less than 30 mins
30 mins to 1 hour
Serves 6-8
Rick Stein uses a food processor to whizz together the topping for his sticky damson cobbler – it’s up to the oven to do the hard work.
By Rick Stein
Ingredients
- 900g/2lb
damsons, washed and stalks removed - 100g/4oz
caster sugar
For the cobbler topping
- 225g/8oz
self-raising flour - 2 tsp
baking powder - 75g/3oz chilled
butter, diced - 100g/4oz
caster sugar, plus 1 tablespoon - a pinch of
salt - 1 medium
egg - 100ml/4fl oz
buttermilk - 15g/1/2oz
flaked almonds
Method
-
Spread the damsons over the base of a 2 litre/3½ pint shallow ovenproof dish and sprinkle with the caster sugar. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
-
Sift the flour, baking powder, the 100g/4oz of caster sugar and a pinch of salt into a bowl or a food processor, add the butter and work together until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
-
Break the egg into the buttermilk and beat together well. Add to the dry ingredients and mix together lightly into a soft, sticky dough. Drop walnut-sized spoonfuls of the mixture over the top of the damsons, leaving a little space between each one, then sprinkle with the flaked almonds and the remaining 1 tbsp of sugar.
-
Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until golden and bubbling, covering it loosely with a sheet of foil if it is browning a little too quickly. It is done when a skewer, pushed into the middle of the cobbler topping, comes away clean. Leave to cool briefly before serving with some custard, double cream or crème fraîche.
