Let's Make A Deal!

I propose a cultural exchange. Oz, Amerka, let's trade. I've been here in Sydney for over a half a decade now, and I lived my first quarter century or so in the States, so I feel qualified to broker a deal. Let's list possible exports:

On offer from America:

• Franks Red Hot Sauce


• Sour Cherries (oh how I miss thee)


• Soft Pretzels


• Effective Internet Shopping


• In-N-Out Burger

From Australia:

• Socialized Health Care


• Gigantic Food Courts With Not One Fast Food Chain


• International Community's (relative) Good Will


• The Proper Dosage of Vegemite (You've had your fun, Aussies)


• Oporto (Portuguese inspired chicken burger fast food, Yay!)


• Tastier Beer

America, it's not looking good. As a gesture of good faith, I'm volunteering the Aussies one of your greatest untapped potential international offerings: cobbler.

Cobbler, also called "grunt," may well be the ultimate American dessert. It's a variation on an English lamb casserole where loosely packed biscuits or scones form a cobbled surface over the meat underneath. American ingenuity and perseverance transformed it into a sugar-filled delight, at, it should be noted, the expense of many an innocent fruit. Southerners in particular took a liking and artistic license and eventually gave the rest of the country the best-served-warm-dessert Americans call cobbler.

I grew up loving peach cobbler in particular. Not only a local potluck favorite, it was often the only highlight in a week's worth of school lunches (where highlights were nothing if not scarce). Later in life I became quite fond of blackberry cobbler, though only if I'd picked the berries from the banks of the irrigation ditch snaking through my Grandparents' property in Northern California.

When I moved Down Under, home-sickness prompted me to to recreate childhood foods. However, as I have mentioned in a previous post, berries here are listed on the national stock exchange somewhere above gold, and, as I have not mentioned before, peaches here are less than average.

Combining frugality with nostalgia and swirling in a generous dollop of my favorite dessert flavors, I pour into your cup (coffee cup in this case) caramel and apple cobbler.



I like baking cobbler in coffee cups. Cracking into a cobbler crust, pushing through the cakey topping, and diving into the buttery, slightly smoky, sweet, steaming apple filling is, well, a basic human right. It's in the Geneva Conventions. Go check. Besides, everyone likes getting a little dish all their own.

Caramelized Apple Cobbler

3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, diced into 2cm chunks
100g sugar
50g butter, cold, cut into small cubes
pinch ground cloves

Preheat oven to 190ºC. In a small saucepan combine the sugar with a few tablespoons of water. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the sugar begins to caramelize (about 160ºC). Remove from heat and quickly whisk in the butter, a bit at a time. Add the cubed apples and stir, off the heat, for one minuet. Divide mixture into four coffee cups and top with dollops of the topping (below), making sure to leave a few little gaps so that the caramel can bubble through.

Bake on a tray (to catch any spillage) for 35-45 minuets. The cobbler is done when a toothpick inserted into the topping comes out clean. Let cool slightly before serving.

Topping

180g flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
115g butter, cold, cut into small cubes
185ml cream

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut in the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles rough breadcrumbs. Mix in enough of the cream to form a soft and sticky dough.

Also, there is no ice cream in either photo, but for the love of god people, use your common sense, and scoop some creamy vanilla on top. Do I have to hold your hands? Jesus. That's it, this brokering job sucks. I quit.