My Lovely Berry Slump

Whatcha gonna do with all that junk? All that junk inside your trunk?

I'ma get get get get you drunk, get you love drunk off my slump...
...my slump my slump my slump my lovely little slump.

Check it out


In the immortal words of Fergie and Will.i.am, I present to you a wonderfully easy and incredibly tasty dessert called, a slump. Aka "cobbler," a slump is simply fresh fruit lightly seasoned with sugar or honey, topped with a biscuit-like batter that is baked until the top is puffed up and golden and the fruit is sweet and tender. It's gorgeous. It's so easy to prepare. And I love it because it's a dessert that very much preserves the integrity of the fruit, letting it shine through unmasked by other flavors or competing spices.

If you're sick of the pies and crumbles in particular, this cousin of the crumble is a must try. I used a combination of blackberries and blueberries because frankly, living in Washington, we have both growing up our asses out here. You could just as easily use any berry combination, stone fruit (cannot wait to try this with plums this summer!) or apples and pears. The dish comes together in 5 minutes to prepare, then bakes away for approximately 50 minutes in the oven leaving you plenty to time to finish prepping your dinner or even consuming it. You can certainly prepare it in advance and then bake it off an hour before you'd like to eat it, as it is best served right piping hot out of the oven. Garnish with simple vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream and you're done.

Blackberry and Blueberry Slump

1 pint blackberries, rinsed
1 pint blueberries, rinsed
1/3 cup granulated sugar + 2 Tbsp, divided (1/3 cup for the fruit; 2 Tbsp for the topping)
small pinch of ground cinnamon
small pinch of ground mace
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp corn starch
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch kosher salt
1/2 cup + splash almond milk*
2 Tbsp butter cut into small pieces
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the berries in a mixing bowl. Add the 1/3 cup of sugar, cinnamon, and mace. Mix the lemon juice with the cornstarch in a small bowl, creating a slurry. This will help thicken the fruit juices when cooking. Add the lemon juice-cornstarch slurry to the fruit and toss to coat. Spray a casserole dish with nonstick spray (or butter) and pour fruit mixture in the casserole dish. Spread it out into an even layer.
 


The slump before it goes right into the oven.



To make the topping, simply whisk together the flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, baking powder, salt, and almond milk in a bowl. Pour the batter right over the fruit. It's ok if not all the fruit is covered or if the batter sinks down. This is good. Dot the top of the slump batter with the butter. Bake in oven for around 50 minutes, or until the top is golden brown, puffed up, and the fruits are bubbling. Let stand 1 minute before serving. Serve hot with ice cream or whipped cream if desired.

 
*Almond milk is a non-dairy milk made from almonds. I used it here for wonderful background flavor because I had it on hand. I loved the subtle almond flavor in the background. If you don't have it, can't find it, or don't want to use it, you can certainly use regular milk (skim to whole, doesn't matter). I wrote down "1/2 cup + splash" because almond milk is considerably thicker than regular milk, so you need just a tad more to get the batter to the right consistency. If you're using just milk then go ahead with the 1/2 cup only.