Story Photos
 Blueberry Buckle (in small casserole dish and serving bowl), Peach-Berry Betty (larger casserole dish), Cherry-Berry Slump (in kettle). Roger Werth / The Daily News
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Cooked-fruit desserts that'll steal the show
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 11:56 PM PDT
By Leslie Slape
Printable version
E-mail this articleSlump, grunt, betty, buckle, crumble, cobbler and pandowdy. Nope, they’re not the new Seven Dwarves. These old-fashioned cooked fruit desserts with the quaint names are wonderful comfort food, easy enough for the novice cook and thrifty on the budget.
Try them when fruit is in season, or use frozen or canned fruit. Although the recipes below mention particular fruits, feel free to experiment. A dessert calling for apricots will taste great with peaches, plums or pears, for example.
All the desserts are forms of cobbler, but each has its own character. Here’s a primer:
Cobbler — A deep dish of sweetened fruit topped by spoonfuls of biscuit dough and baked.
Grunt and Slump — Basically a cobbler made on the stove top, this dessert, traditionally made with berries, dates back to Colonial times. It was called a grunt in Massachusetts (thought to be a description of the sound the fruit makes as it bubbles), and a slump in Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island.
Buckle — Also known as a crumble, a buckle is a single-layer coffee cake with berries mixed directly into the batter (as opposed to being a separate layer, as in a crisp or cobbler). It’s the top of the buckle that gives it its name, a crumb-cake layer that “buckles” or crumples as it bakes.
Betty or Brown Betty — A Betty consists of a fruit, most commonly apples, baked between layers of buttered bread crumbs. Betty was a popular baked pudding made during Colonial times, probably named after a cook.
Pandowdy — This deep-dish baked dessert can be made with a variety of fruit, but is most commonly made with apples sweetened with molasses or brown sugar. The topping is a crumbly type of biscuit, except the crust is broken up during baking and pushed down into the fruit to allow the juices to come through. Sometimes the crust is on the bottom and the dessert is inverted before serving. The exact origin of the name Pandowdy is unknown, but it is thought to refer to the dessert’s plain or dowdy appearance.
PEACH-BERRY BETTY
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups sliced, peeled fresh peaches or nectarines
2 cups fresh raspberries or blueberries
1/4 cup orange juice or water
4 cups soft bread cubes (five slices), divided
1/4 cup cocoanut (optional)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
For filling, stir together sugar, flour and the 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. Add fruit. Stir in juice or water. Toss to coat. Add two cups bread cubes, toss until mixed. Transfer to an ungreased two-quart square baking dish.
For topping, combine remaining bread cubes and cocoanut. Stir together butter and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg; drizzle onto bread cube mixture. Toss gently to coat.
Sprinkle topping onto filling. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 to 35 minutes or until fruit is tender and topping is golden.
— Better Homes and Gardens magazine, September 1996
CHERRY-BERRY SLUMP
1 cup pitted sweet cherries
2 cups mixed berries (blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, as available)
3/4 cup sugar, divided
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/3 cup milk
In a three-quart saucepan, combine fruit, 1/2 cup sugar and 3/4 cup water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat.
Meanwhile, for dumplings, stir together flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Cut in butter to resemble coarse crumbs. Add milk, stirring just to moisten.
Spoon dough in six mounds over hot filling. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the dumplings comes out clean. Serve warm.
— Adapted from a recipe in Better Homes and Gardens magazine, September 1996
BLACKBERRY COBBLER
7-8 cups of berries
1 cup of sugar
Topping:
1 rounded cup flour
1 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
Place fruit in two-quart casserole dish. Sprinkle sugar evenly over fruit. Blend flour, sugar and butter with pastry blender and spoon over top of fruit mixture. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour at 350 degrees or until top is lightly browned.
Variations: This recipe may also be used for dewberries, blueberries, peaches and cooking apples. Vary as follows:
Peach cobbler: Substitute brown sugar for granulated sugar to sprinkle over fruit. Do not change the sugar in the topping.
Apple cobbler: Prepare as above using peeled, cored and sliced apples, except add 1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon nutmeg to sugar to sprinkle over fruit before adding topping.
— The Jackson Cookbook (published by the Symphony League of Jackson, Miss., copyright 1971)
BLUEBERRY BUCKLE
Mix together:
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
Put into greased 8-inch-square pan. Sprinkle 2 cups berries over batter.
Mix together until crumbly:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
Sprinkle over the berries. Bake at 375 degrees about 45 minutes or until done.
— Pioneer Facts, Fancies and Remedies, published by the Cowlitz County Historical Museum
APPLE PANDOWDY
4 apples, peeled, cored, thinly sliced
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup hot water
1 cup sifted flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons shortening
4 to 6 tablespoons milk
Arrange sliced apples in a buttered 11x7-inch baking dish. Combine sugar, cinnamon, and salt; sprinkle over the apples. Combine molasses and hot water; stir to blend. Pour molasses mixture over the apples. Bake apples in preheated 400° oven for about 20 to 30 minutes, until apples are tender.
Meanwhile, make a soft dough. Sift flour with baking powder and salt; cut in shortening until mixture resembles meal. Add milk, mixing with a fork, enough to make a soft dough. Knead lightly for about 10 seconds. Roll dough into a rectangle 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick, to fit over the 11x7-inch pan. Fit the dough over the cooked apple mixture and pierce all over with a fork to let steam escape. Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes longer, or until nicely browned.
— Southern Recipes at about.com
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