I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of cooked fruit. While I’ll eat apple pie (especially if it’s this apple pie recipe), I’d much rather have striped delight or Reese’s peanut butter pie. I typically like my fruit cold and my veggies warm. The exception is berries (I love me some berry pie) so it’s probably no surprise that I’m sharing an easy berry cobbler recipe. I’m pretty sure I really just wanted an excuse to make and eat berry cobbler! While you can make this all year long, it’s my favorite to make with fresh summer berries during berry season. There’s just something about making dessert with an actual seasonal fruit while it’s in season that makes it taste that much better. It’s the perfect time to make any fruit dessert – when that fruit is as ripe as possible. Just thinking about fresh berries in summertime makes me swoon. Anyway, you can totally make this out of season too – it just won’t be quite as fresh. But it’s still a perfect option for something like a baby shower, bridal shower, and of course, the holidays. Serve it up next to this no-bake pumpkin pie for a little Thanksgiving dessert variety! This is my new favorite cobbler recipe, and I really hope it’ll be your favorite too!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Flavor combination – the tart berries and lemon combine perfectly with the sweeter topping for an amazing flavor profile!Great base recipe – this is a great cobbler base recipe to use for any of your favorite berries if you’re not a fan of all of the berries we used here!Easy – while there are a couple of steps, they’re all simple and easy to do at home, even if you’re not someone who normally bakes a lot! This one is pretty easy to mess up!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Flour – this is best made with all-purpose flour, just the regular stuff you probably have sitting in your pantry at home!Lemons – make sure to use fresh squeezed lemon juice and lemon zest in this. You want the really fresh and bright flavor of fresh lemons compared to store-bought lemon juice. Also, if you don’t like lemon, you can omit it from the topping, but I still recommend in the filling. Buttermilk – I always recommend using real buttermilk but if you don’t have buttermilk and still want to make this, combine 1/2 cup whole milk with 1/2 TBS of acid – either lemon juice or white vinegar – together. Stir, then let it sit for ten minutes to get makeshift buttermilk. Also, make sure it’s cold! Butter – unlike a lot of dessert recipes, you want to keep the butter cold in the fridge until just before you’re going to make this. Decorator’s sugar – this is optional but adds a nice touch to the cobbler topping. Decorator’s sugar is this stuff, basically large sugar crystals used to decorate things like cookies and muffin tops. You could also use turbinado sugar if you want as well, but I really like the decorator’s sugar. Berries – I used four different kinds of mixed berries in this but you could technically make it with whatever combination of berries you want, just make sure you get the same amount of berries in the filling. I recommend fresh but frozen work too. If you’re using frozen, don’t let them thaw out and add another 1/2 TBS of corn starch to make up for the extra liquid.
How to make mixed berry cobbler
While this mixed berry cobbler may sound a little challenging to make, it’s really not at all, especially if you read through this and listen to my tips for making it as easy as possible! It’s really an easy cobbler recipe as far as cobblers come. You’re going to start by washing and cutting all of those berries. Once they’re washed, make sure to dry them as well. You can do this by gently patting them with a towel or using something like a berry spinner. You really want them to be as dry as possible so you don’t end up with excess liquid in the filling. The juicy sweet berries will give you plenty of liquid to go with that delicious cobbler topping. Once the berries are ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×3 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray then set it aside until the berry filling is ready.
1 – Make the berry filling
Combine the berries with the sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl. Gently stir with a silicone spatula until the berries are coated in the mixture. If you’re using frozen berries, make sure to add in the extra 1/2 TBS of cornstarch to help counteract the excess liquid. Your goal here is to coat the berries without damaging them too much. If they’re completely smashed, it won’t taste nearly as good. Spread the berry mixture gently into the bottom of the baking pan, making sure there are berries on all portions of the dish. The fruit juices will likely come out some and that’s totally okay, you just don’t want the berries completely smashed.
2 – Make the Topping
Unlike some cobblers that use biscuit dough as the topping, we’re going to make an easy homemade dough instead. And trust me, it’s way better than standard biscuit topping or even pie crust! In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. As you’re mixing, make sure to break up any clumps of brown sugar so it becomes on smooth mixture. Once that’s mixed, either dice the cold butter into cubes or use a cheese grater to grate the butter into the dry ingredients. I love the cheese grated method because it just makes the butter so much easier to work with! Toss the dry ingredients with the butter then use a pastry cutter (or a fork) to cut the butter (literally you’re going to cut it into small pieces with the pastry cutter) until the pieces of the mixture are like coarse crumbs or about the size of a pea. Once that’s done, add 1/3 cup of the buttermilk and stir it until together well combined. It’ll be sticky and wet so don’t worry if it slightly sticks to your fingers, it’s totally normal.
3 – Make the Cobbler
Use your fingers to take a couple of tablespoons of dough and gently flatten it out so it’s about 1/4 of an inch thick. Then place the piece of dough on top of the berries. Repeat this process for the rest of the dough. You likely won’t be able to cover all of the berries and that’s intentional – it makes this look much prettier when you can see the berry juices gushing through. Brush the tops of the dough with the buttermilk you set aside earlier using a pastry brush and sprinkle with the decorator’s sugar. Put that in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the berries are hot and bubbly in the exposed spaces. If you aren’t quite sure if the topping is done, you can do the poke a toothpick in it and see if it comes out clean trick, but my guess is you’ll be able to tell! Let the mixed berry cobbler cool for about ten minutes before serving, that is if you can wait that long. This stuff smells amazing, and I had a hard time not digging in right away! Serve warm topped with a scoop of ice cream, I like vanilla but anything works. The creamy ice cream works perfectly with the slightly crunchy topping of this mixed berry cobbler! Plus, is there anything better than a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream on top of a warm dessert?? Vanilla ice cream on hot desserts is always a great idea if my book.
Expert Tips & Storage Notes
Add more flavor to this tasty dessert by adding 1/2 tsp of your favorite extract to the filling – almond, strawberry, orange, and lemon are all delicious options. Store leftovers covered in an airtight container for up to five days in the refrigerator. If you don’t eat all of the mixed berry cobbler before the five days is up, put in a freezer safe airtight container and freeze for up to three months. If you have a lot left over, I recommend freezing in small individual portions unless you plan on heating and eating it all at the same time. Top with your favorite ice cream, homemade whipped cream, caramel sauce, creme anglaise, or even a little dollop of sweetened vanilla yogurt topping if you’re not an ice cream fan like my oldest son. Use any combination of your favorite berries as long as you use eight cups total. Any combination of your own berries work. If you’re serving this to people you don’t know well, you may want to omit blackberries since some people aren’t fans of the seeds. This would make a great blueberry cobbler, triple berry cobbler, or even blackberry cobbler!
More Easy Summer Desserts
If you like desserts with a fruit filling, then these are going to be your kind of dessert! They all use fresh fruit to make the ultimate sweet treat!
Mini fruit tart recipe – these simple mini fruit tarts combine sugar cookie cups, cream cheese filling, and lots of fresh fruit! Blueberry cheesecake bars – layers of blueberry pie, cheesecake, and a simple crumble make these to die for! Cherry cheesecake dip – this dessert dip is creamy and full of cherry flavor! Raspberry jello cake – this old-fashioned jello cake is filled with raspberry flavor! Cherry cream cheese cookies – cookies that are half cherry pie and half cheesecake, they’re absolutely delicious!
