The Quickest Biscuit: Blackberry-Peach Cobbler

This recipe is a game-changer. You may usually be the crumble type, or a pie person, but this cobbler may convert your dessert forever.

Let me introduce you to the quickest biscuit recipe you’ve ever met. It goes like this: self-rising flour, crème fraiche. A little sugar if you’d like. But that’s all. No worries if you don’t have self-rising flour around–it’s just a mix of flour, salt, and baking powder, in the quantities specified below. Mix ‘em up and use them to top your favorite fruit, sprinkle a little sugar over it all, and pop your cobbler in the oven. The biscuit topping emerges twenty-five minute later puffy and golden, pillowy inside, perfect to soak up the bubbling fruit below. A cinch, really.

The original Bon Appetit recipe calls for stovetop-cooked blueberries as a filling, but I bought blackberries instead–they’re Matt’s favorite. (He was pleased, though less pleased with the heat of the oven in his “office” on this 100-degree day. Oops…luckily the cooking time is short.) Precooking the fruit really isn’t necessary. Doubling the recipe might be–there’s no shame in eating leftover cobbler for breakfast, topped with a dollop of plain yogurt.

Blackberry-Peach Cobbler
adapted loosely from Bon Appetit, August 2010
serves 4

For the filling:
3 cups blackberries
1 tablespoon sugar (use more if your fruit is particularly tart)
2 1/2 cups chopped peaches
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

For the biscuits:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar, plus additional 2 tablespoons sugar for sprinkling
1 cup crème fraiche

Preheat your oven to 450°F, position a rack in the bottom third of the oven.
Mix blackberries and sugar in a medium bowl, add peaches and almond extract. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon sugar until well blended. Fold in crème fraiche and stir until incorporated. Turn out dough onto a floured work surface and shape into a log. Cut the log into eight slices, and pat until about an inch thick. Pour fruit filling into a deep-dish pie pan and arrange biscuits on top. Sprinkle top with remaining sugar, then place the pie pan on a cookie sheet to catch drips. Bake 25 minutes on lower rack of the oven, until the top is golden. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.