Cherry Cobbler
This cherry cobbler has sweet jammy cherries topped with a muffin-like lemon flavored cobbler topping. It can be made with fresh or frozen cherries and don’t forget the vanilla ice cream on top!
Why you’ll love this cherry cobbler
- It’s much easier and simpler to make than a pie but it still gives all the pie feels.
- You can use fresh or frozen cherries to make this even easier (and so you can make this any time of the year).
- The biscuit topping is to die for. It’s like a buttery, tender biscuit had a baby with a lemon muffin top.
If you’re a die hard cherry lover, you’ll love my black forest cupcakes, cherry pop tarts, white forest cake, and cherry cheesecake!
In case you didn’t know, I have this fabulous pie filling ice cream recipe that I can send you, just sign up below. It would be great if you chose to use frozen cherries instead because when they thaw, they’ll leave leftover liquid you’ll need to discard. You could use that discarded liquid to make this ice cream and top the cobbler with the ice cream… phenomenal.
What is a cobbler?
Ok soooo in my head a traditional cobbler would be a fruit filled pan topped with biscuits. However, when researching more about cobblers it seems like there are different ways to make it. Some people do a cake-like topping, some people even have a bottom crust (not sure how it differs from a pie then lol) but whatever.
I made a biscuit base but I made the dough a little softer, similar to a cookie dough texture. I did this because I wanted it to be buttery and tender like a biscuit but I wanted it to not be super thick on top so that you can get a little bite of the topping without smashing it down into the filling.
I also added a little lemon zest to the biscuit dough and it pairs sooooo well with the cherry filling.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Cherries: I used fresh cherries sweet because we went cherry picking but frozen cherries would also work well. I don’t recommend sour cherries as I’m not sure how it would taste – you may need more sugar if you were to use those.
- You can use frozen cherries but I recommend thawing it, discarding the liquid and slicing them. See sign up above if you want my pie filling ice cream, you could use the discarded cherry juice for that or you could use it in cocktails, etc.
- Also I HIGHLY recommend a cherry pitter. I had a single one (makes a mess and still takes forever) so I got this 7 at once cherry pitter and it’s great!
- Sugar: I used granulated sugar in the cherry filling and in the biscuit dough. I don’t recommend reducing it as it will affect the texture.
- If you reduce it in the filling, it won’t be as jammy.
- I’m sure raw sugar or light brown sugar would work fine as well but I haven’t tested it.
- Flour: I used all-purpose flour and I highly recommend using a digital scale when measuring ingredients, especially flour. I haven’t tested this with other flours but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with cake flour as well. Bread flour may even work but it may be just a little less tender.
- Baking powder: to leaven the biscuits – it should also work fine with ½ tsp of baking soda but they may brown just a little more.
- Butter: I love baking with salted butter but unsalted is fine as well, I would just add a ¼ tsp of sea salt. Make sure the butter is cold when cubing it to rub into the flour.
- Dairy butter also works fine.
- Greek Yogurt: traditional biscuits use heavy cream but I wanted to make them a little lighter with greek yogurt. Either is fine. Sour cream also works. I’m sure dairy free alternatives would work fine as well.
- Egg: I used one large egg in the biscuit dough (not traditional for biscuits) because I wanted it to be a cross between a biscuit and a cake texture.
- Lemon: the lemon zest rubbed into the sugar for the biscuit is to die for. Make sure to zest the lemon first, set that aside and then juice the lemon for the filling.
- Vanilla Extract: a little pure vanilla extract in the biscuit dough.
- Almond Extract: Almond extract is popular in cherry pies because it pairs phenomenally with the cherries.
- Cinnamon: this is optional and it’s not super strong but I LOVE cinnamon with all fruits.
- Cornstarch: thickens the cherry filling – it’s best to weigh this with a digital scale as well.
- Heavy Cream: I brushed the top of the biscuits with heavy cream and then topped them with granulated sugar but you could also brush them with a little melted butter instead.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Cherry Filling
- Pit all the cherries – you can do this a day in advance – and place them into a deep dish pie dish (or a casserole dish).
- Slice all the cherries in half and and then slice about half of them into quarters so some of them are smaller.
- Add the sugar, lemon juice (zest this lemon in a separate bowl first to mix with the sugar for the topping), cornstarch, almond extract and cinnamon to the mixture and toss until they’re all completely combined.
- Puree about ⅓ of the mixture in a food processor and then return the puree to the dish, mixing until they’re well combined.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes while you make the topping.
Biscuit Topping
- Zest the lemon into a medium bowl with the granulated sugar and use your fingers to rub them together until they’re well combined.
- Add the flour and baking powder and mix until they’re well combined.
- Add the cubed cold butter and use your fingers again (or a pastry cutter) to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it looks crumbly and most of the butter is tiny little chunks.
- Add the greek yogurt, egg and vanilla extract and use a rubber spatula to mix until it’s well combined. It should be the texture of cookie dough.
Assemble
- Remove the cherries from the oven.
- Use a cookie scooper to scoop out small scoops of the biscuit batter on top of the cherries.
- Brush the top of the biscuits with heavy cream or melted butter and then sprinkle some granulated sugar on top of that.
- Bake for another 45-60 minutes. I baked it on conventional (no fan) because the bottom is so wet and I didn’t want the top to burn. Depending on how your oven circulates heat, it could take as little as 45 minutes or up to an hour or so. You want the biscuits on top to be golden brown and there should be slow and thick bubbles of the cherry filling coming up around the sides.
- If the top is browned but the filling doesn’t have slow thick bubbles yet, cover the top with foil for a little so it doesn’t burn.
- Allow it to cool a little before serving so the filling can set.
Pro Tips for the best cobbler
- Don’t substitute ingredients that aren’t mentioned in the ingredient & substitution section
- Don’t reduce the sugar – it makes the filling jammy and the topping tender. The cobbler is not overly sweet and if you reduce the sugar, you will have a more runny filling on the bottom.
- If using frozen cherries, make sure to thaw them so you can slice them and then discard the juice (or you could try adding an extra Tbsp of cornstarch to combat the extra moisture).
- You could technically use them frozen too but I didn’t like the filling as much when the cherries were whole.
- Let it cool after it comes out of the oven so you get that nice jammy filling on the bottom.
Frequently Asked Questions
Technically yes but if you use frozen cherries, you can slice them and I didn’t prefer the filling with whole cherries. It was just a lot less jammy and just chunky.
I haven’t tested this but the texture of the cobbler topping is like a cross between biscuits and cake – sort of like a cookie dough and my cakes and cookie dough do well with 1:1 gluten-free flour substitutes like King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill. If you try it let us know in the comments!
Yes! Just use dairy free butter and yogurt (or sour cream).
How to store cherry cobbler
I usually cover it and let it sit out at room temperature overnight for the first night. After that I refrigerate it and just reheat it in the microwave when serving.
I have not tried freezing this. I’m not entirely sure if that would work out lol.
Thanks so much for being here, if you make this cherry cobbler I would love it if you left a star rating or a review!
As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!
Love, B
Turns out amazing every time and so easy to make! I have done it with fresh cherries and also with canned cherry pie filling – delicious both ways! The biscuit topping is divine.