Berry Cobbler Recipe

Juicy sweet berries and a buttery rich biscuit topping come together in this old-fashioned simple berry cobbler. Use your favorite berries and if they’re out of season, swap fresh for frozen berries. The buttermilk biscuit topping is super soft with a deliciously crisp crust. This easy summer dessert is made even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a dollop of whipped cream!

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Those syrupy berries, that golden brown biscuit crust, the necessary vanilla ice cream topper. It’s funny that out of the hundreds of recipes on my website, I’m declaring this the one and only dessert you should make this summer. Consider this the easier way to enjoy your favorite sweet summer berries without the work of a full pie and pie crust. Forget the others (but maybe not you, key lime pie) and let’s make mixed berry cobbler!

Video Tutorial

What the Heck is Cobbler?

Let’s clear this up! Cobblers, crumbles, and crisps (like apple crisp) fall under the same dessert umbrella. Each are like pie, but without the pie crust. Cobblers are typically topped with a biscuit or cake-like topping, crisps are topped with an oat streusel topping, and crumbles are topped with an oat-less crumb topping. The terms are all pretty synonymous with one another, but cobbler almost always has the biscuit topping. Like a giant strawberry shortcake of sorts. If you like pie, you’ll definitely enjoy cobblers, crumbles, and crisps. (Try my bourbon cherry crisp next because it’s totally out of this world!)

Here’s Why Cobbler is Literally the Best

1. Easier Than Pie: With mixed berry cobbler, we’re essentially taking berry pie and replacing the finicky pie crust with an easy biscuit topping. Skip the pie dough chilling and leave the rolling pin in your cabinet.
2. Short Cooling Time: As much as I love homemade pie, it comes with a long cooling time. Sometimes we need something a little quicker than a blueberry pie, but just as seasonal and impressive.
3. Adaptable: Berry cobbler is totally adaptable to whichever berries you want. You can turn this recipe into a blackberry cobbler or blueberry cobbler simply by using all of that particular berry. Not in the mood for berries? Try my peach cobbler instead. You could even replace the peaches with apples or pears, too.
4. Basic Ingredients: No strange ingredients required. Cobbler doesn’t require much, just the usual suspects like fruit, flour, butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt.
5. Naturally Flavorful: Celebrate the season’s sweetest natural flavors! A lot of the flavor in cobbler comes from the juicy mixed berries.
6. And It’s Delicious: What’s better than lush sweet berries and soft cake-like biscuits with a golden crisp crust? Name a better summer duo. I always include it in my lineup of Memorial Day recipes for this reason!

We love this during the summertime and it’s lovely for 4th of July, BBQs, Father’s Day, family reunion gatherings, and more, but since you can use frozen fruit, it’s great any time of year!

Best Berries for Berry Cobbler

Hit up the farmer’s market or grocery store sales: you need 8 cups of berries total. I used 3 cups blueberries, 2 cups blackberries, 1 and 1/2 cups chopped strawberries, and 1 and 1/2 cup raspberries. Keep in mind that the juicier the fruit (raspberries, strawberries), the more liquid-y your berry layer will be.

You can use frozen berries in this cobbler, too!

How to Make Berry Cobbler

You only need 2 bowls!

1. Mix the berry layer ingredients together: Gently mix berries, a little sugar, cornstarch to thicken, a squeeze of lemon juice (to brighten the flavors), and vanilla extract together. Spread evenly into a 9×13 inch baking pan.
2. Make the biscuit dough: You need flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, and buttermilk. Mix the first 4 ingredients together, then cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter until pea-sized crumbs form. These flour-coated butter crumbles promise a flaky soft, yet crisp biscuit topping. After that, mix in buttermilk. Buttermilk creates an ultra-rich biscuit. Just like when we make cheddar biscuits, it’s important that the butter and buttermilk are both very cold, otherwise the dough will completely melt down into the berries. This biscuit topping is actually very similar to my homemade biscuits, but includes a little sugar since it’s dessert.
3. Arrange dough on top of the berries: Flatten sections of the biscuit dough out with your hands, then place them on top of the berries.
4. Top with buttermilk & coarse sugar: Because it’s fun to be extra, brush the biscuit dough with buttermilk. This creates a lovely sheen on top. For some sparkle and extra crunch, sprinkle with coarse sugar. You could also use an egg wash like we do with mixed berry slab pie.
5. Bake: Bake until the biscuits are golden brown, about 45 minutes.
6. Cool for only 5 minutes: Just enough time for you to get out the vanilla ice cream. 🙂

Or you can top cobbler with whipped cream. There are no rules!

Less is More

Here’s the part where I tell you to do less. Something we don’t often hear when it comes to baking, but I know we all appreciate an effortless dish!

Over-working the biscuit dough will prevent it from rising and stretching, creating an unappealing and dense texture. Mix the buttermilk into the dough very lightly. After the dough comes together, flatten sections with your hands and place them on top of the berries. There is no precise method or magic trick here—just place flattened biscuit dough sections randomly on top, covering most of the berries underneath.

For this berry cobbler recipe, I actually reduced the biscuit topping from my peach cobbler. I wanted less topping so more of the beautiful berries are exposed. As a result, this dessert is extra fruity and extra juicy. Fresh homestyle comfort food—simply the best!

Looking for More Berry Desserts?

• Mixed Berry Galette
• Fruit Pizza
• Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie
• Blueberry Pie & Blueberry Pie Bars
• Lemon Blueberry Cake
• Easy Berry Icebox Cake

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