I’m not sure when I first heard tell of it. Probably listening in on the womenfolks’ conversation while sitting on a folding chair in the back of the Century Methodist Church at a Wednesday night fellowship dinner (while scarfing down a paper plate’s worth of sliced ham, fried chicken, Waldorf salad, homemade yeast rolls and Elsie Hare’s green congealed salad made with chopped pecans, sour cream and celery bits).

“Ooooh, Sweet, that’s so good!” one of them might have said after tasting her still-warm cobbler. (“Sweet” really was her name.)

“Got it from my Granny back in 30s,” Sweet might have replied. “It’s so easy I’m almost embarrassed. It’s like magic! Almost makes itself.”

But, of course, nobody ever wrote down the recipe. It was so simple you didn’t need one.

Fast forward a half-century or so, and, still haunted by that so-simple cobbler conversation, I’ve Googled “easy cobbler” or some such phrase many times over, but nothing ever popped up that really looked right. Nothing ever seemed like something that fit the bill.

Until a couple of weeks ago, that is, when I finally found it. A recipe so simple and so delicious that I have remembered it from the first reading, and have now made it three times – as originally posted, doubled, and “half-agained” – and it is apparently as foolproof as it is scrumptious. Perfect every time.

And, this time, I’m writing it down for all of us. I hope you enjoy it. I know your family will.

RECIPE: Magic Cobbler

Note: The original recipe is listed as “Easy Blueberry Cobbler” on allrecipes.com, but calls for self-rising flour. It is admittedly even simpler that way, but I prefer to add my own baking powder and salt, so am taking the liberty of claiming this as mine. That said, if you are a self-rising flour person, you can do this with only the five ingredients: flour, sugar, milk, butter and fruit.

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Butter (one stick)
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Whole Milk
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 quart fresh fruit (berries, peaches – any cobbler-friendly fruit. The cobbler pictured above was made with 2/3 blueberries and 1/3 peaches)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Place stick of butter in baking dish and place baking dish in the oven to melt it. Should take only about 5 minutes, but keep an eye on it because it will burn quickly if you’re not careful. (For this recipe, a 7 x 11 rectangular Pyrex dish is just right, but once you start eating it, you’ll wish you’d doubled it, in which case a 9 x 13 dish works, but be sure to place a cookie sheet under the baking dish just in case of spillage. Pie in the photo was 1 and 1/2 times recipe in the larger baking dish but didn’t quite fill it up.)

While butter is melting, sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a medium-size mixing bowl. Then add the sugar to the flour and stir well, then add milk to the dry ingredients and stir till smooth.

Take dish with melted butter out of oven and pour batter into it.

Sprinkle fruit over top of batter. Return dish to oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until the fruit is set when jiggled. If it still looks wet, it’s not quite ready.

That’s it! That’s the whole thing! This may well be the most deliciousness delivered for the least labor ever known. Particularly good with a dollop of vanilla ice cream while it’s still warm.

You can thank me later. Love to you all.

© 2016, George Thomas Wilson. All rights reserved.