Blueberry Haze

I have a confession… I despised blueberries until a few years ago.  I know, I know, how could you not love the tart, sweet pop of a fresh blueberry?  Trust me, I don’t understand it either. But now, I love getting a fresh carton of blueberries in the summer during their peak season. And I especially love baking with fresh blueberries – they get so syrupy and perfect in baked goods that no one can resist.

Turns out, blueberries also pair beautifully with one of my favorite florals to bake with: lavender.  The floral touch that lavender brings balances the sweet and tart bite of the blueberries. It’s a very subtle change, for any of you out there who haven’t explored trying floral flavors in your desserts yet, that will pleasantly surprise you.  With the first bite you’ll notice that there’s a roundness to the dish that you don’t find in a classic blueberry cobbler. The tart and floral filling is paired with a soft, sweet biscuit topping, making for a dream dessert perfect for any summer night!

The biscuit recipe is adapted from Molly Baz’s recipe for peach cobbler with burnt honey from her book “Cook This Book”.  It’s one of my absolute favorite cookbooks in the entire world and the cobbler topping is absolute perfection!  The soft texture pairs perfectly with the pop of the blueberries and browns nicely across the top.  I’ve added some lavender sugar to reinforce the lavender flavor in this dish and I hope you love it as much as I do!

Tips for Making a Delicious Blueberry Cobbler with Lavender Sugar

If you plan on making this cobbler, here are a few suggestions to ensure a great bake:

• Only use culinary grade lavender when making the lavender sugar. I’ve been really happy with the taste and quality of this one from Amazon.
• Use a pan or baking dish with higher sides, if you can.  The blueberries will bubble up in the oven, and you don’t want to lose too much of the juice!
• Refrigerating the biscuit dough before baking it is a crucial step.  This helps to resolidify the butter so that it doesn’t immediately melt as soon as it hits your hot oven. If it’s cold, it won’t melt until the flour in the biscuits begin to set, trapping the butter in the center. This way, you’ll get buttery flaky biscuits!
• You will have some remaining lavender sugar after this recipe and I strongly suggest adding a spoonful to your morning (or afternoon) coffee!  The lavender flavor isn’t too strong with the bold flavors of coffee, but it rounds out the cup very nicely!

Recipe Details

This recipe is broken down into three parts: making the lavender sugar, making the cobbler biscuit topping, and finally making the blueberry filling. To begin, you’ll make the lavender sugar.  A really simple recipe that has tons of applications outside of this one recipe. To make the lavender sugar, you’ll pulse a small amount of culinary grade lavender flowers with white sugar. The sugar will smell very strongly of lavender, but it will temper out when paired with other flavors, and especially after it’s baked.  This sugar mixture is also great added to a morning coffee or to sprinkle over shortbread cookies before you bake them.

Once your lavender sugar is made, you’ll start actually assembling the ingredients for your blueberry cobbler!  Starting off with the sweet biscuits for the top – you’ll first mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  This is an important step, as you’ll want to evenly distribute the baking powder so when you add the wet ingredients you get an even rise across the entire biscuit.  To the dry ingredients you’ll then add small pieces of butter, cutting them into the dough until they are incorporated into the flour and about pea sized.  Cutting the butter into the dough will give little pockets of butter in your biscuits (hello, flavor!), but not over work the flour in the dough.  Overworking the flour will make for a tough biscuit, which no one wants!  To the buttery, flour mixture, you’ll then add some heavy cream.  The liquid is what will bring the mixture together into a dough, meaning it’s ready to be shaped, cut, stacked, and reshaped in order to create some luscious biscuit layers!  Once your biscuits are layered and recut, you’ll refrigerate them while you make the blueberry filling so the butter can set back up.

Lastly, you’ll prep the blueberry and lavender filling! To make the filling, you’ll add the lavender sugar, flour, a bit of salt, plus the zest and juice of half a lemon to create a tart, sweet, fruity filling.  This mixture will be added to a baking dish of your juice (just make sure it has tall enough sides to hold in the blueberry juices will it bakes and bubbles). On top of the blueberries will the be the buttery biscuit topping. The biscuits are brushed with more heavy cream and topped with lavender sugar, to add another hint of floral taste to the dish and encourage even browning across the top of the biscuits while they bake.

The blueberry cobbler will be baked in just under an hour and then should be left to cool on a rack for about 5 minutes before serving. This dish is best served warm, right out of the oven.  It’s great on it’s own, but also pairs nicely with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

If you give this blueberry cobbler with lavender sugar recipe a try, be sure to tag @laura.loves.to.cook on Instagram, Tik Tok, or Facebook and let me know how it turned out. I hope you love it as much as I do!!

Print Recipe

0 Add to Favorites

Blueberry Cobbler with Lavender Sugar

Author: Laura Wilkins Cooking Method: Baked Cuisine: American Courses: Desserts

Difficulty: Intermediate Prep Time 25 mins Cook Time 50 mins Rest Time 5 mins Total Time 1 hr 20 mins

Cooking Temp: 375  °F Servings: 8

Best Season: Summer

Dietary:

N Nut Free V Vegetarian

Description

A slight twist on the classic dessert, this blueberry cobbler with lavender sugar is a delicious way to celebrate blueberry season. It’s a bit sweet, a bit floral, and full of nostalgic flavor.

Ingredients

Scale

1/2x 1x 2x 3x

Lavender Sugar

• ¹⁄₂ tbsp culinary grade lavender
• 1 cup granulated sugar

Biscuit Topping

• 3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 ¹⁄₂ tsp salt
• ³⁄₄ cup (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter
• 1 ³⁄₄ cup heavy cream, plus an additional tablespoon for brushing
• 1-2 tsp lavender sugar

Blueberry Filling

• 18 oz (about 4 cups) fresh blueberries
• ¹⁄₃ cup lavender sugar
• 1 ¹⁄₂ tbsp all-purpose flour
• ¹⁄₄ tsp salt
• Zest and juice of ½ a lemon

Instructions

Make Lavender Sugar

1. Pulse ½ tablespoon of lavender flowers in a food processor a few times, to break them into smaller pieces.

2. Add 1 cup sugar and pulse a few additional times, breaking down the lavender flowers further and incorporating them into the mixture. Set aside.

   This will make more lavender sugar than required for the blueberry recipe.  Save any remaining sugar for future bakes or add a spoonful to your morning coffee.

Make the Biscuit Topping

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

2. In a large bowl, whisk 3 cups of flour, ¼ cup of granulated sugar (not the lavender sugar), 2 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1½ teaspoons salt, until all ingredients are evenly distributed.

3. Cut ¾ cup of cold butter into ½ inch pieces and add to the flour mixture.  Using your fingers, a fork, or a pastry cutter, cut (or pinch) the butter into the flour, until the it’s evenly distributed and the pieces of butter about the size of a pea.

4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and slowly pour in 1 ¾ cups of heavy cream while stirring with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula.  Stir until a shaggy dough forms, and then use your hands to bring the dough together at the end, kneading it ever so slightly in the bowl.

5. Turn the dough out onto the counter and shape it into a 1 inch high square.  Use a butter knife or bench scraper to cut the dough into four equal pieces and stack them on top of eachother. Smash the pieces into each other with your hands until an 8 inch x 8 inch square is formed (we’re creating flaky layers of biscuits!).

6. Cut the dough into 12 equal sized pieces and transfer to a baking tray.  Place the tray in the refrigerator to firm up while you make the blueberry filling.  The biscuits can be left in the refrigerator uncovered for up to an hour.

Make the Blueberry Filling

1. In a medium bowl, add 18 oz of fresh blueberries (about 4 cups), ⅓ cup of the lavender sugar, 1 ½ tablespoons flour, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Mix until the sugar and flour covers each piece of blueberry.

2. Zest ½ a lemon directly into the bowl of blueberries and then squeeze the juice from ½ of the lemon into the bowl.  Stir to mix the lemon juice in.

3. Transfer the blueberry mixture to a 9 inch x 13 inch baking dish or a large cast iron skillet.

4. Take the biscuit topping out of the refrigerator and arrange over the top of the blueberry mixture in the baking dish or skillet.

5. Using a pastry brush or paper towel, brush 1 tablespoon of heavy cream over the top of the biscuits. Sprinkle 1-2 teaspoons of the lavender sugar over the top of the biscuits.  The cream and sugar will help the tops of the biscuits to brown up in the oven.

6. Place the baking dish or skillet in the center rack of the oven and place a baking tray on a lower rack to catch any juices that bubble and drip over the top.

7. Bake in a 375°F oven for 45-55 minutes, until the biscuits have baked through and are browned on the top.

8. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes on a rack.  Serve warm on it’s own or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy!