Dairy Free Apple Cobbler

Life Updates:

• A recently had a minor surgery. Everything went perfectly and he is 99% recovered. So thankful. I am now spending a great deal of time trying to keep A and T from rough housing so A doesn’t hurt himself while he recoups that last 1%. 
• Charlie and I celebrated our 9th anniversary. I feel this is getting to be a pretty respectable number. Don’t you think? The way I feel we’ll be hitting 50 years before I know it. 
• Over our anniversary weekend we had the pleasure of attending the Heritage Fire Event in Snowmass (which is part of the Cochon 555 tour). We were graciously invited by the Snowmass Tourism/PR team. So much fun! Lot’s of meat. Lots of great wine and cocktails. I will share pics sometime in the near future. 
• My Grandma has come to visit. It’s lovely to see her. But, I’ve gotta admit it makes me register even more how much I miss my Grandpa. He passed almost a year and a half ago and I still find myself wanting to call and ask him questions, send him pictures of the kids, or whatever, and then realizing I can’t. Not sure when that starts to feel any easier. I’ve also gotta say that it really struck me this Father’s Day.
• But, despite my sadness we did have a nice Father’s Day. I’m blessed to have pretty much the greatest Dad on the planet.  I also love celebrating my wonderful husband who is an amazing dad too. And I’m very thankful for my awesome Father in law as well. We kind of hit the Dad jackpot actually.
• I totally bought a new BBQ. From Amazon. It was a great price + I had free shipping. Admittedly having a BBQ delivered is “interesting” to deal with when it’s too heavy to get in the house on my own… and it’s about to rain. But I got it all worked out in the end. (Borrowed a dolly from the neighbors!) BBQ recipes for the blog should commence in the near future. 
• It’s hot. I love my AC so much. 
• I’m eating a lot of salad (a minor miracle at least).

And that about covers it… So, Dairy Free Apple Cobbler. Basically, this went down because I bought an issue of Sift from King Arthur Flour which had a gorgeous berry cobbler photo/recipe in it; which I immediately realized I desperately needed to make. But, since the recipe was made in a large cast iron skillet, I decided to adapt it to be Dairy Free so Tristan could eat it as well. I had intended to make a berry cobbler as well… but we ate all the berries. So, apple it was. Apple pie/cobbler/galette is still so summer in my option, so that was cool anyhow. 

I really liked the way this turned out. The texture of the crust is a little different then a traditional cobbler, it’s lighter and airier, and a bit more ‘bready’. But I love it. However, I did find I wanted a more saucy fruit to accompany it, so I ended up adapting my magnificent apple pie filling for the filling to create some goo, rather then using straight apple slices. I think with berries of something this wouldn’t be necessary but apples don’t produce as much moisture when they cook, so using a pie style filling works really well in this case. It keeps the balance between filling and bread right and keeps things from being dry. Top with your favorite dairy free ice cream and you’ve got a real winner! 

P.S. All the cooking steps for the recipe can be done in the cast iron skillet which is also awesome. I so love one pan recipes. Less clean up. More eating. 

Enjoy!

Dairy Free Apple Cobbler– Serves 6-8. Recipe adapted from Sift by King Arthur Flour, Spring 2016 and Magnificent Apple Pie Filling, which was originally adapter from Adapted from Allrecipes.com. 

Filling

Biscuit Topping

• 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 1/4 cups non dairy Smart Balacne, melted
• 1 cup vanilla soy milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Egg Wash

• 1 egg
• splash of water
• 1 teaspoon of Turbinado sugar (optional)

1. Add water and cornstarch to a large cast iron skillet. Whisk in the cornstarch so there are no lumps. Add sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and salt, stir well.
2. Place the cast iron over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Stir in apples. Simmer apple mixture for 5-7 minutes, until the liquid begins to thicken. Allow apples to cool before adding the biscuit topping and baking.
3. Preheat the oven to 375*. While the apples are cooling make the biscuit topping. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk well to ensure the baking powder and asking soda are well distributed. 
4. Add the soy milk and vanilla to the bowl. Mix until all the ingredients are just combined and there are no dry spots. The dough will be very sticky. 
5. Use and ice cream scoop or large spoon to drop dollops of the dough on top of the cooled apples (still in the cast iron skillet). The dough will expand some, but not as much as traditional biscuits so leave a little bit of space in between. 
6. In a small bowl whisk together one egg and a splash of water to create an egg wash. Brush the dollops of dough with the wash. Any additional wash can be discarded or saved for a different recipe if desired. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar if desired.
7. Put the cast iron skillet in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the briskets are a light golden brown. Be careful removing from the oven, cast iron gets hot! 
8. Serve warm with your favorite dairy free ice-cream.