Self-rising flour is scarce: bottom shelf, dim cupboard, cracked cookbook. News in 1845, it now counts as quaint. And yet, it models a modern mindset. Self-rising flour must study self-actualization, meditation, levitation. How else does it propel its purpose-driven life?
Through baking powder. The chemical leavening agent is salted -- along with salt -- into each sack. Once, the self-sufficient cook scoffed at self-rising. She measured one cup all-purpose flour, one teaspoon baking powder and one pinch of salt: self-made self-rising flour.
Which, she learns, is wrong. Self-rising flour, at least the sort prized in the South, is milled from soft red winter wheat. The low-protein product makes quick work of quick bread and lifts biscuits to lofty heights. Lofty goals.
As cobbler season warms up, she cobbles together a substitute from cake flour and all-purpose flour. Her biscuits bake up light and lovely. Affording her one hot second of purpose, driven home.
Fresh Berry Skillet Cobbler
For bottom (filling):
6 cups (1 1/2 pounds) fresh blackberries
2 cups (1/2 pound) fresh raspberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
For top (crust):
1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons butter, cut up
1 cup heavy cream
For skillet:
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar
To serve:
1 cup heavy cream
For the bottom, heap all the ingredients in a large bowl. Fold gently with a flexible spatula. Let rest.
For top, whisk together both types of flour, plus the sugar, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry blender, work in butter until largest lumps are pea-size. Pour in cream, tossing dough with a fork, until dough clumps (you may not need all the cream). Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, knead once or twice. Pat dough into a circle about 3/4-inch thick. Punch out biscuits in a variety of sizes, patting scraps together once.
Melt butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet (at least 2 inches deep). Scrape in berries and their juices. Polka-dot the fruit with biscuits, leaving fruit exposed here and there. Brush dots with a little remaining cream.
Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar.
Set skillet on a rimmed baking sheet; slide into a 375-degree oven, and bake until biscuits are golden and fruit bubbles thickly, even at the center, about 40 minutes. Let cool 20 minutes.
Scoop warm cobbler into bowls. Pour on some cream.
Makes 1 (10-inch) cobbler.
Food on 07/12/2017