Sourdough Berry Cobbler

You're going to love this easy to make sourdough berry cobbler! You can use fresh or frozen berries to make the sweet, jammy filling. The topping features your sourdough starter for a complementary depth of flavor that's sure to impress.

If you love making sourdough desserts, then make sure you check out this sourdough apple crisp, sourdough pumpkin pie or this sourdough chocolate chip cookie skillet.

Why You'll Love This Recipe!

No Fuss Sourdough Biscuit Topping - the crunchy biscuit topping for this sourdough cobbler is no fuss, easy and doesn't require any finesse! You can scoop and blob it on top and it will turn out amazing!

Use Fresh or Frozen Berries - This recipe works with either fresh, frozen or a combination of both. This makes it economical and means you can make it year round!

Easily Scale The Recipe - I've made this recipe to fit into a 2Q or 1.9L baking dish but it's easy to scale the recipe. Need to feed a crowd? You can double or even triple the recipe. You can even halve it for a sourdough cobbler just for 2!

Where Did This Recipe Come From?

I wanted to add some context into this post to show you how I developed this recipe. This sourdough berry cobbler is quite different to my sourdough apple cobbler recipe which has more of a cake like topping.

When thinking about making a sourdough berry cobbler, I wanted more of a crunchy biscuit topping. I think this pairs better with the sweet, jammy berries.

In testing this recipe, I tried quite a few different toppings, including my sourdough biscuit recipe. In the end, the best topping ended up being really similar to the scoopable biscuit dough used in this sourdough sheet pan berry shortcake.

I love that it's not fussy and it's so forgiving (it's perfect when you're craving sourdough pie, but just don't have the time or energy)! It's quite wet so you can just scoop it on top, sprinkle it with sugar and pop it in the oven. This simple process gives you buttery, tender biscuits with a golden, crunchy top. It's the ultimate sourdough dessert!

How To Make Sourdough Berry Cobbler

This sourdough berry cobbler is such a delight to make. It's one of those recipes that takes very little time to pull together, but gives you such a decadent result! I just know this will become a family favorite at your house, as it is at mine!

So let's get to preparing this delightfully sweet sourdough berry cobbler!

Sourdough Berry Cobbler Filling

Preheat your oven to 200C (390F).

I like to add the filling ingredients directly to the baking dish as it creates much less washing up! But if you'd prefer to mix it separately, then that's fine too!

To your 2Q or 1.9L baking dish add the berries, white sugar, brown sugar, lemon juice, all purpose flour and vanilla extract. Use a spoon or your hands to coat the berries in the flour and sugar mixture.

You want the berries to be well coated so the filling cooks down and thickens into a jam like consistency. Set this aside while you prepare the topping.

Sourdough Berry Cobbler Topping

Before you start, ensure you have these things done and set aside:

Grate the butter and put in the freezer until you need it.

Mix the buttermilk, heavy cream, vanilla extract and sourdough starter together in a jug.

Now in a small mixing bowl, add together the all purpose flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir together until well combined.

Now put the cold, grated butter into the flour mixture and rub it into the flour. You won't need to rub it a lot because the butter is grated, so as long as it's well distributed and coated in flour it will be fine.

Now, pour the buttermilk mixture (wet ingredients) into the dry ingredients and stir together to form a wet dough.

Scoop the wet dough and place blobs onto the top of the berry filling you prepared earlier. It doesn't have to be neat, just blob it on. It's good to have some of the filling visible too as this will bubble up during cooking and be so pretty!

Sprinkle the top of the sourdough berry cobbler with the granulated sugar.

Bake the sourdough berry cobbler in the oven at 200C (390F) for 40 minutes. You'll know it's ready when the topping is golden brown and you can see the filling bubbling up around the sides.

Remove from the oven and allow it to sit for around 10 minutes before serving. This allows the filling to thicken and become nice and jammy.

What Type of Berries Work Best?

In developing this recipe, I tested many combinations of berries. I wanted the perfect combination of sweet berries that cooked down in a jammy consistency, but without completely breaking down.

I've tested just frozen berries, only fresh berries and combination of both. The frozen only berries can be a little watery (but this really depends on the type of berries you use). If you're using only frozen berries, adding a couple of chopped up apples to the mix can combat this issue and thickens up the filling.

In the photos you can see on this post, I have used mostly fresh fruit, but added around 200g of frozen berries because they needed to be used up (there were two packs with just a little in each). This also meant I had some blackberries in the mix because I could not find any fresh ones when making this recipe to photograph.

Tips & Tricks for the Perfect Sourdough Berry Cobbler

This is such an easy recipe to pull together (hence why it's one of my go-to sourdough desserts). But, just to ensure you always have success, I've put together some tips and tricks to help you.

• Baking Dish Size - don't use too big a baking dish. I've used a 2Q or 1.9L dish and the ratio of fruit filling to topping is perfect. If you use a dish that's too big, the filling will spread out too much and can burn underneath. If you need to use a bigger dish, double the recipe!
  
• Short on Berries - if you are short on berries, add some peeled, chopped apple to the filling. The berry juice will stain the apple so you won't even notice it in there.
  
• Make Ahead - if you would like to make the cobbler ahead of time, simply assemble it and place in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Add the sugar on top right before you place it in the oven.
  
• No Lemon Juice - if you don't have any lemons on hand, orange juice and zest work well too!

How To Freeze + Store

Leftovers of this sourdough berry cobbler can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days. I like to cover the baking dish with foil and store it as is, rather than transferring it to another dish. It can be reheated in the microwave or oven.

You can freeze the cobbler before baking or after baking. It will last in the freezer, unbaked or baked, for up to 8 weeks.

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