Gluten Free: Fruit Cobbler

There's loads of lovely fruit in season, with more on the way as the summer warms up. Soon, we'll be up to our ears in brilliant British berries and continental soft fruits! If you find that you are actually up to your ears in fruit (or just have lots on the verge of turning to mush all at once) then a cobbler is a great way to put that fruit to work. Any fruit will do, rhubarb and strawberries, summer fruits, blueberries, blackberries and apples, peaches or plums are all fantastic cobbler fillings.

This cobbler has nothing to do with people who make shoes, except that I'm sure they think it's as delicious as other people do, it probably has more to do with the cobbled effect of the topping after it's baked over the fruit. I always thought cobbler was an American dessert, but after some research I discovered that, when it has a scone-y top, it's also quite popular in parts of the UK so you're completely justified in serving it with gallons of custard.

Fruit Cobbler (serves 4 people)
You'll need:

• 800g fruit, whatever's in season
• 75g caster sugar
• 145g gluten free plain flour mix
• 35g ground almonds
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 60g butter
• 60ml whole milk
• 1 egg
• 1tsp vanilla extract

Make it!

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
2. Chop your fruit into 2cm pieces, if needed, and put in an ovenproof dish, sprinkle with 50g of sugar.
3. Put the remaining sugar, gluten free flour mix, ground almonds, salt and baking powder and add the butter. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients (or pulse in a food processor) until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
4. Add the milk, egg and vanilla and stir to form a thick batter.
5. Drop the batter in dollops over the fruit, it doesn't have to be even, in fact it's better if it's a bit haphazard.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cobbler is golden brown on top and the fruit is bubbling around the topping.
7. Serve hot or cold. It's best eaten on the day you make it before the topping soaks up the juices from the fruit and turns soggy!