Berry Mess

My family named this dessert “Berry Mess“.  Creative, aren’t they? They aren’t good about combining a lot of foods – they would never eat something called a casserole.  There are some exceptions, but they would have never made it in the casserole-toting Midwestern farmhouse that I grew up in.  Casseroles and jello salads ruled!  We eat very few of either.

Berry Mess was originally called a fruit cobbler and was on http://Allrecipes.com who gave credit to USA Weekend.  I keep frozen blackberries, blueberries and raspberries in my freezer so this is an easy go-to dessert to make without having to go to the store to buy ingredients.  (You DO keep ice cream in the freezer, right?) You would have a hard time finder a simpler dessert and everyone loves the way it tastes warm out of the oven topped with ice cream.  You can throw this together in 5-10 minutes and have it baking in the oven while you prepare the rest of dinner.  I have used various juicy fruits:  peaches, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries.  You can use frozen or fresh.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in an 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan and set it in the oven to melt.  When it has melted, remove pan from oven.

Whisk 3/4 cup flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a bowl.  Add 3/4 cup milk and whisk to form a smooth batter.  Pour batter into pan over melted butter and scatter 3 cups of mixed fruit over the batter.  Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Bake 50-60 minutes in preheated oven.  The batter will brown and the fruit will bubble.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.  This serves four.