Strawberry Spoon Cake

I ate this whole thing by myself. All of it.

This is a riff on an old fashioned recipe called “Essies Cobbler”. I recommend melting the butter in the pan while the oven is preheating (leaving a bit in the pan and putting the batter in the hot pan create a lovely chewy crust) and also increasing the amount of fruit which can be any juicy fruit - peaches, blueberries, etc.

This was a delicious easy dessert. I chopped 1 up of fresh rhubarb and simmered it with the 1/3 c. Brown sugar, when it was softened I added the strawberries. We are huge strawberry rhubarb fans, this might be better than our family pie recipe!

I browned the butter. Misread the recipe and heated oven only to 325. After 20 minutes discovered the error. Increased temp to 350 and baked for 15 mins more. Absolutely fabulous! The strawberries were caramelized, and the cake had a beautiful color and texture. I will never use Julia’s clafoutis recipe again, and I intend to make my temp/timing mistake each time I bake this. Plus browning the butter added so much umami. Almost as good the next morning at room temp with coffee. A real keeper.

I have some nectarines that need to be used. Do you think it would work in place of the strawberries?

This is the first time I felt the need to add a comment after several years of happily trying NYT recipes. Expected this to be a little heavy and wet but it is the airiest cake - and also moist! Needless to say this came out great. Followed the recipe with some extras - grated fresh young ginger roots to the strawberry-sugar mix, zested lemons and added 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste into the wet ingredients before adding the dry ingredients. Am in Bangkok. Will use ripe mangoes next time.

I’ve made versions of this recipe before; it’s basically a clafouti, a French cake. The first version I made years ago was from a Jane Brody cookbook. Any fruit is good in it. I’ve used blueberries, tart cherries, peaches and strawberries, solo or mixed together.

The big distinction being that clafoutis is very egg rich and this cake interestingly enough has no eggs.

My family inhaled this in one sitting! We used Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten-free flour and fresh-picked strawberries. Served it warm with strawberry ice cream (made from scratch also with our garden berries). What a summer treat!

My grandmother taught me this recipe over 50 years ago. She called it Lazy Woman’s Cobbler. I still use that recipe and alternate the spices related to the fruit and season. So easy to make and take to family and friends. I tried this recipe as written worked perfectly.

I just made a version of this (with rhubarb) where the last step before oven involves sprinkling top with another 1/2 cup of white sugar and then pouring a 3/4 cup of heavy cream over the top of everything (use a deeper pan). Cream intermingles with the cake, fruit, and sugar to make a golden-brown custard-y topping. We still had the ice cream.

I made this with fresh cherries (I used 22, cut in half after removing the pits) and added a drop of almond extract to the cherry/sugar mix. Delicious !!!

lulz I love my baked goods with poisons.

DON’T MAKE THIS CAKE! It is highly addicting.

NYT Notes: - This is a riff on an old fashioned recipe called “Essies Cobbler”. I recommend melting the butter in the pan while the oven is preheating (leaving a bit in the pan and putting the batter in the hot pan create a lovely chewy crust) and also increasing the amount of fruit which can be any juicy fruit - peaches, blueberries, etc. - Chop 1 up of fresh rhubarb and simmered it with the 1/3 c. Brown sugar, when it was softened I added the strawberries.