Strawberry Cobbler
Serves: 4 to 6
Make the most of summer with this delicious Strawberry Cobbler, made with fresh strawberries and a lemon scone cobbler topping. Recipe with step-by-step photos.
Ingredients
For the fruit base
- 1 kg (2 lb) fresh strawberries
- 55 g (¼ cup) vanilla sugar, see Kitchen Notes
- 1 tablespoon cornflour, (US: cornstarch)
For the cobbler topping
- 75 g (¾ stick) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 340 g (2 ¼ cup) plain flour, (all-purpose flour)
- 20 g (4 teaspoons) baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 75 g (⅓ cup) caster sugar, (superfine sugar)
- 1 lemon, zested
- 190 ml (¾ cup) milk
- 1 tablespoon milk, for brushing
- 1 handful demerera sugar
To Serve
- icing sugar, (powdered sugar) for dusting (optional)
- vanilla ice-cream
Instructions
For the fruit base
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F (without fan).
- Wash and drain the strawberries.
- Hull the strawberries and place them directly into a round ceramic baking dish, about 23 cm (9 inches) wide. If the strawberries are large, halve or quarter them. Otherwise, I prefer to leave them whole.
- Sprinkle the vanilla sugar and cornflour (cornstarch) over the strawberries.
- Use a spoon to gently mix everything together.
- Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the strawberries have softened a little, but they still hold their shape. At this stage, the strawberries would have oozed very little liquid, or none at all.
- Alternatively, you can cook down the strawberries in a saucepan on the stove over medium heat. Cook until the strawberries have softened, but still hold their shape. There should be some liquid in the pan. Transfer the strawberry compote to the baking dish.
For the cobbler topping
- Place the butter, flour and baking powder into the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Using the flat paddle attachment, beat until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add the salt, sugar and lemon zest.
- With the flat paddle attachment on low speed, slowly add the milk until you have a soft, sticky dough. You may not need all of the milk.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.
- Gently pat the dough together and shape it to a thickness of about 2 cm (1 inch).
- Using a floured scone or cookie cutter, cut out 10 to 12 rounds from the dough.
Assembling the strawberry cobbler
- Arrange the cobbler topping on top of the partially cooked strawberries.
- Brush each cobbler topping with some milk.
- Generously sprinkle demerera sugar over the cobbler topping.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cobbler topping is lightly golden.
- Let the strawberry cobbler settle for about 5 minutes before serving.
- Dust with icing sugar (powdered sugar).
- Serve hot with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
Kitchen Notes
- ADJUST SWEETNESS
Strawberries can vary in sweetness, so feel free to reduce the amount of sugar in this recipe. - HOW TO MAKE VANILLA SUGAR
To make vanilla sugar, simply place a split vanilla bean into a clean glass jar, and fill it with caster sugar. Leave it for at least a few days for the vanilla to infuse the sugar. You can keep adding vanilla beans to the sugar over time to intensify the aroma. Alternatively, stir through 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean powder to a jar of caster sugar. - VARIATIONS
* Instead of using just strawberries, mixed berries also work well in this recipe.
* For a more fruit-to-scone ratio, halve the recipe for the cobbler topping. - OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer's handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly. - CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.