Shelley's Birthday Cherry Cobbler

For my good friend Shelley's Birthday I made her request--Cherry Cobbler!

Having never made cherry cobbler before, I was excitedly up to the challenge! I checked through my cookbooks and some online blogs for recipe ideas. I finally came up with a combination of Pioneer Woman's Cobbler Crust and Cooking Light Cookbook's Cherry Filling!

2 pounds of fresh sweet cherries! Yummm!!!
Cleaned up!

Pitted by hand (this was also a learning experience--but I was able to come up with an at home pitter--the tip of my carrot peeler!) I recommend wearing gloves because the cherry juice is messy and will stain your hands.

This is funny---I really wanted a close up picture of some cherries, so I kept trying and trying (as you can see above it was quite blurry). So I finally got Steve to come over & help me with the camera settings...

And look--perfectly shiny cherries!

2 pounds of pitted cherries

Pits!!! After pitting, (and I forgot to take pictures on this step), you combine the cherries with 1¼ cup sugar, 4 tablespoons uncooked quick cooking tapioca, 1 ½ tablespoon lemon juice & 1/8 teaspoon salt...Pour into a pie Pyrex dish & set aside for at least 15 minutes...

Next part--crust! Combine 2 cups Flour, ¼ teaspoons Salt & 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder. Add ¼ cups Shortening & 4 Tablespoons Butter...

Cut the butter & shortening into the flour mixture (you can use a fancy pastry blender, but I just used a fork)

Mix together 1 Egg & ½ cup of milk

Pour into flour mixture...

And stir with a fork until smooth (and not sticky)...

Drop clumps of the dough mixture onto the cherry mixture...

Until it is completely covered with the dough. Brush with milk and sprinkle with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar...

Preheat oven to 425 degrees & bake for 30 minutes (should be golden on top) and you can see the cherry sauce bubbling. We let it sit for 30 minutes or so and it was still a bit runny. You should probably let it sit a bit longer just to be sure!

For an even yummier cobbler, eat with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Warning: Do not eat too much because you will have a belly ache! But it is totally worth it!