Cobblers

Throughout the South you are likely to be served a variety of deep-dish fruit pies, some made with a rich, sweet biscuit dough topping the fruit, others with a cakelike batter. In older cookbooks from the Lowcountry, recipes for fruit-filled desserts are more likely to be boiled puddings in the English manner or custardy creations not unlike the clafoutis of France’s Limousin. Either of these recipes may be made with soft summer fruits such as berries, with fall apples, or with “put-up” fruit, such as peaches. You can flavor the fruit with sugar, rum, spices, or lemon juice and zest if you like. Or you can add more fruit. These recipes are not written in stone, and they always work. The first one is often called “campfire cobbler” because of its utter simplicity. The second is a classic French dessert, possibly brought to the Lowcountry by the Huguenots.