Fruit Cobbler Recipe

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

Relatively low fat and low sugar for a dessert, it doubles readily, and it doesn’t spend too much time in a hot oven.  Cobblers freeze well.

4 cups fresh fruit: cherries, blueberries, apples, peaches, etc. (use one kind only)

¾ cup sugar

1 Tablespoon corn or potato starch

1/3 cup water

Process the fruit, removing pits, peeling apples, and if appropriate, slice into quarter inch slices. Combine the fruit, sugar, starch and water in a pot.  Cook over a low flame, stirring, until liquid is thickened and bubbly and fruit is a little soft.  Berries usually take 3 – 5 minutes to cook, cherries, 5 -10, and apples and peaches approximately 15 minutes or more, depending on ripeness—make sure to test.  Keep the pot warm, while making the biscuit topping.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare the biscuit topping:

1 cup flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup margarine

1 slightly beaten egg

¼ cup milk: non-dairy creamer, soy, rice or almond work fine

Stir together the dry ingredients.  Cut in the margarine until mixture becomes crumbly.  Combine egg & liquid ingredient; and add all at once to dry ingredients, stirring just until all ingredients are moist.

Put fruit filling into an 8 or 9 inch greased round pan and immediately spoon mounds of batter all over on top. Bake 20 minutes, or until top is slightly browned.  Unless the pan has very high (3 inch+) sides, it’s a good idea to put the baking pan inside a rimmed baking sheet to catch the juices if they overflow during baking.

Rhubarb-Compote

straight from the freezer

Cover the bottom of a stainless steel pot with white grape juice. Add in equal numbers as many bags of frozen strawberries and frozen rhubarb as needed. Bring slowly to a boil, add sweetener (e.g. sugar, honey) to taste, and cook on low heat until tender.

Instant Sorbet

using the food processor

2 frozen ripe bananas cut in small chunks

1 cup frozen strawberries

Juice of 1 lime or lemon

3 Tablespoons (or more, to taste) sweeteners: honey, blue agave nectar or fine sugar.

Place the fruit in the food processor bowl.  Add the citrus juice and sweeteners. Pulse and mix until you get the consistency of a sorbet.

It is ready to eat or can be frozen for later. Other frozen fruit with a strong flavor can be substituted for the strawberries. Serves about five but the quantities can be multiplied as many times as needed.

Strawberry whip

This is a delicious stand-by dessert, as long as you have frozen strawberries, with or without syrup, in your freezer.  The recipe works even if you use a sugar substitute. The result is a really low calorie and low carbohydrate dessert.

2 egg whites

1package frozen strawberries, with or without syrup

1Tablespoon of lime or lemon juice

¾ c sugar or artificial sweetner, omit if using strawberries in syrup.

 

Place all the ingredients in large mixer bowl and beat at the highest speed for 10 minutes.  Cover the mixer with a towel to prevent splashes. The whip should be placed in the freezer until serving. At serving time, you can pass around some sweetened mashed strawberries as topping.