This Fruit Cobbler recipe is almost impossible to mess up and can be made with so many different fruits! It’s a great last-minute dessert because you can keep everything on hand and have a homemade dessert in just an hour.
A Southern girl needs her cobbler, and this versatile Fruit Cobbler recipe is super simple and so easy to change with the seasons! Fresh, canned, or even frozen fruit will work for this Southern cobbler recipe.
What is Cobbler?
Pies are great, but sometimes I just want a baking dish dessert that I can make without fussing with pastry. But what IS a cobbler, anyway?
A cobbler is simply a baked fruit dessert with dough. This dish dates back further than its crisp and crumble cousins!
The first known cobbler recipe was published in What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking in 1881 and had a pastry crust and topping.
Many Southern restaurants still use pastry dough in their cobbler, usually as a top crust to break through to get to the juicy fruit.
This recipe has a more biscuit-like dough around the fruit, but you can also use boxed cake mix in a pinch for a more cakey cobbler.
What’s the Best Fruit for Cobbler
If you like it in a pie, you can make it into a cobbler!
Stone fruits and berries are the best for fruit cobblers, like peaches, cherries, blackberries, or blueberry. What you’re looking for is something super juicy.
My sister-in-law even made one with a can of pie filling and said the results were tasty and proof this is a no-fail recipe! If you wanted to try apple cobbler, that could work, too!
My family’s preference has always been a can of fruit cocktail or peaches.
If you’re using canned fruit, don’t drain it! And don’t worry about thawing frozen fruit — it’ll just take a little longer to cook.
When using canned peaches, it works best to spread them around a bit. See all of the juice floating on top? This is what you want when using canned fruit.
We’ve done some experimenting and our new favorite is frozen blackberries, often with extra sugar sprinkled on top of the cobbler right before it goes in the oven for some extra crunch.
How to Make Southern Fruit Cobbler
The ingredients will vary with your fruit, but you’ll also need butter, self-rising flour, sugar, and milk.
- First, start preheating your oven and melt your butter in the baking dish you plan to use for the fruit cobbler while it heats up. Keep an eye on the butter so it doesn’t burn! You can do this in a saucepan, too.
- While it melts, mix the flour, sugar, and milk together. Once it’s melted, add the milk mixture to the dish.
- Then, add your fruit on top of the mixture, trying to disperse the fruit evenly across the dish. The cobbler batter will rise to the top during baking. You can add a little extra sugar and some cinnamon now too if you want. The sugar helps make the top a little crunchier and cinnamon is always great!
- Then, bake until the top is golden brown and the biscuit sections are cooked through.
Tips and Tricks
- The amounts given in this recipe can make an 8×8, 9×9, or a 7×9 easily. To make a 9×13, just double the cobbler recipe.
- Use self-rising flour. I take no responsibility if you use all-purpose without adding the correct amount of salt and baking powder.
- Do not forget to use pot holders when removing the pan from the oven to add the batter mixture. I speak from experience here.
How to Serve
I’m a purist and prefer just a big scoop of fruit cobbler, preferably with as much crust as possible.
Parts of my family have also been known to top the warm cobbler with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Mix it up and see which one you prefer!
MORE EASY FRUIT DESSERTS
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Easy Fruit Cobbler
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter one stick
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup milk
- 15 oz can fruit in light syrup or juice approximately 12 oz of any other fruit, do not drain.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place butter into 9 X 9 pan and place pan into oven as it preheats. This melts the butter and lubes up the pan to prevent the cobbler from sticking.
- Mix together the flour, sugar, and milk.
- Once the butter is melted, and the oven preheated, pour the flour/sugar/milk mixture into the pan.
- Add the can of undrained fruit, pie filling, or other fruit on top of the mixture.
- Add extra sugar or cinnamon-sugar to the top if desired and place into oven.
- Bake approximately 30 to 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the biscuit part is cook through. Baking time will depend on the fruit used and if it is frozen or not. Start checking after 30 minutes.
