Blackberries and peaches are in season, and they make a perfect pair for a summertime cobbler. Traditional cobblers rely on refined sugar, butter, and cow’s milk, but these ingredients aren’t missed at all in this dish, in favor of dates, non-dairy milk and banana.

Blackberry-Peach Cobbler
Serves: 6-8

Ingredients: 

Fruit:
• 1- 1 1/2 cups pitted and sliced fresh peaches (about 3 large peaches)
• 2 cups blackberries

Fruit sauce:

• 3 medjool dates, pitted, chopped, and soaked in water (to cover) for about 30 mins.
• 2 tablespoon lime or lemon juice
• ½ cup water (can use date soak water)
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• ¼ cup oat flour

Topping:

• 1- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats, ground into flour (or oat or other type of pre-ground flour)
• ½ large, ripe banana, sliced
• 3 dates, pitted, chopped, and soaked in water (to cover) for about 30 mins.
• ½ cup non-dairy milk (soy, almond, rice, etc.)
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• 1- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions: 

Preheat oven to 375. Put the 6 dates (3 for the Fruit Sauce and 3 for the Topping) into 2 separate dishes to soak.

Fruit: Place peaches and blackberries into a large bowl. Set aside.

Fruit sauce: Blend the dates, lime or lemon juice, water, allspice and flour in a blender until smooth. Pour into the bowl of fruit and toss. Pour the fruit mixture into a baking dish and spread out evenly. You can use most sizes of baking dishes; I use a large ceramic pie pan, but a 9×9” or a 9×13” square pan would also work, just keep in mind that the fruit and the topping will be spread out more thinly with a larger pan. (No treatment is necessary for the pan.)

Topping: Using your blender again, blend the banana, dates, and non-dairy milk together until smooth. Transfer this mixture to a bowl and add the oat flour, allspice, baking powder and vanilla extract. Mix with a fork until the texture is somewhere between dough and batter (fairly thick). Spread the topping over the fruit filling evenly, or drop by spoonfuls, leaving gaps of fruit between. Cook at 375 degrees for between 25 and 30 minutes, or until topping is lightly browned. Let sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Preparation: 30 minutes; cooking time: 25 minutes

Chef’s Notes:

Topping/banana: I have heard people say they weren’t crazy about the idea of banana flavor in recipes where I use it as a binder (instead of Butter or eggs). But you can’t really taste the banana here, so give it a try. The banana helps give the topping a moist, biscuit texture.

Flour: I usually grind my own flour in my high-speed blender using rolled oats, but you can use any type of pre-ground flour here.

Allspice: If you don’t have this, you can use cinnamon and cloves, or cinnamon and nutmeg.

Fruit: Feel free to change up the fruit in this dish. Also good would be apples, blueberries, strawberries, nectarines, and pineapple.

By Kathy Fisher