Cobbler Queen

I love food. I love food every single day of the year. However, I think I love food even more in summer than any other time. The berries! For a month or so, fresh berries are actually both affordable and at the peak of their taste. I still consider it a luxury that fresh berries are available in stores in the UK all year around, but mostly they are ridiculously expensive and taste about as nice as cardboard. But right now, you get berries so cheaply. I just pop by the grocery store most days after the gym to pick up a punnet or two. Delish on their own, usually eaten right after I come home, even taking off my shoes or taking the time to sit down. One evening I ate half a kilogram of raspberries.

Usually I buy strawberries, as they make best value for money. And most times I appreciate quantity. Big juicy strawberries. In smoothies, in muffins, with yoghurt or just on their own. Sometimes I splurge and get blueberries and raspberries. Back home jam made from blueberries and raspberries is called Queen's Jam. Probably because it is so good you could serve it to a queen (I actually have no idea of the etymology, and not even Wikipedia could educate me on the subject). It is such a heavenly combo. Although blueberries over here are of course not real blueberries, if all you ever had are the store bought blueberries, you really should experience the Finnish forest in late summer and eat proper, ripe and tasty wild blueberries. They are so much better than the very lightly flavoured ones found in stores. 


Ok, bottom line is berries are amazing. You know what else is amazing? Single serving recipes. Only way I can exercise portion control is by not making more than one serving. Because I know as long as I have anything sweet left in the house, I will eat it. Even if it's in the freezer, things thaw surprisingly fast. And some things can be eaten pretty much straight out of the freezer, to be honest. It's so sad that I know this. But single serving recipes keep me from eating more than one serving. I have already made chocolate mug cake and single serving cookies. This blueberry cobbler is another addition to my growing collection of a single woman's recipes I stumbled upon on Pinterest. It's from a blog called Snappy Gourmet. I made a few small alterations but otherwise it's pretty much the same recipe. I couldn't be bothered to mix up the dry ingredients first as the original recipe states, so I just mixed up everything in one bowl.


Berry cobbler for one (or maybe two):
2 tsp butter (about 10g)
2 tsp sugar (I used light muscovado)
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
33g (1/4 cup) self-raising flour (if using regular AP, add 1/4 tsp baking powder)
1/2 cup of berries, I used raspberries and blueberries

The howto:
Melt butter in a small mixing bowl. Add sugar, milk and vanilla extract. Add the flour (and baking powder if using) and mix until smooth. Measure berries in ramekins or microwavable mugs, mush them up a bit with a fork. Add some sugar or syrup on the berries if you want your cobbler a bit sweeter. Add batter on top of the berries. I sprinkled a bit of muscovado sugar on top. Microwave in 30 second increments until cobbler looks done. When I put two ramekins in my microwave I ended up cooking for 4x30 sec, the original recipe states that 1 minute is good for a single serving. Let cool for a few minutes, serve with yoghurt, whipped cream or ice cream

The verdict:
This is a lovely quick treat, although it almost seems a shame to waste fresh summer berries on something hot. Summer berries are best enjoyed as is, straight from the box. However, I think this would be brilliant for winter, when the berries aren't quite as sweet as they are now, that's when they need the fluffy soft batter on top, making it all nice, comforting, warming and a bit sweeter. I will definitely be making this again, but for now, I think I'll enjoy the berries fresh. Also, although the original recipe states that this is a single serving recipe, I actually made two cobblers from it, but I guess that depends on the size of your ramekins more than anything else. And obviously, I ate both servings myself so it's by no means too much for one person. Well at least one person like me. Which reminds me of a mystery I have been trying to solve lately. Why is my ass getting bigger for each passing week? Oh well, must be some odd abnormality in the gravitational field around my butt or something. Yes, I'm sure that's it.