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Irish: Fraughan Cobbler with Pouring Cream

Source of Recipe

From "The Farmette Cookbook" by Imen McDonnell


Recipe Introduction

"As a child, I loved my mother's blueberry cobbler. She hailed from Falmouth, Massachusetts, and blueberries were one of her favorite ingredients. The cobbler crust on her Cape Cod Cobbler was sconelike and not sugary, whereas the blueberry filling was a supersweet gooey glaze. A scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top created the perfect little slice of heaven in a dish on a late summer's day. When I discovered the wild fraughan (or bilberry) in Ireland, I boldly replaced the purple fruit in my favorite childhood recipe as an experiment, and it was a treat."

List of Ingredients

◦ 2 � cups fresh or frozen fraughans (or blueberries)
◦ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
◦ Juice of � lemon
◦ 1 � cups granulated sugar
◦ � teaspoon all-purpose flour, plus 1 � cups more
◦ 1 tablespoon butter, melted
◦ 4 teaspoons baking powder
◦ 5 tablespoons butter, cold and cut in pieces
◦ 1 cup milk
◦ 1 pinch ground cinnamon
◦ Pouring, whipped, or ice cream, to serve




Recipe

Preheat the oven to 375� F.

Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish. Place the fraughans in the baking dish, and mix with the vanilla and lemon juice. Sprinkle with 1 cup of sugar and � teaspoon of flour, then stir in the melted butter. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 � cups flour, the baking powder, and 6 tablespoons of sugar. Rub in the cold butter with your fingers, or cut in with a pastry blender, until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Make a well in the center, and quickly stir in the milk. Mix just until moistened. You should have a very thick batter (or very wet dough). You may need to add a splash more milk to make sure the dough is not too dry. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Spoon the batter over the fraughans, leaving only a few small holes for the berries to peek through. Mix together the cinnamon and 2 teaspoons of sugar; sprinkle over the top.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. A knife inserted into the topping should come out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool until just warm before serving. Spoon into dessert bowls and top with cream or ice cream.

Serves 6





Scullery Notes:


❧ Leftover cobbler stores in the fridge for two to three days.

❧ You can substitute blueberries for the fraughans, if you prefer.

❧ Fraughans are closely related to blueberries. In fact, in some European languages, the direct translation for 'fraughan' is "blueberry." Fraughans do not grow in clusters; the fruit is smaller and somewhat darker in color than that of a blueberry, but when ripe, the flavor is fuller and more pronounced. If fraughans are not picked at their peak, they can be bitter, so be sure to do a taste test before harvesting.