Cherry Cobbler

For cherry filling:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 6 cups fresh or frozen pitted tart cherries (about 3 1/2 pints fresh, picked over)
• 1 tablespoon Frangelico or Di Saronno Amaretto
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

For biscuit topping:

• 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Accompaniment: vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Make filling: In a large heavy saucepan whisk together sugar and cornstarch. Add fresh or frozen cherries, liqueur, vanilla, and allspice and bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer mixture, stirring, 2 minutes and transfer to a shallow 2-quart baking dish.

Make topping: Cut butter into pieces. In a bowl with a pastry blender or in a food processor blend or pulse together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. If using a food processor transfer mixture to a bowl. Add milk and vanilla and stir until mixture forms a dough.

Drop topping by rounded tablespoons onto cherry filling (do not completely cover it) and bake in middle of oven 40 minutes, or until topping is golden and cooked through. Transfer cobbler to a rack to cool slightly.

Serve cobbler warm with ice cream.

Makes 8 servings.

Gourmet, July 1997

-- Substitutions: For the filling I used only half of the required sugar since these were bing cherries rather than sour cherries, used cinnamon instead of all spice, skipped the liquor all together due to my mormon beliefs. For the biscuits I used whole wheat flour and substituted rolled oats for the cornmeal. I also added in some cinnamon to bring together the cherries with the biscuits.