Triple Berry Cobbler

The week after a grandchild is born is different from the week before. Before, you're waiting. After, you're remembering. You hold the memory of that small weight in your hands and you go about your day — garden, cook, write, walk the dog — but underneath everything is the awareness that the family has grown by one, that there's a new person in the world who shares your blood and your name (well, half of it) and who will, someday, eat your maple candy and your oatmeal cookies and sit at your kitchen table and never know that you stood in a garden in Vermont the day she was born and looked at the sky and felt something too large for the word "happy."

I made strawberry rhubarb pie. Not because of the baby — because the rhubarb is ready and the strawberries from the farm stand are just starting, and the combination of the two in a pie is the taste of May in New England. Helen's crust — butter, flour, ice water, rolled thin, handled as little as possible because the heat of your hands is the enemy of flaky pastry and Helen has been fighting that enemy since 1980 and winning every time.

The filling: rhubarb cut in pieces, strawberries halved, sugar, a tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken, a squeeze of lemon. The tartness of the rhubarb and the sweetness of the strawberries meet somewhere in the middle, same as the carrots, same as most good things. You pile it in the crust, dot with butter, add the top crust, crimp the edges, cut vents, and bake until the crust is golden and the filling bubbles through the vents like something alive and impatient. Serve warm. Ice cream mandatory.

David brought the kids down on Saturday. Teddy, Anna, and James — seven, four, and ten months. They ran through the yard while David and I sat on the porch and he told me about work and I told him about the garden and neither of us mentioned that we were both thinking about the same thing: new baby, growing family, the farmhouse filling up. James crawled across the porch floor with the determination of a tiny person who has discovered locomotion and intends to use it for world domination. I gave him a piece of banana. He ate half and rubbed the other half in his hair. Ten months old. Already a character.

Helen sent Sarah a pie. Mailed it, actually — FedEx, overnight, in a box packed with newspaper, which is either brilliant or insane. Sarah reported it arrived intact. She and Tom ate it with the baby sleeping on Tom's chest. Sarah said it was the best thing she'd eaten in a week, which probably says more about the quality of hospital food than the quality of the pie, but I'll take the compliment.

May. Strawberries and rhubarb and a new baby in Maine. The world grows. The family grows. The pie was good.

Helen’s pie was the right pie for that week — the one that got mailed to Maine in a box packed with newspaper, the one Sarah ate with the baby on Tom’s chest. But if you don’t have Helen’s crust technique down cold, or if you want something that carries the same spirit of warm, ripe, abundant fruit without the anxiety of rolled pastry, this triple berry cobbler is where I’d point you. Same season, same generosity — just a different kind of golden on top. Serve it warm, and don’t skip the ice cream.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1/3 cup granulated sugar (for the fruit)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar (for the batter)
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 350°F. Pour the melted butter into a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
Prepare the berries. In a medium bowl, toss together the strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, 1/3 cup sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Stir gently to combine and let the fruit sit while you make the batter.
Make the batter. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the milk and stir until just combined — a few lumps are fine. Do not overmix.
Assemble. Pour the batter directly over the melted butter in the baking dish. Do not stir. Spoon the berry mixture evenly over the top of the batter. Again, do not stir — the batter will rise up and around the fruit as it bakes.
Bake. Bake for 38 to 42 minutes, until the top is deep golden brown and the edges are bubbling. The center should be set and a toothpick inserted into the crust portion should come out clean.
Rest and serve. Let the cobbler rest for 10 minutes before serving. Spoon into bowls while still warm and top with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Nutrition (per serving)

Triple Berry Cobbler — The Taste of May When the Family Grows