Cherry cobbler with hint of brandy with coconut-cardamom biscuit topping.
Hot summer days call for lazy desserts. As I write this, the air is heavy, with hints of the thunderstorms that sweep through in the late afternoons. The breeze picks up, and I can feel it moving along my inner arm, swirling around the crook of my elbow. The bliss of a lazy Saturday in late July.
I sink into my cushioned patio chair and think about cobbler. It’s the perfect summer dessert: easy to make, and really composed of two desserts. A twofer. A biscuit top, dusted with sugar, capping syrupy fresh fruit.
Right now, bright, shiny cherries are everywhere, so that’s my natural leaning today. But blackberries, blueberries, and even peaches work as well. See what looks good at your farmer’s market. I added brandy to mine, but feel free to add some fresh herbs if that’s your preference. Oh, and I added a touch of coconut to the biscuit topping for a macaroon feel, but only because I had some in my cupboard.
Enjoy, but don’t go to a lot of trouble with this cobbler. Summer is a time to kick back and savor the day.
A Few Cooking Notes:
Most biscuit toppings call for butter, and quite a bit of it. I chose to substitute the traditional butter with buttermilk. If you prefer a more buttery crust, no problem, just substitute 1/4 cup unsalted butter for the 1/4 cup buttermilk.
Cherry Cobbler + Coconut Biscuit: #SundaySupper
Ingredients
Cherry Filling
- 5 cups sweet cherries
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon instant tapioca
- 1/2 cup dried cherries
- 3 tablespoons brandy
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch kosher salt
Coconut Biscuit Topping
- 3/4 cups flour 3 3/4 ounces
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar or regular sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- pinch kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons plain yogurt
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 teaspoon turbinado sugar
Instructions
Cherry Filling
- Pit the cherries using a cherry pitter. You should end up with about 4 cups cherries.
- Toss in the remaining Filling ingredients, and allow to sit on the counter while you make the biscuit dough.
Coconut Biscuit Topping
- Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom, coconut and salt together in a medium bowl. Toss with a fork and rub between your fingers to mix the coconut into the dry ingredients.
- Mix the yogurt and buttermilk together in a small bowl and add to the dry ingredients. Mix well with a fork until it comes together into a dough.
- Pour the cherries into a baking dish (I used one that was 6" X 8"), and spoon the dough on top. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar for a little crunch.
- Bake for 1 hour, or until the biscuit topping is lightly browned, and the cherry filling is bubbly.
- Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
This really sounds delicious Susan, I love cobbler and have to make this one.
Thanks so much Suzanne! Hope you’re having a great summer weekend!
This looks so delicious. Love the addition of dried cherries.
Thanks so much Debra! Can you tell I love cherries? I have dried cherries around all the time for a snack.
Oh, the flavors in this cobbler Susan! I can this all summer. I adore cherries, who doesn´t right?, but I never had them with coconut. Gorgeous pics!
Thanks so much Paula!
I can’t think of what I like most about this. The cherries, the added brandy, or the brilliant use of coconut in the biscuit topping.
Thanks Renee! Cobblers are soooo easy to add things to without going to any trouble.
I love, love, love the coconut topping! What a marvelous idea!! Looks incredible!!
Thanks Jennifer! Coconut is one of my new favorite foods. I’ve avoided it my whole life, and just started using it about a year ago. It’s so fun to find the ways to use it now 🙂
You had me at coconut biscuit topping…and brandy.
Oh yeah, don’t forget that brandy 🙂 Thanks Jen!
Oh, what an amazing cobbler! I love that you added coconut to your topping…YUM!!!
Thanks so much Liz! I recently realized that I liked coconut and now I’m adding it to everything 🙂
There’s so much to like about this recipe. I love the cherries, brandy, topping…. yum.
Thanks so much, Lynda!
Yummy in my tummy cherry goodnes!
Thanks Debra!! Every summer I’m waiting for cherries and tomatoes. Not together, of course. But they’re my two favorite summer foods 🙂
That is SUCH a cool idea, the flavours and textures totally work with each other too
Thanks much Sarah!!
All I can say is, WOW! I love the image of that Cherry Brandy Cobbler appearing as your web page loads. What a gorgeous site you have (love the photos).
Alaiyo
Thanks so much Alaiyo!
Your cobbler looks insanely good, Susan. I want some now! Oh, well, I’ve got your recipe…By the way, I am inspired that you gave up the corporate life in favor of culinary food-writing and photography. Thank you for the inspiration <3
Thanks Kim. I so don’t miss the corporate life, but I honestly did enjoy it for a very long time. I needed that level of stimulation and thrived on it. And then suddenly I realized that instead of giving me energy, it was robbing me of it. I love the creative focus to my life now, and am excited about where it may lead next 🙂
Oh my gosh, Cherry cobbler/crisp/pie/whatever is probably one of my all-time favorite things about summer. This Coconut Biscuit Topping is so killing me, though…I NEED to try it!
thanks Heather! I think you’d like the coconut topping – so good 🙂
Nothing better than a cobbler during the summer! I love the idea to use buttermilk in place of the butter. Totally trying that next time!
Thanks Camille! It makes it a little more dense, I think. So the texture is definitely different, but honestly I didn’t miss the butter at all.
Oh wow! With brandy? I’m totally sold! Now where do we normally get coconut sugar? Sounds very yum!
Thanks Linda! I get my coconut sugar on the same shelf where regular sugar is at my grocery. They have agave, etc all in the same area. If you don’t find it, no worries, just use regular sugar!
Cobblers are totally the perfect summer dessert! I haven’t conquered pie crust yet so the simplicity of making a biscuit topping and dropping it onto fruit is right up my alley. This looks incredible! Cherries are my favourite summer fruit. The Okanagan region of British Columbia grows the most incredible bing cherries and as soon as they’re available, I can’t stop eating them. I can’t wait to try your recipe!
This is the perfect dessert if you don’t want to mess around with a pie crust! I think cherries are my favorite summertime fruit too 🙂
I am sitting on that patio with you and thinking about cobbler and fresh fruit. Mmmmm. It’s baking sweet cherry fragrance into the breeze. Thank you.
I love that you used two kinds of cherries in this, Susan. The deep dark jewel tone red is gorgeous.
Thanks Stacy! I keep thinking about your amazing neighborhood market and the photos of the cherries you posted. I would be there every day grabbing up cherries and everything else 🙂
Love it! This is amazing 🙂
Oh wow brandy in a cobbler, sounds incredible
Holy wow that biscuit topping looks amazing. I love the coconut. I just want to go swimming in it!
I’m not a big fan of biscuits, but I will just eat all of this filling! Adding brandy was a great idea!
Yum! Great coconut topping!
OH I would love to be sitting on my porch right now eating a bowl of this! The love cherry filling and that biscuit looks SO good! Great idea to substitute buttermilk for the butter. I’m going to have to try that! Great dessert!
cHERRY and coconut sound so good together!
Double whammy here. You had me at brandy with your cherries and double hooked me with the coconut in the topping! Awesome!
What a gorgeous cobbler! I love the buttermilk in the topping and the coconut is such a great accent to the cherries.
Thanks so much April! Coconut is my newest ‘flavor’ to fall in love with, so I’m adding it to all kinds of things 🙂
I love the idea of combining the cherries with a little brandy in the cobbler. And the topping looks excellent, with tenderness from the dairy, flavor from the coconut sugar, and the sparkle and crunch of the bit of turbinado sugar on top. I like the healthy touches of the buttermilk and coconut sugar, too.
Would using canned tart cherries instead of fresh alter the recipe in any way?
I’m so glad you asked, Angie. The recipe is for sweet cherries, not tart. If fresh ones aren’t available, I’ve used frozen. I’ve not used canned sweet cherries – mainly because what I see is mostly pie filling. I’m going to modify the recipe right now to read sweet cherries instead of just cherries. Thank you so much for your question!!