Apple Cobbler Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between apple cobbler and apple crisp? ›

Cobbler: A fruit dessert made with a top crust of pie dough or biscuit dough but no bottom crust. Crisp/crumble: In Alberta, the terms are mostly interchangeable. Both refer to fruit desserts similar to cobbler but made with a brown sugar streusel topping sometimes containing old-fashioned rolled oats.

A pound of apples will yield 3 cups; so for 8 cups prepared apples, you'll need about 2 2/3 pounds whole apples (make it 2 3/4 pounds, if you're at the supermarket weighing). I tried this math with different sizes of apples; large apples yield slightly more prepared apples per pound than small apples.

Cobbler is one of my favorite ways to bake with fruit. The super soft-and-tender crumb inside, paired with a crisp bake on the outside, make for an awesome taste and texture. It's unlike anything else you'll bake.

The best way to prevent a watery apple crisp is to use a thickener in the filling – some recipes use flour, but I've chosen to use cornstarch in this recipe (or arrowroot starch, which can be substituted 1:1 for cornstarch) because I think it provides superior thickening power.

Pies have, at a minimum, a bottom crust with the fruit placed on top, while a cobbler has the fruit on the bottom and a dolloped dough on top instead. The doughs used are also different, with a pie typically using a rolled-out pastry versus the dropped biscuit topping of a cobbler.

Cobbler is usually topped with batter or biscuits in lieu of crust. Cobbler's name comes from its sometimes cobbled texture, which is a result of spooning or dropping the topping over the fruit rather than distributing it equally. This way, the filling can peek through.

Which apples bake best? For the best pies, crisps, and other baked treats, apples need to be firm enough to hold their own during the cooking process. We call these apples “baking apples” and to namedrop, they include Braeburn, Cortland, Honey Gold, Jonathan, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Haralson, and Newtown Pippin.

About 3/4 of an average sliced or cubed apple equates to a single cup. However, it really depends on the size of your apple and how you'll be cutting it. In a perfect world, you'll start with a medium apple.

Mistake: Baking at too high of a temperature

Cobblers need enough time in the oven for the topping to cook through and brown, but at too high a temperature, anything above 375 ℉, the fruit filling might not be cooked by the time the top is burnt.

Why did my cobbler come out gummy? ›

2. Using any type of fruit. To be clear, you can use any fruit for making cobbler, but using canned fruit or, worse, canned pie filling can result in a sickly sweet cobbler with a gummy filling.

Not cooking it long enough.

A probe thermometer inserted in the center of the cobbler should reach 200°F in the thickest part of the topping. The filling should be bubbly around the sides, and the tops of the biscuits should be more deep amber than golden.

We prefer to prep the apples when we make the crisp, but you can prep them ahead of time. Peel and slice the apples and toss them with lemon juice, then pack tightly in freezer bags and refrigerate for up to one day.

How can I make my apple crisp crispy? If your butter to flour to sugar ratio is off, it will result in a less crispy topping. You want to be careful not to add too much flour or too little. Also, we love adding old fashioned rolled oats to our crumble because it really gives it a nice crunch.

Exterior: Cobblers are denser due to the biscuit dough topping and base, while crisps use oats and a streusel topping, making them lighter. Cobbler toppings are also likely not a full layer like a crisp or pie. Instead, the biscuit dough dollops often sit on top as individual biscuits.

Whereas crisps and crumbles are topped with a streusel-like mixture, cobblers are topped with a cake-like batter or a biscuit-like dough.

Apple cobbler (also known asapple slump, apple grunt, and apple pandowdy) is an old recipe in which the baked apples are topped with a cobbler crust formed of batter, pie crust or baking powder biscuit dough.

Both are very similar apple desserts, but the difference mainly comes down to the crumble topping: Instead of the flour and oat mixture used in an apple crisp, an apple brown betty uses breadcrumbs for its crumbly, delicious topping.