Vegan Cherry Cobbler
Cobbler, crumble, crisp – there are a few different terms for a number of sweet fruity desserts that almost feel the same. So, where’s the difference between them?
In fact, the differences are not huge, and it’s all about the dough layer. Crumbles and crisps have a layer of crumbles. The minimal variation between both of them is that crisps could also contain oats. However, both terms are nowadays often used for the same dessert. Contrary to this, cobbler have a layer of a much softer, slightly sticky biscuit dough (often made with buttermilk). This soft dough is added by the spoonful as you couldn’t crumble it with your hands. So, in the end, the cobbler looks like the eponymous cobbled road.
Since our dough today is rather on the soft side, we’re baking a cobbler with cherries – you could use sweet and sour cherries for this recipe, but if you use sour cherries, you might need to sweeten them a bit more than what the recipe says. We’ve also used some coconut sugar to add a fine caramel note to the fruits, but regular sugar works just as fine.
While I love cherries in a cobbler (and also in a crumble) because they keep their juice bite when baked, there comes the disadvantage of pitting with them. This is some messy action (do not wear white clothes when baking this), but it’s not that complicated. I find it the easiest to use a metal straw that gets pushed into the cherries right where the stem is. Once you poked through the whole cherry, the pit should come out. But of course, you could also make this recipe with any berries, peaches, apples, pears, or whichever fruit you prefer.
Vegan Cherry Cobbler
Ingredients
For the fruit layer:
- 1 kg (2.25 lbs) cherries
- 2 tbsp sugar (e.g. coconut sugar)
- 1 orange (zest)
- 0.5 lemon (zest)
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon
- 0.25 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp cornflour
For the dough:
- 125 g (1 cup) flour
- 50 g (0.25 cup) sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 0.25 tsp salt
- 50 g (0.5 stick) vegan butter (cold)
- 5 tbsp plant-based milk
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180°C/355°F. Pit and halve cherries, then add them to a bowl with sugar, orange and lemon zest, cinnamon, and salt. Stir to combine, then toss in cornstarch. Add the filling to a greased baking dish.
For the dough mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Grate or finely dice cold vegan butter, then add it to the bowl. Using a fork or your fingertips, quickly incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients until fine crumbles form. Now add the plant-based milk little by little until a smooth, rather soft, almost sticky dough forms.
Spoon smaller dollops of the dough on top of the cherry filling. This doesn’t need to be super precise, and it’s totally fine if there are some uncovered spots.
Bake cobbler at 180°C/355°F for approx. 30 minutes, or until the dough gets golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool down for a few minutes. It’s best served still warm with a scoop of your favorite vegan ice cream.
