Tis' the season for all things Apple - Sara's Fruit Cobbler

I love all kinds of Fall foods, especially the wonderful Apples. As a kid, Apples were one of my favorite snacks, and they don't disappoint now. One of my favorite snacks is Apples and Sunflower seed butter (think peanut butter but made out of sunflower seeds instead - OMG good - and the butter is easily found at Trader Joe's). Today, however, we're taking about cobblers.

Over the weekend, several of my fellow "foodie" facebook friends commented about, or posted pictures of their yummy Apple pies. I had four apples staring at me, so I decided to make a cobbler. My mom makes THE BEST cobbler, and this is her recipe (pretty much, anyway). The wonderful thing about this recipe is that you can use just about any kind of "pie" filling in it - about four cups of filling. Even the canned pie filling is yummy. One of my favorites is Blackberry cobbler - so good!!

Sara's Fruit Cobbler

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 apples – or four cups of your favorite fruit (or canned fruit pie filling)
• 
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Wash and slice ~four apples - I say "about" because I always snag a slice or two in the process. Set sliced apples aside.

After you have sliced the apples, melt the butter in a 9x13 casserole dish - takes about a minute in the microwave. I don't seem to own a 9x13 casserole dish at the moment, so I used my trusty 9x9 deep dish Pampered Chef baking stone instead. I did coat the whole thing with non-stick spray before melting the butter, but I'm not so sure you need to do that. It just makes cleanup easier.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Once mixed well (large wire whisk works well here), mix in the milk and vanilla. I used skim milk, but I bet it would have been even better with half skim and half half-and-half, or even whole milk. Or even evaporated milk (all that wonderful sweetness ... yummm). Once thoroughly mixed, pour over top of the butter, but DO NOT MIX TOGETHER THE MELTED BUTTER AND BATTER.

Layer the apples on top of the liquid mixture. Again - no mixing.

Place cobbler in pre-heated oven. Bake for 55 minutes. If you like the sides a bit more crispy, add five minutes to the baking time.

There's no wrong way to eat this dessert, but my favorite way is to eat it warm with vanilla ice cream on top ... yummmm ...