Recipe: Apple Raspberry Carboholic Cobbler

It seems like everyone these days is counting carbs. Everyone but me, that is! I love carbs so much that I added an extra layer of dough to this sweet and tart cobbler. Since it’s packed with fruit and fiber, it makes a healthy, filling breakfast paired with a steaming pot of tea. But my favorite way to enjoy this cobbler is as dessert, warmed slightly, with a scoop of vanilla soy ice cream.
The nice thing about this recipe is that it’s fairly modular. Depending on what’s available and in season, you can substitute just about any berry for the raspberry, and pears for the apples. (I used apples because they are always in season in Philadelphia, and therefore relatively inexpensive.)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 heaping tbsp. soy flour (egg substitute, optional
• 1 1/2 tsps. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cups Earth Balance or other non-hydrogrenated margarine, at room temperature
• 2 organic apples, peeled and cut into raspberry-sized pieces
• 2 cups organic raspberries
• 1/2-3/4 cup soy or rice milk
• juice and zest of one organic orange

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9 x 9-inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, spices, salt and ¾ cup of brown sugar. Using your fingers, rub in butter until it’s evenly distributed. (You might want to enlist the kids to help out here!) Add ½ of the orange juice and enough soy or rice milk to moisten the batter. Do not overmix.
3. In a medium bowl, mix ½ cup brown sugar, the other ½ of the orange juice, orange zest, apples and raspberries.
4. Using your fingers, spread half of the batter onto the bottom of the pan. The batter will be sticky and you probably won’t be able to cover every single section of the pan. Don’t worry—the batter will spread as it bakes.
5. Pour the fruit mixture on top of the layer of batter. Then, using your fingers, dollop the rest of the batter on top of the fruit mixture. Again, don’t worry about covering every single piece of fruit; the batter will spread. And besides, it’s pleasing to see some fruit “cleavage” peering seductively from beneath crags of cobbler crust.
6. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until crust is light golden brown and makes a hollow sound when you tap it. Cool on a wire rack before serving.