Roasted Strawberry and Pistachio Cobbler

With a Little Help, Off-Season Berries Become Showstoppers!

When I think of cobbler, I normally think of summer fruits – peaches, plums, etc. But when I ran into a sale on strawberries, I bought 4 pounds, and decided a cobbler was in order. I also knew these berries would need some help. Local strawberries that are at their summer-ripened peak may as well be a completely different fruits than the ones that are in our markets the rest of the year. I don’t care where they come from, they don’t come close to the flavor of local strawberries that have just been picked. You know what I mean. And I wouldn’t dream of cooking those precious berries. I think it’s a crime to do anything to them, besides eating them fresh.

But there is a way to coax plenty of lovely flavor out of all these other strawberries. Roasting them in the oven with a little bit of maple syrup is my favorite way to concentrate their flavor and thicken some of their juices, so they don’t water down the cobbler. I don’t slice them up into small pieces. I keep most of them whole, except for the very largest berries, and only slice those in half. I stir them with only a little maple syrup, a pinch of salt, and spread them onto a couple of parchment-lined sheet pans. I don’t want to roast them until they shrivel up and become jammy. That’s not what I’m going for here. So, I found that 40 minutes at 350° is the sweet spot. They’ve softened, but are still intact, the juices have thickened a little, and their flavor is now enhanced.

After they’ve cooled a little, I scrape them into a bowl and gently stir in some fresh orange zest, a teaspoon of aged balsamic vinegar, and only a half teaspoon of vanilla. I don’t want the balsamic or the vanilla to be noticed. I only want the flavor of the strawberries to be more profound. I use a good aged balsamic. If you only have a typical supermarket balsamic, just use a half teaspoon, and that should be enough to do the trick. 

Then I continue on as I do with my favorite Plum Brown Butter Cobbler recipe, using the roasted strawberries instead of plums. It’s such an easy recipe. I begin by pouring browned butter into a big baking dish.  But I want to talk a little bit about the browning of that butter.

I put the butter in an 8 cup glass measuring cup, cover it with a dampened paper towel and microwave it on high for 7 – 7 1/2 minutes. It’s important that you get the solids in the butter really good and brown. You can stop it when they becomes golden brown, but you’ll get a whole lot more flavor if you let it go until it’s dark brown. You definitely do not want those bits to turn black and burn because then you’re left with a bitter burned flavor. Not a good thing. But if you take it out as soon as the bits are nicely darkened and immediately pour it into the baking dish it will stop cooking and you’ll get maximum flavor. Test it out by tasting some of those browned bits. You’ll see what I mean.

Then it’s simply a matter of whisking together a simple batter made with all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, milk, baking powder, etc. to which I add a little rye flour for added flavor. You could use buckwheat flour or whole wheat flour or just use all plain flour and it will still be delicious. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I always add a little black pepper to my berry desserts because it really does enhance the flavor of berries. 

Pour the batter over the butter, but do not stir it, and then spoon all those berries and their juices on top of the batter. 

After sprinkling light brown sugar over the top, I added sesame seeds to my plum cobbler , but I happen to love pistachios with strawberries, so that’s what I went with here. I like to crush them with a mortar and pestle, rather than chopping them with a knife because I think you end up with a better texture. You get less pistachio dust and more chunky pieces.

Once it’s fully baked, the batter will have seeped up and covered most of the berries. If you make sure to let it completely bake until the entire top is golden brown and the brown sugar has caramelized along the edges, you’ll have one glorious cobbler.

The moral of this story? Please don’t let less than stellar strawberries prevent you from enjoying a dessert of which you’d never guess contained anything other than perfectly ripe berries. And I’ve used so much fruit in this cobbler that you get an explosion of those beautifully flavored berries in each bite. So, it’s both easy to make and delivers hugely. What more could you ask?