Food

Dear Lynne: Which dishes are truly American and which aren't was the debate at our July Fourth table (evidently, all-American apple pie isn't American, for instance). Cobbler came up as being an American dessert. Do you know if this is true, and how do you make one? — Andy from Fort Lee

Dear Andy: I can't tell you what fun it was that your question turned up. After checking present-day definitions, it spurred me to dig into my old American cookbooks. The quick and easy answer is that cobbler and its sibling slumps, buckles, crumbles, grunts and pandowdies were first made in Europe, since they are all relatives of pie and are made without a bottom crust and only with some kind of dough/batter/shortbread topping. Along with pies, they were one answer to how to stretch a little meat or other filling to heartily feed many mouths.

To save fuel, they were made in Dutch oven pots with hot coals piled on their flat top lids and more pushed underneath the trivets the Dutch ovens usually rested on. This way, you created a mini-oven with only a little fuel.

Technically, a cobbler is a filling baked in a shallow or deep pan topped with biscuit dough. With this discovery, I realized that technically the recipe I've always known and loved as cobbler is really a crumble because it is topped with big nubs of a butter/flour/sugar shortbread concoction.

So here is my technically incorrect cobbler for you to try. You can use rhubarb, peaches, nectarines, apricots, berries, apples or pears and merely change the quantity of sugar depending upon the sweetness of the fruit.

A Technically Incorrect but Very Good Summer Fruit Cobbler
Serves 6

Filling:

6 cups diced (1/2- to 1-inch pieces) firm-ripe, delicious fruit (see above for possibilities)
1/2 to 1-1/2 cups sugar (depending upon sweetness of the fruit)
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
Grated zest of a small lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon (optional)
Generous pinch salt
1/3 cup raisins (optional)

Topping:

10 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (spoon into cup and level)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (spoon into cup and level)
1/2 cup whole salted almonds, coarsely chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with a rack set in its center. Butter a shallow 7-cup baking dish. In a large bowl, gently combine the filling ingredients. Turn them into the baking dish.

In an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or using an electric handheld beater, cream the butter, 2 sugars, salt and vanilla together at medium speed until very light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Mix together the 2 flours and sift half into the butter mixture. Mix at low speed a few seconds. Now take the bowl and paddle off the mixer and gently work in the rest of the flour and the nuts, if using, until the dough is looking like big crumbles. Don't beat or over-mix. Spoon the crumbles over the fruit filling. Don't pat it down; you want some spaces between the bits of dough.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, or until fruit is bubbling and thick and the topping is a rich golden brown. Cool on the stovetop. Serve warm or at room temperature. Can be kept for 4 days in the refrigerator.