My Grandmother's Rolling Pin & My Blackberry Cobbler

I inherited my grandmother's rolling pin.  

She received it as a wedding gift in 1938

and used it and used it and used it

for the next

 70+ years.

It's just a plain rolling pin; no ball bearings, no moving parts

She made her famous-in-our-family

cherry cobbler

for every family gathering.

But since the birds got to my few cherries before I did............

I made blackberry cobbler....

Today I used her rolling pin for the first time....

Yummmm....good thing I used a sheet pan to catch spills

 My blackberries are about 2 weeks early this year....and I'm so glad.


This is my favorite cobbler recipe.


5 cups fresh blackberries (or black raspberries)
1 cup brown sugar (1/2 c. if using raspberries)
1 cup granulated sugar (1/2 c. if using raspberries)
2-4 tablespoons flour (depends on juiciness of berries...2 Tb if using raspberries)
1/2 stick unsalted butter, in pats

Preheat oven to 350.  Put berries in a greased 2 qt. baking dish with at least 2" sides.  Add sugars and flour to berries then toss.  Place the butter pats on top of the berries.  Bake for 15 minutes or until nice and bubbly hot.

In the meantime, make the cobbler crust:

1- 1/2 cups unbleached flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1- 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cold and cut into little cubes
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Cut in butter till mix is about a-little-smaller-than-pea-size and all the dry ingredients are mixed in.  Combine milk and vanilla and add to the dry ingredients, stir with a fork until a stiff ball is formed.  Eat whatever is stuck to the fork, then turn dough out onto a floured surface and with a floured rolling pin roll it out about 1/2" thick and the size of the baking dish.  Roll the dough back onto the rolling pin and unroll it onto the hot berries.  Cut slits in the dough and sprinkle a little sugar on top (you decide how much...do I have to tell you everything?).  Return the cobbler to the oven to bake for 30 - 35 minutes more.  Consider putting a sheet pan under to catch spills (unless you like cleaning your oven).  It's done when the berry juices bubble up through the slits and the crust is delightfully golden brown.

Eat it warm with vanilla ice cream.... thank you.