Nectarine and Plum Cobbler

Now…. Plums are full rage here. At RM10/kg, it’s not that expensive compared to the previous stone fruits that I’ve used, like apricots, peaches and cherries. And plums are easily available no matter which part of Malaysia you are in, well, I can’t say the same for really small villages or the interior of East Malaysia. I do remember Ting, my old Sarawakian housemate, that there’re no plums where she stay, and she has to order them from her fruit seller. But anyway, it’s still the most common and cheapest stone fruit in Malaysia.
And this time, I want to make a cobbler, a more usual cobbler compared to the rolled up one.I was attracted to this recipe, because the biscuit topping uses yogurt, and how I love yogurt in bakes. Makes the texture all so nice.

Initially I wanted to make a plum cobbler. Well, plums don’t have much fragrance, so I added in some nectarines. I saw these nectarines at the morning market at RM1/pc. Cheap huh!!! But these nectarines were a pain in the a** when it comes to pitting. Usually I’ll just cut at the slit, the run the knife all around the fruit, then twist the fruit to release from the seed. Darn!!! It just won’t budge, and the whole fruit squashed in my hands. Anyone wants nectarine pulp??? Well, anyway, luckily in this recipe, the fruits are chopped and hidden under that biscuit crust. I gathered the pulp, still in recognizable large pieces and chopped. I didn’t twist the other nectarines, but just cut them off the seed. Darn!!!

Nectarine and Plum Cobbler
Recipe adapted from Cupcake Muffin

Biscuit Crust
125gm all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
50gm sugar
60gm butter
65gm plain yogurt

Filling
1kg of plums and nectarines (weighed before cutting)
60gm soft brown sugar (how much sugar depends on how sweet ur fruits are, if they are just sweet, then this will be nice, but if they are slightly sour, please be a lot more generous with the sugar as the sourness intensifies after baking)
1 Tbsp lemon zest
3 Tbsp lemon juice (I find it a bit too sour, maybe 1 tbsp might be sufficient, but adjust this to your liking)
30gm corn starch (I prefer cornstarch to flour)

1. Cut plums and nectarines into cubes. Put in sugar and let it macerate for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 160/180C.
3. Meanwhile (after step 1, while waiting), Sift flour with baking soda and baking powder. Mix with salt and sugar.
4. Rub cold butter into (3) until it resembles crumbs.
5. Put in yogurt, and with a spoon, gently mix until it becomes a soft and sticky dough. Add more yogurt by the teaspoon if you please, should you ever find it not soft enough.
6. Now, take the fruits and then toss in lemon zest, lemon juice and cornstarch. Toss toss toss.
7. Melt some butter (about 1 Tbsp) and pour into your baking dish (I used a 6X9 pan and a 6 oz ramekin), or you can actually melt the butter in the oven while preheating.
8. Pour all the fruits into the buttered pan. Dot with the sticky dough until surface seems all covered. No need to be too perfect.
9. Bake for 40 minutes or until surface looks golden and pretty.

I like the way the filling seems to ooze out from under the biscuit crust

I took the shot above when it was still very very warm, was rushing, actually. So, the filling looks runny. The colour of the filling actually darkened as it ages. By night, it turned so prettily pink that when I had this for supper, I truly regretted not taking the earlier pics against a dark backdrop. And it's a lot firmer too and no longer runny.