Chez Panisse’s Blueberry Cobbler

Chez Panisse’s Blueberry Cobbler
Craig Lee for The New York Times
Total Time
1 hour 15 minutes
Rating
5(6,605)
Notes
Read community notes

This cobbler, which comes from the kitchens of Chez Panisse, prizes the berries above all, using only ⅓ cup of sugar. The dough rounds for the top are placed so they don’t cover all the berries, and the juice from the berries bubbles up around the dough. —Molly O'Neill

Featured in: On Blueberry Hill

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 6 servings

    The Berries

    • cups fresh blueberries
    • cup sugar
    • 1tablespoon all-purpose flour

    The Dough

    • cups all-purpose flour
    • ½teaspoon kosher salt
    • tablespoons sugar
    • teaspoons baking powder
    • 6tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
    • ¾cup heavy cream, plus additional for serving, if desired
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

441 calories; 23 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 56 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 26 grams sugars; 5 grams protein; 305 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat the oven to 375 degrees. To prepare the berries, place in a bowl and toss with the sugar and flour. Set aside.

  2. Step 2

    To make the dough, mix the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the cream and mix lightly, just until the dry ingredients are moistened.

  3. Step 3

    Put the blueberries in a 1½-quart gratin or baking dish. Make patties out of the dough, 2 to 2½ inches in diameter and ½-inch thick. Arrange them over the top of the berries. Bake until the topping is brown and the juices bubble thickly around it, about 35 to 40 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Let cool slightly. Serve warm, with cream to pour on top, if desired.

Ratings

5 out of 5
6,605 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

4 1/2 cups = 27 oz = 765 grams fresh blueberries

Delicious and very easy! I added some lemon zest and lemon juice to the berry/sugar/flour mixture to bring out the taste of the blueberries and it was amazing!

About as easy as dessert gets, added a dash of cinnamon and replaced the cream with buttermilk because buttermilk makes everything better. Served it to my foodie pals with local vanilla ice cream, everyone loved it. I have about a dozen cobbler recipes, this one is now number one.

I wanted to do a mix of berries, but prices were ridiculous for fresh. So I tried 2 bags of Trader Joe's premium mixed berries, covered by the shortbread recipe which I had doubled for 8. Put in large oval porcelain au gratin, equivalent 9×13 pyrex. Was hesitant about frozen berries but defrosted them in frig and drained the small amount of residual liquid and it had no effect. This means that if I have frozen berries as a freezer staple, I can always whip up a buckle !

I've made this many times and it's so delicious I could eat the whole thing by myself. For the dough I use 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1/4 cup cream, add 1/4 t baking soda, decrease baking powder to 1 1/4 t. Comes out fluffy and flavorful. For the berries, I add about 6 large strawberries cut into pieces that are just slightly larger than the blueberries. I prepare the berries first and add juice from half a lemon then let them sit while I make the dough. Lemon makes all the difference!

I made this with unthawed frozen blueberries and it was delicious.

I made the dough with buttermilk instead of cream, 1/2 t. baking soda and 1 1/2 t. baking powder. I formed the dough into six biscuits and then froze them. I made the blueberry mixture and froze that too. This morning I put about 2/3 c. Of the blueberry mixture into an individual serving Pyrex cup, topped it with a frozen biscuit and baked it at 375 for about 20-25 minutes. I had freshly baked blueberry cobbler today and look forward to having it five more times. Freezes well. Biscuits great!

If you are fortunate to have access to the wild blueberries of Maine, use them. Every little berry is a blue bead of paradise, bursting with an untamed flavor unlike any you have ever experienced.

If you used buttermilk instead of cream, did you also switch from baking powder to baking soda?

This recipe was so easy to make, and absolutely delicious! I used a mix of fresh organic berries (blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry), added some homemade vanilla sugar to both berries and crust, added a dash of cinnamon to the crust, and sprinkled the crust with turbinado sugar before putting it into the oven. Hands down the best cobbler I ever backed. With the food processor, the crust was made in a minute. Baking time was accurate, my cobbler was done in 35 minutes.

I traded 1/2 cup of cornmeal for flour--I love the cornmeal crunch. This is easy and delicious.

Deborah Madison has a similar recipe in her Greens cookbook that uses both blueberries and peaches. Here in the Bay Area early peaches (although not the freestones, sigh) are in season as the same time as the blueberries. They are lovely together. I am inspired to try this with some yellow nectarines and blueberries.

I The best blueberry cobbler recipe ever! I made it exactly as written today for the family brunch (toyed with the idea of some lemon, which I'm sure would be good but didn't change anything in the end because I wanted to see how Alice's recipe comes out!). Everyone sat stunned after the first bite and we were almost speechless for a moment. It was so good I'll have to make it this way every time.

I've done this multiple times using frozen cherries from Costco with a splash of almond extract. So easy and always gets raves.

This is da bomb! I’ve made tons of cobbler and always searching for that perfect recipe and this.is.it. I made very few changes (quite uncharacteristic for me) just adding lemon zest and fresh ginger to both the biscuits and the cobbler. I’m saving this for every fruit cobbler from now on! My quest is over!

Easy and delicious. I added lemon zest and rubbed it into the sugar. Didn't add cinnamon as some had suggested and didn't miss it.

I followed the hints of other bakers, particularly adding lemon zest to the blueberry mixture, combining 1/2 cup buttermilk with 1/4th cup heavy cream, and combining 1 1/4th tsp baking powder with 1 tsp baking soda. Was perfectly baked in a 2 quart cast iron sauce pan in 35 minutes and delicious with some vanilla ice cream. One warning, be careful about baking soda as the biscuits developed an interesting green hue where they touched the blueberries after sitting on the counter for 30 minutes.

I made this with my 8 year old cousin and and it was easy enough for her to follow pretty much on her own, we used a mix of blueberries and blackberries from the garden and also threw in a diced mango that was about to go bad which ended up kind of dissolving into the mix and added a delicious flavor. Served over vanilla ice cream of course.

I made this today. Blueberries super fresh. I added an extra TBS sugar and two TBS butter to the berries. After I finished putting the patties on I sprinkled them with raw sugar and Ceylon Cinnamon. Delicious.

This is a simple and delicious recipe! I used a Cuisinart to mix the dough and had to cook it longer to get the biscuits brown. This is my new go to summer desert! All my guests raved!

You HAVE to use great blueberries for this recipe. If you use blueberries that are lackluster in flavor, you will be woefully disappointed.

This is excellent. I used frozen wild blueberries, and added a little cornstarch to the berries. I also sprinkled turbinado sugar over the dough before baking.

Loved both the berries and the dough topping. However, it seemed to me that the balance between the two wasn't quite right as in too much or even way too much dough topping for the amount of berries. So when I next make this I'll likely cut the amount of dough in half.

This was so delicious, not too sweet at all, and my kids were able to help out shaping the dough. Very easy, and they loved eating it! We sprinkled some cinnamon on the top. Next time, I would add some lemon zest. It’s a winner.

I am based in Europe and most of the berries are from Spain. The first time i prepared it with half the sugar suggested and it was extremely sweet. For the second time I skipped the sugar completely and my kids loved it

Made this for a July 4th dessert, using a mixture of local blueberries and peaches to equal 4 ½ cups of fruit. I also sprinkled the dough with Demerara sugar before baking. It was fabulous!

Use buttermilk 1/2 teas baking soda 1 1/2 teas baking powder Add 2 tbls sour cream to dough Use pie enhancer Lemon juice Used frozen fruit Used Mom's gratin dish

Wonderful! I used a popular frozen product - frozen blueberries, blackberries and raspberries - and it worked great. Berries were partially thawed when it went in the over and needed 5-10 minutes more. Used clearjel and added zest and juice of one small lemon.

This has become my "go-to" blueberry cobbler for 2024 and beyond. It was very well received at our family celebration on Independence Day. Using fresh berries from Kalamazoo County, MI.. Everyone loved the berry essence without being too sweet. Wishing for more recipes to have the gram measurements like blueberries 765 g.(4.5 cups) , sugar 66 g. (1/3 cup), flour 7.5 g. (1 tbs.), flour 180 g. (1.5 cups), sugar 18.6 g (1.5 tablespoon) and sugar (18.6 g.), and butter 87.4 g. (6 tablespoons). Cheer

Made with frozen mixed berries and it was wonderful. Couldn’t stop eating it. Would be great with vanilla ice cream.

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Credits

Recipe adapted by Molly O’Neill from “Chez Panisse Desserts” (Random House, 1985) by Lindsey Shere

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