Grandma Lucille's Strawberry Cobbler

This cobbler was always a treat for me as I was growing up. Everyone loved my Grandma Lucille's special dessert creation; sometimes she made it in cobbler form, other times she prepared it in pie form, which was my favorite. In pie form, Gram always created a lattice top so the strawberry juices could bubble up and into the openings of the lattice, which seemed to make it even MORE delicious.  There are three basic steps to this recipe: making the dough, preparing the filling, then assembling and baking the cobbler.  

1 batch pie dough, enough to make a two crust pie or one large cobbler (see my favorite recipe below)
1/3 cup granualted sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of kosher salt
1 container frozen, sliced strawberries with sugar, 16 oz., thawed
1/2 tsp. vanilla
4 Tbs. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

In a small bowl, combine sugar, flour and salt. In a separate bowl, combine strawberries with vanilla.

Meanwhile, dust your counter top generously with flour and place half of pie dough onto flour; sprinkle the top of the dough with a bit of flour, as well. Roll dough out into a large round or oblong, similar in shape and size to your baking vessel.  (I like to keep my pie dough "moving", making sure it's never becoming adhered to my counter top, always lifting and rotating a bit.  Be sure to move quickly in this process so that your dough doesn't become too warm and soft to work with. If this does happen, and it will from time to time, just toss the dough onto a baking sheet and into the freezer for a few minutes to chill it again, then start over!)

Transfer dough to your baking vessel, gently laying it in place, letting dough drape over the sides, trimming if necessary.  Pour prepared strawberry filling into crust and top with the sugar/flour mixture.  Place butter pieces over the top.  

Roll out second half of dough to create top crust and place over filling, crimping edges as needed around outer edge of cobbler.  Vent top crust by making a few decorative incisions across the surface to let steam escape during baking. Brush top crust with a bit of milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake cobbler on top rack in a preheated 400 degree F. oven for 20-25 minutes or until top crust is golden brown.  Transfer cobbler to bottom rack of oven and bake 20 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. and place cobbler on center rack of oven; bake a final 20 minutes.  Remove from oven to a cooling rack. 

Serve cobbler warm, topped with homemade vanilla ice cream. 

Now You're Cookin',

Chef Alli