Depending on who you ask, a cobbler could be any number of pie-like baked fruit dishes. Some are topped with rolled-out or dropped biscuits, and others use a cake-like batter. Sometimes the biscuits innovate with cornmeal, or the order of assembly is reversed so that a top layer of fruit bakes into a batter below. What every single iteration of cobbler seems to agree on is that cobblers always fit squarely within a dessert course. But I do not.
Why can’t a cobbler be a breakfast thing? Where does cake batter, definitely a dessert thing, end and pancake batter, definitely a breakfast thing, begin? What if we top the cobbler with yogurt instead of ice cream? What if we tuck in more whole wheat flour and hold back on the sugar? These are the questions nobody asked but that I think about endlessly while trying to work up a more intellectual argument for cobbler for breakfast (as if I’m this discerning if the cobbler craving strikes at 9 a.m.).
This blueberry pancake cobbler is decidedly and intentionally a breakfast cobbler, and the outcome of years of tinkering to get it just right. The pancake-like batter on top is just-sweet-enough and mostly whole wheat. The lemony blueberries underneath bake until bubbled and juicy, like the very best pockets of a blueberry pancake. Together, you get all of the enjoyment of a fluffy pancake with blueberry compote, but with a fraction of the effort. You mix the berries directly in the baking pan and the batter in one bowl. You can scale it up easily to feed however many people will be around your table. Or, you can make extra on purpose and feel confident that any leftovers reheat perfectly in the next few days.
Most important, you’re not going to be standing over a stove, flipping skillet after skillet of pancakes, getting splattered and probably crankier as the minutes pass. You won’t even have a stove to wipe down later. What will you do with all of this extra free time? You could start a new hobby, organize the pantry, or mix some Bloody Marys.
This recipe has one extra trick up its sleeve too: the cobbler is crackly on top from using an old-school technique called a hot sugar crust. I first learned of these crusts in a recipe from Seattle-based author and chef Renee Erickson, who coats her peach cobbler batter with a blanket of sugar and a few big splashes of warm water. It feels all wrong to do until you see what happens in the oven. The water and sugar meld together into a crisp lid that shatters with the tap of a spoon like a great crème brûlée, but one that’s as easy for you, the cook, to make as it is for everyone to eat.
