over them. Give me a cobbler, or a one-bowl cake, or an old-fashioned custard any day. Save those tiered confections for the young and impressionable. My take on apricots is that they’re usually shipped from CA or somewhere far away. Like peaches, they just hate to travel, so maybe that’s the problem. This combination sounds like it’s just the ticket (‘like a rope swing beneath a shaded tree.’) Nice one, guys.
Thank you, Sally.
it looks absolutely stunning and yummy ^^ and the photos are really great
I have not yet had the opportunity to enjoy apricots from Iran, Armenia, or Azerbaijan, so it’s impossible to know if the apricots the folks at Big Apple Farm in Wrentham, MA grow measure up. But they are lots better than the ones you can buy at the supermarket. Sadly, the season is short, so I’m going to go get some NOW and make this cobbler. Thanks!
Good for you! Jody and I sometimes bike out that way, so with your endorsement, I may have to give them a try. Thanks for the comment. Ken
They expect to have apricots for about 3 more weeks.
Shirley–Thanks! We’ll swing by. Ken
This week I went to my fruit guy, specifically to buy apricots to bake into something. Odd thing, there were none to be had. I walked away with nectarines and blackberries. So tonight, we used this recipe, but made it with nectarines and blackberries, subbing out the ginger for some fresh sage plucked from out front. It was splendid. Thanks for the recipe.
Wow, Molly, sage. Interesting choice. That’s not something that would have immediately leapt to mind, although I love sage in savory food. Now you’ve got me intrigued. In a weird reversal, we originally thought to do this with blackberries, but we couldn’t find any close by, so we went with what we could get–apricots and cherries. Thanks for letting me know about the sage–I’ll pass that idea on to Jody. Ken
Agree with you on the apricots. One always wants the ones we get here to taste a certain way, and they seldom do. (Funny, though, that it seems to be the reverse with the dried ones: I loathe the Turkish ones but the yummy California ones are sadly difficult to find.) Sounds like a great lunch to me—but you’re talking to someone who recently ate blackberry cobbler for dinner!
Good for you, Michelle! Sometimes a person’s gotta do what a person’s gotta do. I don’t know that I’ve ever had dried Turkish apricots (although I love Turkish dried figs), but I do like dried apricots–I’d forgotten until you reminded me, we’ve been on kind of dried mango and papaya kick here lately. Blackberry cobbler is definitely on the list. Ken
An apricot tree in Ouray, Colorado provided my first experience with these juicy mini treats. Amazing flavor, texture, juice. During the 20 years since that tree and I met, I keep buying apricots in New England, but they sadly are never as good. However, I’m still a believer. Consider them for their beauty, delicacy, color and softness. Seeing them in any market reminds me that I remain a huge fan of Apricots.
I admire you keeping the faith–it would seem from some of the comments of other readers that you’re not alone. Hope springs eternal. Ken
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Oohhh….come to papa my little precious.
A truly appetizing & more classical cobbler fill with Summer’s fruits which I love! I love to pour hot custard over the top before induling this tasty treat! ;) Yummmm!
Nothing like gilding the lily! Sounds good. Ken