Normally on a hot summer day, all I want for dessert is something cold - ice cream, fresh cold fruit or a popsicle and I'm good to go. But for those days that your fridge is so full of fruit that needs to be made into something special there is cobbler. And if your fridge happens to be overflowing with fresh strawberries and rhubarb, there is Fresh Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Whole Wheat Biscuits. Sure there are other fruit desserts you could make. But a cobbler is much easier than a pie, and a good alternative to a crisp or crumble if you're all out of oats.
I would love to say that these strawberries and rhubarb came from my own backyard, but since I just planted 2 strawberry plants this year, they grew maybe 2 ripe strawberries and some other creature got to them before I did. My rhubarb plants were just planted in the spring, and they're still way to small to be harvesting from. Oh well, there's always next year. Luckily I got some rhubarb through my CSA.
Actually you can really make this crumble with any fruit you want. You may have to adjust the flavorings slightly, and cut down on the sugar. If you were using a sweeter fruit like blueberries or peaches, you'd probably want to cut down to no more than ¼ cup sugar. Some good combos might be blueberries with lemon juice, cherries with amaretto or peaches with vanilla. Generally go for 1-2 tablespoon liquid total.
Making cobbler is easy, but it does require having the oven hot for a long period of time, so you might want to take that into account mid-summer if you don't have AC. All you need to do is prep the fruit - coring and quartering the strawberries and slicing the rhubarb. The filling gets baked on it's own first to cook down the fruit.
Then the biscuits get placed on top and get a dusting of cinnamon sugar before the whole thing gets baked again. Make sure not to underbake the biscuits or they will end up gummy and doughy. Not very appetizing.
After cooling for awhile, the delicious cobbler is ready to eat. It's got a definite tartness to it, with a hint of the vanilla that is added to both the filling and the biscuits.
To amp up that vanilla flavor even more, I like to serve it with vanilla flavored Greek yogurt. I wouldn't say no to vanilla frozen yogurt or ice cream either. Everyone knows that the whole warm-cold dessert thing is always a good thing.
Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Whole Wheat Biscuits Nutrition Notes:
The above nutrition info is for a serving of cobbler without any additional toppings. Don't forget to consider the nutrition info for any extras, like ice cream you may serve it with.
Fresh Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler
Ingredients
Filling
- 4 cups fresh strawberries rinsed, hulled and quartered, 1 quart
- 10 ounces rhubarb leaves removed and cut into ½" chunks
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- 1 Tablespoon corn starch
Topping
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup whole wheat flour
- 3 Tablespoon cornmeal
- ¼ cup plus 2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup buttermilk
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Move oven rack to middle position. Heat oven to 400°F. Toss filling ingredients together in a pie plate or a 9x9" baking pan. Place pan on a baking sheet and cook for 20-30 minutes, until fruit has released its juices and is bubbling around the edges.
- While filling is cooking, mix flours, cornmeal, ¼ cup of the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. Mix buttermilk, butter and vanilla together in a small bowl.
- When filling is done cooking, stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Drop batter into 9 equal portions evenly over the fruit filling.
- Mix remaining sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle evenly over batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes until biscuits are golden brown and filling is hot and bubbling. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving. Serve with vanilla Greek yogurt, ice cream, frozen yogurt or whipped cream.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer: I try my best to make sure the nutrition information I provide is accurate to provide you with the best information possible. However, due to ingredient discrepancies and other factors, the above nutrition information should be considered an estimation only.
Nathan
Great recipe. Good balance of sweetness. I've made other strawberry rhubarb recipes that always had way to much sugar. This was perfect, especially matched with a little vanilla ice cream. I skipped the whole wheat and did all white flour and it turned out great. Thanks for posting this.