Fence Row Blackberry Cobbler

Summer in full swing. The construction site is a furnace and my back is a complaint department. Clay is seventeen and invincible, which is the worst kind of invincible because it's the kind that doesn't know it's temporary. He's lifting weights, running, doing agility drills in the backyard that involve cones and a timer and a seriousness that I recognize as ambition, even though he'd call it "just training."

The scholarship talk has intensified. His coach set up a visit to Eastern Kentucky University — nothing official, just a campus tour and a meeting with the defensive coordinator. EKU is in Richmond, an hour south of Lexington, a school I could drive to in my sleep. Division I FCS, which is good football, not great football, but football that comes with tuition and room and board and the chance to play on Saturdays in front of people who cheer. Travis never went to college. I never went to college. Amber went to college on her own dime and determination. If Clay gets a scholarship, it'll be the first Hensley to have school paid for by something other than debt. That's not nothing. That's everything.

But the Army is still in his head. He watches military videos on YouTube. He asked me about the mines — about what it was like to work underground, to be in danger, to face the possibility of not coming home. I told him it was dark and wet and you stopped being scared after a while because fear is tiring and you can't be tired and scared at the same time. He nodded. He understood something in that answer that he wasn't looking for: that his father knows about fear and danger and choosing to go anyway. The mines weren't the Army. But they were close enough for the metaphor to land.

This week I made blackberry cobbler, because the blackberries are ripe and because cobbler is what you make in late June when the world gives you free fruit and all you have to do is walk to the fence line and pick it. Our fence row has a blackberry thicket that produces more berries than we can eat, which is the kind of abundance that Betty would consider sinful to waste.

The cobbler: four cups of blackberries in a baking dish, tossed with half a cup of sugar and a tablespoon of cornstarch. The topping is a simple batter: one cup flour, one cup sugar, one cup milk, a third cup of melted butter, one teaspoon baking powder, a pinch of salt. Pour the batter over the berries. Bake at 350 for forty-five minutes until the batter rises up around the berries and turns golden brown and the berry juice bubbles through like a volcanic spring. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or, if you're Betty, with cold heavy cream poured over the top, which is better than ice cream and I will die on that hill and then be buried on that hill and my headstone will say "Heavy cream, not ice cream."

We ate cobbler on the back porch in the fading light, Clay and Connie and me, and the fireflies were out and the air smelled like summer and berries and the particular sweetness of a Kentucky evening when the heat finally breaks and the world exhales. Nobody talked about football or the Army or the future. We just ate cobbler. Sometimes that's enough.

The cobbler Craig describes on the back porch — with Clay and Connie, fireflies out, the heat finally breaking — is one of those recipes that doesn’t ask much of you because the season already did the work. You walk the fence line, you pick what’s there, and you let the oven do the rest. If you’ve got four cups of blackberries and a pantry, you’ve got dinner’s end covered. And for the record: Craig is right about the heavy cream.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 55 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

4 cups fresh blackberries (wild or cultivated)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (for the berries)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar (for the batter)
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
Cold heavy cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving

Instructions

Preheat. Heat your oven to 350°F. No need to grease the baking dish — the butter in the batter handles that.
Prepare the berries. Add the blackberries to a 9x13-inch (or equivalent) baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup sugar and the cornstarch and toss gently to coat. Spread into an even layer.
Make the batter. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, 1 cup sugar, milk, melted butter, baking powder, and salt until a smooth, pourable batter forms.
Pour and don’t stir. Pour the batter evenly over the berries. Do not stir — let it sit on top. It will rise up and around the berries as it bakes.
Bake. Bake for 45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the berry juice is bubbling up through the batter at the edges. The batter should be fully set, not jiggly, in the center.
Rest briefly, then serve warm. Let it cool for 5 minutes. Spoon into bowls and top with cold heavy cream poured straight over the top, or vanilla ice cream if you must. Craig has opinions about this and will not be moved.

Nutrition (per serving)

Fence Row Blackberry Cobbler — What We Made When the World Gave Us Free Fruit