A little while back, my adventurous baking friend Adriana and I went to get our nails done. Reading Food and Wine whilst having someone pamper our toes, we were inspired to make a decadent dinner. More importantly, we drooled over pages of cobblers and tarts so long that we just had to make a fabulous dessert happen that night. What spawned from a relaxed spa day and a trip to Trader Joe’s was this Mixed Berry Cobbler.

It’s so hearty and filling you could hardly eat more than a scoop in one sitting… we tried to no avail. The shredded pear in this recipe really adds a new twist to the classic cobbler,  thickening the texture to help soak up the juices from blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and cherries. Red and blue…might we add some vanilla ice cream to seal the deal and make this a Fourth of July pie!? The use of a crumble instead of a full crust makes this a slightly healthier alternative to a normal pie too, so treat yourself to the ice cream this Independence Day!

We sadly forgot the vanilla ice cream when we made ours so I just had to make another cobbler a few days later. *Sigh* Megan and I suffered through it. Just a little suffering though…

Ingredients:

Crumble:
1 cup Flour
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Rolled Oats
1/4 cup Almonds
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks Butter

Berry Mixture:
4 cups Frozen Mixed Berries
1/2 cup Sugar
1 tsp. Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Bartlett Pear
Vanilla Ice Cream, a must

1. Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. To make the crumble, chop up the almonds into small bits. Mix together the flour, brown sugar, oats, almonds, salt, and nutmeg.

2. Slice up the butter into small pieces and mix in with the dry ingredients. Use your hands to create a cookie dough like consistency. Place in the fridge while you work on your berry mixture.

3. In a large pan, heat the berries, sugar, balsamic vinegar, and vanilla on medium heat. Continue to stir until the berry juice is bubbly and steaming (about 5 minutes). While the berries are heating up, use a large box grater to shred the pear. Add the pear to the berry mixture after it is at it’s bubbly state and let the mixture cool.

4. Pour the berry mixture into a 13″x9″ pan. Crumble up the crumble over the top of the berries. Bake the cobbler for about 1 hour until the crumble looks golden brown and your house smells like heaven. Let it cool slightly, scoop a generous portion into a bowl, and serve with vanilla ice cream!

Happy Fourth of July! Now go show some red, white, and blue, and maybe eat some too!