2010 March 01 | dinner with Julie

Archive for March 1st, 2010

Forage Saskatoon Berry Cobbler (and a Puddle Cookie P.S.)

Remember that cobbler we had for dessert last week at Forage? And how one of you requested the recipe? Well Wade came through for us, and I found this in my inbox:

Forage Saskatoon Berry Cobbler

Filling:
6 cups Saskatoon berries (Pearson’s at the Calgary Farmers Market has frozen berries)
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon (we used Silk Road Vietnamese)
2 Tbsp. cornstarch

Place all in a saucepan on low heat and stir occasionally. Once the sugar has dissolved turn the heat up to medium and bring to a boil until the filling thickens. Remove from heat and pour into a casserole dish.

Topping:
1/4 cup butter (1/4 inch dice)
1 cup flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1/4 cup half and half cream

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Put the butter in a food processor. Add the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Process to a fine crumb. Place in a bowl.

Whisk the egg and cream together. Pour into the flour and stir until just combined. Spoon onto the berry filling. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown. Serve with ice cream.

Thanks Wade.

P.S. About those puddle cookies. I should have touched on the subject of sugar yesterday – specifically those 4 scary cups of it. I know, the sheer quantity made me think twice about making them too. However – I knew that powdered/icing/confectioners’ sugar (all the same thing) had less, well, sugar per cup than table sugar, on account of all that air. (Same principle as whipped butter having less butter per cup than the solid stuff.) But what I learned upon checking numbers is that cup for cup, powdered sugar -when aerated a bit -stirred or sifted and not terribly packed down- has pretty much half the calories and carbohydrates as regular granulated sugar.

1 cup granulated (plain old white) sugar: 774 calories / 200 g carbohydrates (200 g total sugars)
1 cup icing sugar: 389 calories / 99.8 g carbohydrates (97.8 g total sugars)

(source: USDA Nutrient Database)

Interesting, no?

So really, using 4 cups of icing sugar is actually equal to using 2 cups of white sugar. Which is still a lot, but not quite so shockingly high, and it is after all a cookie. A delicious, delicious cookie.