P&Q: Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler

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Nikki is a slacker so of course being a good little TWD staffer I need to pick up her slack. Sorry for the delay.

Post your cobbler conundrums here.

(Nikki… and you think *MY* memory sucks?? HAHA)

53 thoughts on “P&Q: Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler”

  3. Rhubarb is sour, that could be one reason why the recipe calls for regular cherries, not sour cherries. There’s really nothing quite like it, I think. You may be able to find it frozen in some markets. If you sub with apples, I’d go with Granny Smith apples to mimic the sourness of the rhubarb.

  4. I think rhubarb is delicious because I grew up eating it from my grandpa’s garden. It is definitely very sour and the texture might seem strange, but I think it has a great flavor that is really unique. I am thinking of subbing out the cherries and using strawberries, since rhubarb and strawberries are commonly put together. Every recipe I have ever had with rhubarb has enough sugar that it is still sour but sweet at the same time.

  7. I love rhubarb. I asked my husband about subbing strawberries for cherries, and he vetoed the idea. So, I’m doing the original.

    Amy — I think that I might thaw the rhubarb. You don’t want extra liquid in the cobbler, and the rhubarb will cook down into a little mush anyway.

  8. I have fresh rhubarb and frozen cherries. Should I leave the cherries frozen and slice them, or thaw them. I’ve also never used rhubarb before (but love it), I read that you have to peel it? I may have to look up how to prepare them. This will be my 1st TWD and will make it tomorrow.

  9. I made this this week, and gave it to my dad for his birthday.

    He said “filling needs a bit more sugar, and the topping needs just a bit more salt.”

    I will be making another one for a family in our church and make those changes.

  10. rachelle…i also used frozen cherries. i didn’t thaw them (just used them frozen). mine were already pitted, so i just cut each in half. for the rhubarb, i treat it basically like celery: wash the stalks well and trim off the tops and bottoms. then if you see any long strings, just take a pairing knife and pull them down and off. you probably won’t need to use a peeler, just pull off the strings you see. if your rhurarb stalks are thin, then after you’ve cleaned and trimmed, just cut them into pieces as dorie says, but if you have really fat stalks, you may want to divde them in half down the middle before cutting into pieces (so they cook through in the baking time).

  11. Thanks, Steph! My rhubarb is fat so I’ll cut it as I would for celery. They cherries are pitted too. I bought frozen so I wouldn’t have to pit them, lol. About the topping, must we make them into 20 balls? Can’t we just scoop piles of dough around the top? Mmm, I can’t wait to try this.

  12. I agree, the filling needs more sugar. Definitely too tart. It didn’t taste that tart before I baked it but I taste-tested a cherry from the filling, not a piece of raw (blech!) rhubarb.

  13. I wasn’t able to find rhubarb at the farmer’s market today and the grocery didn’t have any either. I was going to sub blackberries but will go with apples since several have suggested it as a good sub.

  15. I made mine tonight. I really enjoyed it, but then, I LOVE rhubarb. It tasted more of rhubarb than of cherries to me. For mine, I used 3 heaping tablespoons of brown sugar in the topping, I didn’t peel my rhubarb, cut it into closer to 1/2-inch pieces than the 1-inch Dorie suggested. I didn’t roll the topping into balls, kind of just broke it up into spoon sized pieces and spread those on top. It was fine. I just tried not to make the pieces too huge. The rhubarb wasn’t tough or stringy.

    I baked mine for 35 minutes and it was browned just right on top, but it wasn’t bubbling up onto the crust at all, so I laid some foil over the top and baked for 10 more minutes. It was just right.

    I guess I didn’t think it was too tart. To me, that’s just the way rhubarb is. Maybe the extra sugar in the topping helped.

    I also added a pinch of cinnamon to the filling.

    Hope everyone else enjoys it as much as I did.

  16. Unfortunately the season is finished for rhubarb in my part of the world so will have to make this without it. I wish this one was chosen earlier in the season, I love rhubarb. Anyhow, I was thinking to put in nectarines, do any of you have another suggestion? I don’t care for the apple idea too much but any other fruit I am open to a suggestion if nectarines isn’t the way to go. Thank you in advance!

  18. Whole Foods was completely out of rhubarb, so I plan to use peaches – they are so fresh right now, and I hope will provide enough of a bite. I think peaches will go great with the ginger – and the cherries, of course.

  19. I think anything youd want to pair with cherries is fine. Im going the apple route. but peaches sound really good, as do nectarines. maybe even plums? i think pears would be good too.

  21. Let me preface this post by saying in no way, shape, or form do I mean to sound ungracious. I think this week’s choice of recipe is just fine and by no means am I complaining about it at all :) :) :)

    Didn’t we just make a cobbler four weeks ago? Those of you who have already made this week’s recipe, other than the choice of fruit how does this cherry rhubarb cobbler differ from the mixed berry cobbler of 6/24/08?

    Yes, I did read thru the recipe and realize this topping isn’t rolled out, it rather has individual biscuit-shapes for topping. But is this recipe significantly different? I’d never made a cobbler before the previous one so I’m no cobbler afficianado – I have so little experience with them… in fact, to call me clueless would not be far off the mark ;-)

    Again, I’m not at all being ungracious about the choice, just looking to understand the significant differences (if there are any) between this and the mixed berry cobbler.

    Thank you :)

  22. Well I think you hit the nail on the head, the topping is not at all the same, and the fruit component is rhubarb and cherry. Id say that differs a lot from berries.

    We did indeed make a cobbler recently, but when its your turn to choose, you choose what you please. Both the ladies who chose cobblers wanted to make a cobbler. Nuff said.

  23. I wasn’t going to use cherries as I didn’t want to pay the price – however I found I have a can of cherries today in my cabinet and frozen rhubarb in my freezer….so I’m making this to take to work for everyone on Monday!

  24. Im excited about making this cobbler, all though I can’t find any rhubarb anywhere. I even looked at the local Famers Market. Im not sure what I will add to the cherries yet. Maybe I will just add more cherries!! Happy Baking everyone.

  25. I’m not a fan of cherries but I had hoped to make this a strawberry and rhubarb cobbler (love strawberry cobbler). I’ve had rhubarb in a raspberry pie before and loved it. I’ve looked and haven’t been able to find any rhubarb, fresh or frozen. Does it still count as a TWD recipe if I just use the strawberry?

  28. hi, everyone. I’ve never made anything with rhubarb before. I’ve washed it, trimmed off the ends, and peeled a layer off with a veg. peeler. I diced it and it still seems really stringy. I can pull off strings on most of the pieces. Does this seem normal? Should I keep peeling, until I can’t get any strings off? It seems like all the pieces are full of strings! Does this mean the rhubarb is not fresh or something? Should I ignore the strings and just proceed? Any advice will be much appreciated! Thanks!

  29. shirlie–i sort of think that rhbarb is kind of like a bunch of strings all stuck together in the form of a stalk. it’s really similar to celery in that respect. so if you’ve already peeled off some from the outer layer, don’t worry about the others. it’s supposed to be that way. it should cook down and be nice and soft by the time the cobbler’s baked, and the strings will not be bothersome.

  32. Wow, I made mine today and it is good! Except, I baked mine at 350′ for 25 mins and the crust was already darkening and it was bubbling away, so I took it out, and the rhubarb was still a little crunchy, edible, but not done enough. I used freshly grated ginger too, and it was wonderful in this! The biscuit crust was good too.

  33. I made mine last night and it was heavenly! I used peaches & wild blueberries, as Dorie says any fruit works. I couldn’t find rhubarb and the cherries were so expensive. The topping was awesome and this was very easy to put together.

  34. Just want to say that I haven’t made my cobbler yet, but to respond to Em, I think that what makes this recipe intriguing is the combination of cherries and rhubarb. In Dorie’s intro, she even talks about that. I am a huge rhubarb fan and am always looking for new ways to use it. I had never before come across cherries & rhubarb together in a recipe, so perhaps that is what inspired the choice. I have a feeling that the person who chose it (sorry, can’t click back to see who that was) may live on the East Coast like I do. Here, we have about 2-3 weeks in late June and early July when cherries & rhubarb are both in season. It’s a really brief period so if someone wanted to make this recipe with both fruits from local farms, early July is the last chance. That maybe another reason it was chosen. I was able to get local rhubarb last weekend, and went ahead and froze it for this week as I thought it might not appear again, and I was right. I look forward to the cobbler…

  35. I made it this morning- I was really lucky to find rhubarb at whole foods & our farmer’s market. Whole foods was charging $4.99/lb for the organic variety, farmer’s market 89 cents/lb. You can guess which I went for.

    I had fresh ginger so I used a little bit less than the recipe called for in the filling because it was so potent and omitted it from the biscuit topping. I absolutely loved the cobbler & was glad I left the ginger out of the topping.

  36. Thanks for your thoughtful reply, Ellen. I’ve been to 3 different markets yesterday and Trader Joe’s this morning… no rhubarb :( At one of the markets the produce guy told me it’s not in season? I live in So.Calif maybe that’s the diff? Oh well, with the price of gas at $4.79/gal here, I think I’m done with driving around trying to find it! LOL

  37. Rachelle – mine was brown enough at 30-35 minutes so I laid a piece of foil over top (I didn’t tuck it around the top edge, just laid on top) to keep it from browning any further… then I baked for the remaining time to make 45 minutes. It worked well.

    Just wanted to let you know for next time :)

  38. Well, I was going to go the apple route. However, the granny smiths didnt look so great. I went with cherry/nectarine, which sounds weird, but turned out wicked good. We both loved it.

  39. I was told (in southern New England) by a couple of farmstand folks that strawberries and rhubarb are grown in tandem, and once the local strawberries are gone, so is the rhubarb. So I am out of luck by a week or two myself. Nectarines sound good…

  40. I ended up using nectarines since mine were a little tart. The ginger was a little overpowering. I was careful to handle the dough lightly, but the dough was like little ping pong balls! We ended up eating the fruit and leaving the cobbler part!

  41. Em, I’m in SO Ca also, and found fresh rhubarb at Sprouts Farmer’s Market ($1.99 lb), similar to Henry’s Market.

    This was such an easy recipe too. I love the cherries in it.

    -Iam reheating mine (in the oven) for dessert tonight, maybe it’ll cook the rhubarb a little more. :)

  42. Has anyone ever made cobbler on the grill? My gas oven officially died when I was about to pop some cookies in the oven yesterday and I don’t know what other options there are. I was thinking I could do the filling on the stove and ? I don’t know! Help!

  43. Em – aside from the filling, what makes this different from the previous cobbler recipe is the topping – it uses a combo of regular flour w/wheat flour, and also has ground ginger in it. i actually like this cobbler topping much better :)

    i made mini cobblers – for anyone else yet to make the recipe, i baked mine for 30 minutes. i was under the impression (since dorie says to peel) that you’re supposed to peel the rhubarb, so that’s what i did (my first time using rhubarb). it was incredibly tart – i had no idea that’s what rhubarb tastes like – it was a nice contrast to the cherries. for anyone who hasn’t tried rhubarb – i encourage you to take this opportunity to try it instead of subbing another fruit :)

  44. At my house we ALL love rhubarb. My kids have begun asking for rhubarb pie instead of birthday cake. I’d encourage those who haven’t tried it to do so.

  45. I was a little nervous going in to this but really wanted to try the cherry rhubarb combination so I just sliced my rhubarb thin, about 1/4 inch. It was a great ‘intro’ to rhubard and even my kids who had never had rhubarb LOVED it :)

    I agree with Jaime that this is a great opportunity to try rhubarb — if you can find it. I called around to a few different grocers and finally found some rhubarb at Meijer.

  46. I bought the cherries and the rhubarb frozen at an orchard shop that sells lots of frozen fruit. It is much less expensive than fresh. (I guess they don’t have to factor in so much spoilage in the price)
    I am making the cobbler tonight. I love fruit cobbler. I can’t wait!

  47. Mary Ann- I’m sorry to hear about your oven! I would try a dutch oven if you have one (or maybe a neighbor?). My friends swear you can bake anything in them, and there is some coal to temperature ratio that I can never quite remember, but I’m sure you could find online (plus, cobbler is a classic for the dutch oven!).

    Also, about the topping- mine seemed done and browned before it actually was, so next time I might cover it with foil so the lower part touching the fruit cooks a bit longer without the top burning. (I thought it was fine, but my husband thought it was a little soggy- I said that’s what the fruit is supposed to do to a cobbler, come on!!)

  48. It’s done. Miraculously, fresh ruhbarb found at Wild By Nature, and frozen pitted sweet cherries from Turkey. It needs more sugar in the filling, and the biscuit is too health foody for my taste. My husband says it tastes like a bran muffin. My healthy neighbors will get the rest.

  49. Call me a slacker! I am gonna be baking up my cobbler this afternoon but does anyone know how to sub white flour for the wheat flour? Is it straight forward 1:1?

  51. This is my first TWD, so a big HELLO to the other fellow foodies/bakers. While I liked making something I’ve never done before, I’m just not a rhubarb kinda girl. Tried it & it’s just not for me. Looking forward to next weeks recipe.

  52. I had a late post…but still made it on Tuesday. I love rhubarb! I had to sub rapsberries for the cherries, but it turned out great.
    Thanks for choosing this recipe.

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