Apple Festival Cobbler
“Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.”
~ Jane Austen
Can it just be Fall already? It’s September. Football is back. School is in session. There’s a hint of crispness in the air. And apples are ripe for the picking. Ok yeah, I’ve decided it’s just going to be Fall right now. Sorry, Summer lovers! And an apple cobbler is just the right way to kick off the most wonderful of seasons!
These beauties are directly from farmers via the North Carolina Apple Festival. Six varieties make an appearance in the cobbler:
Jonathan - a sweet, red apple with a strong acidic flavor; tough but smooth skin
Honeycrisp - a hybrid of Macoun and Honeygold; sweet, firm and tart
Arkansas Black - a medium-sized, slightly flattened apple with a dark red/burgundy pigment; fairly tart and very crisp; excellent for baking
Fuji - cross between Red Delicious and old Virginia Ralls Genet; large and round; dense, sweet and crisp flesh
Rome - glossy red with thick skin and firm flesh; popular baking apple; less desirable as an eating apple because it’s less sweet
Cortland - a McIntosh/Ben Davis hybrid that is mostly red on a yellowish background and sometimes has streaks and dots of green; sweetness and very white flesh make it a good dessert apple
apple festival cobbler
For an 8 or 9 in. one-crust pie:
- 1 cup plus 2 tbsp flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 2-3 tbsp cold water
For the filling:
- 6-10 apples (depending on size)
- flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, fresh lemon juice and zest, fresh orange juice and zest (I didn’t measure these ingredients. I like to start with a little of each and then taste test. Amounts of each depend on how sweet and juicy you want the filling to be. This part is totally up to you. You can’t really go wrong.)
I love all the colors!
I put the apples in a 13x9 dish, but that ended up to be too large. The apples baked down so much, and there was too much crust for that amount of filling. (Would you like a few apples with your crust?!) So I would use an 8x8 or 9x9 dish, or just use more apples! Roll out the dough and place on top of the filling as a whole piece of dough, in strips or in a lattice design. Bake at 400 until slightly brown and bubbly (about 30 minutes.)
