Battle of the Cornmeal Biscuit Cobblers!

This post has been a year in the making as last year I came upon two different recipes for fruit cobblers, one in the Washington Post and the other in Gourmet. Both are delicious and simple, my two main criteria for nearly any recipe I'm willing to try. I like these recipes because they're about technique and because they are both made with a cornmeal biscuit topping, which seems especially appropriate for spring and summer desserts.

Gourmet's cobbler above, Washington Post's below

I say these recipes are about technique because once you decide which type of biscuit topping you prefer--either drop biscuits or cut biscuits--you can put any sort of fruit combination underneath and just keep the proportion of fruit and sugar the same. If cooking stone fruit, I'd recommend the cut biscuit recipe technique as the fruit cooks a bit before you add the biscuit topping. Then add the biscuit topping of your choice and 30 minutes later you're golden. If cooking very ripe fruit, berries, and/or rhubarb, I'd follow the drop biscuit recipe technique and just cook the fruit and the biscuit topping of your choice all at the same time. In either case just make sure that the fruit is cooked and tender--but not overcooked--and the biscuit topping is a nice, golden brown.

Both dishes are impressive and simple, but I must say that the cut biscuit cobbler makes a slightly more attractive presentation than the rustic presentation of the drop biscuit cobbler. So if you want to be a rock star at the next neighborhood picnic, for a marginal additional effort, I would make the Gourmet recipe--as I did last year when I first made this dessert for a family picnic and my aunt couldn't believe that I'd made it! Puh-lease! My partner's family was also impressed this past weekend when we brought out our contribution to his family's picnic (where we also brought a delicious apple and fennel coleslaw with dill, but that's for another post). However, if you want to whip up something quick for surprise dinner guests, the drop biscuit recipe will more than satisfy, even if you use frozen fruit, I promise!

Whenever I make biscuits, I always use buttermilk or yogurt as the liquid component and add a half teaspoon of baking soda to the dry ingredients. The cut biscuit recipe calls for heavy cream, which would doubtless add richness, but you can reduce the calories and still maintain flavor by using buttermilk or yogurt. Vanilla or honey yogurt would even work here. The baking soda reacts immediately with acid in the buttermilk or yogurt, and the baking powder acts in the heat of the oven to aerate the biscuit, muffin, cornbread, etc. So adding baking soda and extra acid makes the leavening "double acting," and who doesn't want their baked goods to rise nicely? Of course baking powder is actually one part baking soda, one part corn starch, and two parts cream of tartar, which acts as the acid.

So I'm going to attempt to show here the two recipes, first the toppings and then the fruit portion and then the instructions. Hopefully it won't be too confusing. Needless to say, fresh whipped cream, creme fraiche, or vanilla ice cream are obvious accompaniments to this delicious dessert!

Fruit Cobbler with Corn Bread Crust

Adapted from Corn Bread-Crusted Strawberry and Rhubarb Cobbler, by Stephanie Witt Sedgwick from The Washington Post, May 7, 2008 and Stone Fruit Cobbler, by Lillian Chou from Gourmet, June 2008.

Drop Biscuit Topping:

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder [plus 1/2 teaspoon baking soda]
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup low-fat or regular buttermilk [or yogurt]
  
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Cut Biscuit Topping:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal (not stone-ground)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder [plus 1/2 teaspoon baking soda]
  
• Rounded 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream, divided [I used 1 cup of yogurt, plus 1 tablespoon half and half]
  
• 2 teaspoon sugar

If making the cut biscuit topping, especially with stone fruit that will be pre-cooked without the topping, I would make the biscuits first and refrigerate them on a plate so that the dough can rest and the butter can harden after handling. As the butter melts in the oven, steam will form small pockets that will help the biscuits rise. Otherwise for the drop biscuit recipe, I would cut up the fruit first and add the sugar to get it dissolved and the sugary syrup forming with the fruit.

For both biscuit recipes:
Whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, mixing well.

For the cut biscuits:
Blend in the butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 1 cup of buttermilk [or cream] and stir just until a ball of dough forms. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and lightly dust with flour, then roll out with a floured rolling pin into a 1/2-inch-thick round (about 10 inches in diameter). Cut out biscuits with lightly floured cutter. If necessary, gather scraps and re-roll once, then cut out more biscuits.

For the drop biscuits:
Whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter in a large measuring cup. Add to the cornmeal mixture and stir just until combined to form a thick batter.

Fruit filling for stone fruit such as plums, nectarines, peaches, or apricots [Gourmet doesn't recommend using fuzzy fruit like apricots or peaches because they should be peeled. Of course they don't have to be peeled if you don't want to]:

• 3/4 to 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 pounds mixed stone fruit, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges (8 cups)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• zest of 1 lemon or lime or half an orange
  
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 pint blueberries or blackberries [optional, but especially delicious with peaches or nectarines]
  
• 1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract [optional]

Fruit filling for very ripe stone fruit, rhubarb, and/or berries (such as strawberries or raspberries):

• 2 to 2 1/2 pounds of fruit cut into 3/4 inch pieces (about 6 to 8 cups)
• 3/4 to 1 cup sugar, depending on how sweet the fruit is to start with
  
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• zest of 1 lemon or lime or half an orange
  
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract [optional as far as I'm concerned]
• 1 cup to 1 pint of blueberries or blackberries, frozen if necessary [optional, but I just think that dark berries go perfectly with peaches and nectarines]
  

For both fruit filling recipes:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss together the filling ingredients in a large bowl. Spread out in a 3 quart glass or ceramic baking dish

For the fruit filling for stone fruit such as plums, nectarines, peaches, or apricots:
Bake until just bubbling, 10 to 15 minutes and then follow either of the instructions below for either cut biscuit or drop biscuit topping.

For the rhubarb, berries, and/or very ripe stone fruit:
For the cut biscuit topping, arrange biscuits 1/2 inch apart over the filling. Brush tops with remaining half and half, then sprinkle with sugar. Bake until topping is golden and fruit is bubbling in center, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool about 30 minutes and serve warm.

For the drop biscuit topping, spoon the topping over the fruit; it should not completely cover the fruit. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the topping begins to brown and fruit juices are bubbling at the edges of the cobbler. Transfer the baking dish to a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes and serve warm.

Profiteroles with Blood Orange Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce

In the winter my dessert focus switches to citrus, chocolate, or nut based desserts from stone fruits and berries of the summer and apples and pumpkins in the fall. It's so great that certain fruits like citrus and kumquats are in season in the winter. And this dessert that I served following a dinner of Molly Stevens' version of Marcella Hazan's rendition of pork loin braised in milk was quite impressive if I do say so myself.

Profiteroles, like crepes and shortcakes, are something that it's just worth it to take the time to make every now and again so that you can freeze some of them for a quick, but impressive dessert for some future occasion--like say when your partner invites a gym buddy over for an impromptu dinner. The profiterole recipe I use is from three different Food Network sources: Emeril, Ina, and the defunct Cookworks plus Julia Child's and Jacques Pepin's Cooking at Home. They vary in the amount of butter, whether milk or water is used as the liquid of choice, and whether to mix the eggs in by hand, using the stand mixer, or in the food processor. It's always nice to have choices. I chose to use skim milk--which is just watery milk anyway--and the whole stick of butter, since we're talking dessert!

The blood orange ice cream is my adaptation of Joanne Weir's from Weir Cooking: Recipes from the Wine Country. I remember watching this PBS series back in the late 1990s and learning to appreciate how Weir used California ingredients to construct a uniquely Mediterranean culinary style. I like to make her ice cream recipe as a seasonal homage to blood oranges, which have become so ubiquitous in the winter. In the winter, I always buy a few every week to add to salads or to make mimosas. Weir's recipe calls for tangerines, which I suppose are abundant in California, but I can't remember the last time I had one since we now eat clementines more than any other citrus in the wintertime.

I love making ice cream because you can always use some seasonal fruit or just good old chocolate. It's also the kind of thing--Iron Chef notwithstanding where someone is always churning out exotic ice creams in under an hour--that has to be made in advance and is therefore ideal for entertaining. Plus ice cream obviously keeps for weeks in the freezer if one is not overly indulgent! The steps are simple and the results sublime! I don't keep the bowl of my ice cream maker in my freezer so that must be frozen at least 36 hours in advance. The custard must be made and chilled, preferably overnight. When cold, it must be poured into the ice cream maker, and the frozen custard must then be placed in the freezer to harden for a few hours. All in all I take two days or so to pull off making ice cream.

When I got my ice cream maker a few summers ago, I went on a tear making different recipes but have now settled on the relative proportions of liquid (milk, half & half, and/or cream) to eggs (yolks vs. whole eggs) to sugar. I follow these proportions no matter what the recipe calls for unless I'm making sherbet or other ice creams that don't call for eggs: 2 cups half and half, 1 cup milk (whatever kind you drink), 6 to 8 egg yolks, 3/4 cup sugar. Part of the reason for using 3 cups of liquid is that I freeze the ice cream in quart containers, and I've learned that starting with just 3 cups of liquid ensures that when the ice cream is made and the volume increases, it will fit into a quart container--with just the right amount of excess to have a taste as soon as it's made! I've tried to make lower fat versions of this ice cream using milk and whole eggs, but the texture is just not creamy enough. Ironically using cream rather than half and half creates a custard that is too fatty when frozen and leaves a fatty residue on the spoon as you're eating the ice cream. Eew!

Profiteroles with Blood Orange Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce

Pate a Choux for Making Profiteroles
Adapted from multiple sources, makes 18 to 28 depending on size

Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. Combine
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
in a medium sized saucier or saucepan and bring to a boil to completely melt the butter. Reduce the heat to medium low. Using a wooden spoon, mix in
1 cup all-purpose flour
stirring constantly until a ball off dough forms and pulls away from the bottom and sides of the pot, about 2 minutes. Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or a food processor fitted with a steel blade) and let cool slightly. Crack
4 eggs
into a bowl, leaving the yolks intact. With the stand mixer on medium, add the eggs to the dough one at a time, fully incorporating the egg into the batter after each addition.

Transfer the dough to a piping bag. Onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat, pipe dough out in 1 to 2 inch mounds (considering the size of your ice cream scoop), leaving at least 1 inch between each because they will expand as they bake. Wet your fingers and push down the top of each mound to smooth out the tip that may have formed when you moved the pastry bag away from the mound. Bake for 20 minutes and rotate the pan. Lower the oven to 350 degrees and continue baking for 15 to 20 minutes more until golden brown. Turn the oven off and let the profiteroles cool (and dry out) in the oven with the door slightly open. When completely cool, store at room temperature in an airtight container or freeze in a ziptop bag until ready to use.

Blood Orange Ice Cream
Adapted from Tangerine Ice Cream recipe from Weir Cooking: Recipes from the Wine Country, makes a generous quart

3 blood oranges
2 cups half and half
1 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar

6 to 8 egg yolks, depending on how rich you want it
Juice from one blood orange, about 3 to 4 tablespoons
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur

Remove the zest from one blood orange and reserve; squeeze the juice from the zested orange and reserve separately. Remove the peel from the other two blood oranges, avoiding the bitter white pith as much as possible. In a saucier (ideal if you have one) or saucepan, combine the orange peel, half and half, milk, salt, and sugar. Scald, stirring to ensure that the sugar is dissolved, and turn off the heat. Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk the egg yolks to a uniform consistency. Scald the milk mixture again. While whisking the egg yolks with one hand, slowly ladle in a half cup or so of the milk mixture using your other hand. Repeat this one more time, whisking the bowl contents constantly while ladling in the milk mixture. This tempering of the egg yolks warms them slowly so that they don't scramble when added to the milk mixture. Add the tempered egg yolk mixture back to the saucepan with the rest of the milk mixture and turn on the heat to medium. Stir constantly in a figure 8 motion with a wooden spoon until the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon (170 degrees). Strain the custard into a 1 quart pyrex measuring cup or bowl. Whisk in the orange zest, orange juice, orange liqueur, and vanilla extract. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard and refrigerate overnight or until well chilled. With the ice cream machine running, pour in the custard and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. When ready, transfer to a quart container and freeze for a few hours until hard.

To serve the dessert, cut the profiteroles in half and scoop on the ice cream. Cover with the top half of the profiterole and drizzle with chocolate sauce. Voila!