Old Fashioned Blackberry Cobbler Recipe

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5 from 29 votes
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This blackberry cobbler recipe makes an old-fashioned Southern Blackberry Cobbler recipe with a lattice top and pastry dumplings. Always a favorite!

Southern Blackberry Cobbler Recipe - This blackberry cobbler makes a classic dessert. Including a lattice top and pastry dumplings, this blackberry cobbler is a favorite. // addapinch.com

I grew up having a definite love / hate relationship with blackberry cobbler.

You see, during the summer my sister and I would spend days with our grandparents while our parents worked. Our days were filled with all of the love and fun little girls could possibly pack into them – with the exception of the days when we knew we were going with Grandmother to pick blackberries.

Southern Blackberry Cobbler Recipe - This blackberry cobbler makes a classic dessert. Including a lattice top and pastry dumplings, this blackberry cobbler is a favorite. // addapinch.com

Southern Blackberry Cobbler Recipe

My Grandparents’ land adjoined ours with our pasture in between us on one side. The other side adjoined my aunt and uncle with acres of trees in between. Along the line of the trees and just inside their canopy were Grandmother’s blackberries.

It seemed as if it took forever to reach them with our baskets swinging and dolls tucked under our arms. Grandmother would lead the way, usually humming or telling us about each plant, bird, or bug as we past it by. Finally, we were there. Outfitted in our long sleeves and thick gloves we would go about picking basket after basket of big, juicy blackberries. We knew there would be a cobbler for dessert after supper and most likely, if we picked enough, we’d get to help her make blackberry jam.

With the sun beating down on us, sweating under those gloves that were beginning to feel like they weighed twice as much as they did, and with scratches along our arms where the long blackberry thorns had worked their way through our shirt sleeves, I was ready to be done with picking blackberries. At this point I would convince myself that blackberry cobbler wasn’t that great after all.

And yet, when I caught sight of her blackberry cobbler on the sideboard during supper, I was quiet certain blackberry picking was worth it after all.

How to Make Southern Blackberry Cobbler

Here are the step-by-step photos showing exactly how she made her Blackberry Cobbler. You’ll notice when I made the step-by-step photos of her recipe (many, many years ago!), I used her  cobbler pan. I made sure to snap a few photographs the other day when I made this blackberry cobbler again, this time making it in my medium skillet. This shows you that you can easily make it in either!

Start by making the dough for your cobbler crust.

Once your cobbler crust dough has been made, pop it into the freezer for a bit while you are making the filling portion of your blackberry cobbler.

I use my Mother’s cobbler pan that she gave me and that is just like the one that my Grandmother would use. It’s a simple, round stainless steel pan without handles that went with their Towncraft cookware. You can just use any medium-sized, heavy bottomed pan.

Clean your blackberries and put them in your pan over medium heat.

Pour in your sugar.

Add butter.

And a bit of water. Give it all a good stir and let it just do it’s magic.

Like this.

It should start to get thick and syrupy and absolutely scrumptious before the next step. The berries will be soft when you press them against the side with a spoon.

While your blackberry cobbler filling is cooking away, go ahead and roll out the dough for your crust.

I like to just roll mine out on the parchment paper that I wrapped it in for the freezer – there’s less mess that way.

Take one half of your dough and cut into 1/2″ wide strips. Then, cut again into about 1/2″ long pieces.

Now this is the twist in the recipe for Grandmother’s blackberry cobbler that I told you about.

Now just drop those little pieces of dough you cut up one at a time into the boiling blackberry dish.

This makes a delicious dumpling right in your blackberry cobbler that is out of this world.

Continue to cook, and stir gently until all your dough pieces have cooked in your blackberries.

Remove your blackberry cobbler pan from the heat and begin to place the second half of your dough in long strips along the top in a lattice pattern.

Place pats of butter on the strips of dough and lightly sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for about 20 minutes until the dough has lightly browned.

Southern Blackberry Cobbler Recipe - This blackberry cobbler makes a classic dessert. Including a lattice top and pastry dumplings, this blackberry cobbler is a favorite. // addapinch.com

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. I highly recommend grabbing your ice cream at this point and get ready with big ole scoops! ๐Ÿ™‚

Southern Blackberry Cobbler Recipe - This blackberry cobbler makes a classic dessert. Including a lattice top and pastry dumplings, this blackberry cobbler is a favorite. // addapinch.com

Here’s my Grandmother’s Blackberry Cobbler recipe. I hope you love it as much as my family always does.

Southern Blackberry Cobbler

5 from 29 votes
This blackberry cobbler recipe makes an old-fashioned Southern Blackberry Cobbler recipe with a lattice top and pastry dumplings. Always a favorite!
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 55 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Servings: 10 servings

Ingredients

For the crust:

  • 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
  • 12 tablespoons (170 g) butter
  • 1/2 cup (114 g) ice water

For the cobbler:

  • 3 cups (432 g) blackberries, cleaned (about 24-ounces)
  • 1 1/2 cups (297 g) sugar
  • 6 tablespoons (85 g) butter
  • 1 1/2 cups (340 g) water

Instructions 

For the cobbler crust:

  • Chill mixing bowl and pastry cutter in freezer for about 15 minutes prior to making crust.
  • Cut the butter called for in the crust into the flour with a pastry cutter. Slowly incorporate ice water just until the dough begins to form.
  • Pour dough onto parchment paper, divide and quickly work into two flat discs. Wrap tightly and place in the freezer to chill prior to using.

For the Cobbler:

  • Combine berries, sugar, butter, and water in a heavy-bottomed pan.
  • Bring to boil over medium heat and cook for 20 minutes. Berries will be soft when pressed against the side of the pan with a spoon. The blackberry mixture will also begin to thicken and become syrupy.
  • Preheat oven to 425ยบ F. 
  • Remove pastry for cobbler crust from the freezer and roll. Cut 1/2" strips in both portions of the dough.
  • In one half of the dough, cut strips again to form individual pieces for dumplings.
  • Drop the dough pieces into boiling blackberries and occasionally stir gently to make sure all dumplings are cooked, about 7 minutes.
  • Remove cobbler pan from heat and place the second half of the dough in a lattice pattern on top of the blackberries. Place pieces of butter on top of the lattice crust and sprinkle with sugar.
  • Place into oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.
  • Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 406kcal | Carbohydrates: 53g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 54mg | Sodium: 183mg | Potassium: 100mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 32g | Vitamin A: 720IU | Vitamin C: 9.1mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 1.4mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Enjoy!
Robyn xo

From the Add a Pinch recipe archives. Originally published 2011.

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About Robyn

Robyn Stone is a cookbook author, wife, mom, and passionate home cook. Her tested and trusted recipes give readers the confidence to cook recipes the whole family will love. Robyn has been featured on Food Network, People, Southern Living, and more.

5 from 29 votes (1 rating without comment)

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Recipe Review




136 Comments

  1. Gilly says:

    5 stars
    I haven’t made this yet., but I wanted to THANK YOU! My great grandmother made fruit cobbler with dumplings regularly and they were among my most favorite things. I’ve searched for years for a recipe but found nothing (it never crossed my mind to call them dumplings ๐Ÿ™„). This looks perfect and I will be making one very soon. thank you again!

    1. Robyn Stone says:

      I hope you enjoy the cobbler, Gilly.

  2. Darla Hooper says:

    5 stars
    Thanks for sharing the blackberry cobbler receipt, brought back memories on how my grandmother would make it, I lost all hers and my recipes during the hurricane…I made two so far and I can honestly say yours was the best…๐Ÿ™‚

    1. Robyn Stone says:

      Thanks so much, Darla. I love that this recipe brought back memories of your grandmother. I always think of mine every time I make this cobbler.

    2. Janice says:

      I am going to make this for my friend for Sunday 21st to take to Church but I am not seeing what size pan to bake this in. I am guessing a 13×9 or a med to lg cast iron skillet. What do you recomend? Thanks Janice

    3. Robyn Stone says:

      Janice, you can make the cobbler in a skillet or a cobbler pan (like the old one passed down from my Grandmother that I show in the photos too).
      I show both a skillet and this cobbler pan to show that it works great in either. I hope you enjoy the cobbler! Itโ€™s delicious

  3. Priscilla says:

    This is exactly the cobbler my mother and grandmothers made. It is fantastic with blackberries, but works with any fruit. To my thinking, so much better than the bisquick variety.

    1. Robyn Stone says:

      Thanks, Priscilla. This is the way my mother and grandmother always made their cobblers, too. They knew the best way to make them, didn’t they?

    2. Shiena Gossar says:

      5 stars
      This is the first and last recipe that I will ever need to look for! i made it and everyone loved it! They really like the dumplings in it! Thank you so much! Every birthday and Holiday I am asked to make it!

    3. Robyn Stone says:

      Thanks, Shiena. I’m so glad everyone loves this blackberry cobbler like my Grandmother always made. It has been a favorite in my family for years.

  4. Lorraine says:

    5 stars
    I was so excited to have read this post because I was just telling my husband how we picked blackberries for “free” that grew wild on the banks of ditches and everywhere in the South and how we dressed in long sleeves and gloves and carried buckets of berries to can and make the blackberry cobbler exactly the way you described. It was such a pleasure reading this. It took me way back as we sit here in black berries from the grocery store.

    1. Robyn Stone says:

      Lorraine, it’s great to hear that you had similar experiences picking blackberries as I did qs a young girl. Those were such great tasting blackberries!