Vegan Rainier Cherry Cobbler with Hazelnut Biscuits

I got 2 large containers of beautiful Rainier cherries at the store for a really good price, and I could not wait to bake something with them!  Before I had even found them at the store I was daydreaming about cherry cobbler.  I imagined it with dark cherries, but the Rainier were on sale so that is what I chose. I actually prefer them, but  they are normally more expensive around here so I was happy to find them on sale!  I have been making a lot of baked fruit desserts lately, cobblers, crisps and pie.  There is just something so delicious about a freshly baked warm fruit dessert that is still warm from the oven served up with cool ice cream.  These have always been a Summer staple at my house.  So, back to those cherry cobblers...
I kept the filling simple to allow the flavors of the sweet cherries to shine, adding just lemon juice and vanilla along with the sweetener.  I knew these were going to be delicious because the cherries were super flavorful and sweet.  I suppose you can disguise under-ripe unflavorful fruit in desserts like this but they taste so much better when you don't need to doctor them up much.  Which is why I prefer to eat what is in season.  And why I mostly make these in the Summer because berries, cherries and peaches my favorite cobbler fruits are only in season this time of the year. I always start the fruit baking in the oven so it can get all jammy and delicious before I add the cobbler, and it smelled amazing while baking.

For the biscuits, I actually use my scone dough, but enhanced with nut flour to make it more rich and delicious.  These are not your typical biscuits, they are flaky, delicate and better than any other ones I have tried.  I used hazelnut flour in them this time along with the gluten free AP flour and they had a nice nutty flavor.  Once they were added to the cobblers and all baked up and beautiful, I could not wait to try them!  They were super delicious served warm with coconut milk ice cream.  If you have cherries on hand, definitely give these a try!  This is sweet Summer comfort food at its best.

Vegan Rainier Cherry Cobbler with Hazelnut Biscuits
Serves 2-3
Fruit:
  • 3 cups organic rainier cherries, pitted
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 2 Tbsp gluten free all purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

biscuit topping:

6 inch wide ovenproof bowl or pie plate

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees with the rack at the center position. Place a baking sheet lined with foil on the rack. Oil a 6 inch wide pie plate or bowl with coconut oil. In a large bowl, toss together the fruit, maple syrup,  lemon juice and zest, vanilla, flour. Spoon into prepared bowl or pie plate, and cover with foil. Place plate on baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes until fruit is cooked through and bubbling.
  2. Meanwhile, when the fruit in the oven is almost at 45 min, to make biscuits, in a large bowl, combine the flour, hazelnut meal, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the oil with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture starts to clump into pea sized pieces. In a small bowl, stir the vanilla extract into the coconut milk. Add the milk to the dough, and stir a few times, but do not over-mix. The dough should hold together when squeezed, but still be clumpy. Place dough on a floured work surface, and pat into a 1/2 inch tall rectangle.
  3. Remove baking fruit from oven. Cut small shapes out of the dough using a cookie cutter (or free form it), and place on top of the cobbler.  When all biscuits are on top of cobbler, sprinkle with coconut sugar and return to the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes until biscuits are cooked through and lightly brown and toasted on top (keep a close eye on they could burn very quickly). Remove from oven and let cool until warm, and top with some ice cream or coconut vanilla whipped cream and...enjoy!

*raw hazelnuts ground to a flour consistency in a food processor

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