Pluot and Browned Butter Skillet Cobbler

While I was gone on my 8 day, multiple state trip a neighbor dropped off some home grown pluots (cross between a plum and an apricot).  Kaitlin put them in my fridge, and then I had a surprise upon my return.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with so many pluots.  Luckily, I came across a recipe that sounded perfect! I've never browned butter before.  Oh my goodness did add depth of flavor!  And it's not hard!

Ingredients:
1 stick plus 2 tbsp (10 tbsp) salted butter, browned
1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
3 medium ripe pluots sliced into 8 slices, or 2 cups of fresh berries

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a 10" cast iron skillet, melt and brown the butter (To brown your butter, place it in a skillet over medium heat.  Let it melt and cook down until just after it stops crackling.  That’s the water cooking out of the butter.  Once the crackling stops, the butter will begin to brown.  It’ll smell rich and nutty.).  Since cast iron is black bottomed, and you can't see the butter browning, be sure to keep a close eye on it, and remove the butter from the pan as soon as it browns.  If you keep the butter in the hot cast iron, it may continue to cook and burn.  Leave just a smidgen of butter in the cast iron pan to act as a non-stick agent.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.  Whisk in the milk.  Whisk in the melted butter.
4. Add the batter to the prepared cast iron skillet.
5. Arrange the pluot slices around the batter.
6. Bake for 35 minutes, until slightly golden and bubbling.
7. Remove pan from the oven and sprinkle with 2 tbsp of sugar.  Return the pan to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes to finish cooking.  Remove pan when a cake tester inserted in the cobbler comes out clean.
8. Serve slightly warm with vanilla ice cream.  Store covered, at room temperature for two to three days.

Notes:

• Browning butter = easy!
• My cast iron skillet is 9", so it took a little longer to bake.
• Oops, didn't realize that I was supposed to return it to the oven after sprinkling with sugar.  Oh, and I only used 1 tbsp sugar.
• Next time I'm going to try it with whole wheat flour.  Why not?
• Used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose flour, worked out well!
• Fruits I've used so far and liked in this cobbler:  pluots, peaches, plums, (frozen) blueberries

Thanks Joy for posting the recipe!

Dump Cobbler

They call this a dump cake for a reason.  And for being a dump, man is it good!

Ingredients:
canned pie filling (or 2)
yellow cake mix
butter

Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 350F.  Spray your baking dish.  Dump your pie filling (I used cherry) into the dish.  Depending what size your pan is you may need 2 cans.  Dump, evenly, the box of yellow cake mix over the top.  Slice chunks of butter and randomly put it on the cake mix.  Put it in the oven for, oh, about 20 minutes.  I really don't know how long.  Pull it out when the cake mix is a lovely golden yellow and the pie filling is bubbling around the edges.  Let cool for a few minutes, if you can.

My favorite part is the "crust" aka the cake mix.  YUM!