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Blackberry-Peach Cobbler with Praline-Pecan Streusel
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Filling
4 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches (about 4 large)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups fresh blackberries

Prepare Streusel: Stir together first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; add flour and pecans, stir until blended. Let stand 20 minutes or until mixture is firm enough to crumble into small pieces.

Meanwhile, prepare Filling: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Stir together peaches and next 3 ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium, and boil stirring occasionally, 6-7 minutes or until juices have thickened. Remove from heat, and stir in
blackberries. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 9-inch square baking dish. Crumble streusel over hot peach mixture.
Bake at 375 for 30 to 35 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown.

This cold weather we are having makes us want to have soup to warm us up. Brad makes a great roast beef with potatoes and carrots (and shiitake mushrooms – yuck) so on Saturday morning he got started. Brad says the secret to a good roast is getting a real good sear the whole thing (top, bottom and sides). The roast cooked for a couple of hours and then he added the potatoes and carrots.

The roast cooked all day and that evening our meal was great. Afterward I used the leftovers, except for
the mushrooms, to make vegetable soup.

On Sunday I put the soup on right after church so that it could simmer until supper time. Since we had a full pot of soup on the stove, we invited our friend Sheila over for supper.

Since Sheila said yes to soup I decided I wanted to have something special for dessert and started searching for something that I had the ingredients for and that would not keep me in the kitchen all afternoon. This recipe for Blackberry-Peach Cobbler with Pecan Streusel had been torn from the July 2012 issue of Southern Living magazine and had been waiting all this time for me to try it.

The thought of fruit sounded good and the fact that this recipe was for a 9-inch square pan instead of a 9 x 13 was appealing. I didn’t have fresh fruit for this cobbler, but I did have both sliced peaches and blackberries in the freezer that we’d put up. I headed to the freezer and got both out.

I needed to get them thawed quickly so I placed the frozen bags of fruit in some cold water and in no time, I was ready to get started making dessert.
Firsts things first, I put the streusel together and set it aside while I prepared the fruit filling.

Once thawed there was some juice in both bags of fruit so I drained it. I placed the peaches, sugar, flour and nutmeg in a large, heavy sauce pan and brought the mixture to a boil. I turned down the heat a bit and let the liquid thicken. Next, I poured in the drained blackberries and gently stirred the into the peaches. I poured the fruit mixture into the greased baking dish and then crumbled the streusel topping over the top. There was a lot of topping, which I like, and the baking dish was completely full.

I put the cobbler into the oven, set the timer, and started cleaning up the kitchen. Meanwhile, I lifted the lid on the soup and it smelled so good, I could hardly wait to eat it.

I checked on the cobbler after about 20 minutes and saw that it was bubbling pretty good so I slipped a sheet pan into the oven, right below the cobbler on the lower oven rack. When the cobbler came out of the oven it looked delicious.

Sheila arrived and we had an enjoyable time catching up and eating vegetable soup. Once the supper dishes were off the table and the soup was in the refrigerator it was time for dessert.

I put the cobbler in the middle of the table, got out some Reddi Whip and vanilla ice cream and we each helped ourselves.

Sheila said “this is really good” before I could even fill my bowl. Brad said he liked it too. Once I had some in a bowl with ice cream, I took a bite. The cobbler wasn’t as sweet as I like, it was a little tart, but tasty. I really liked the flavor of the nutmeg and the crunch of the pecan pieces. We kept eating and everyone practically licked their bowl clean.

I’ll have to say this recipe is a definite Nailed It and it will be added to my self-made cook book.

Using frozen fruit didn’t seem to make a difference in this recipe, except it may have made it more juicy than fresh would. Since fresh peaches and blackberries aren’t in season right now frozen was the next best option for me.

I highly recommend giving this cobbler a try now or when peaches and blackberries are in season.

Culinary delights contributor Sarah Condley wrote this for the Winchester Sun.