For this dessert, juicy strawberries are made even more fragrant with a little rose water. The lemon-scented crust isn’t plopped on as it is on most cobblers; here it’s placed in lattice strips, to add a little down-home sophistication. It’s so pretty and cheery that if you aren’t already donning a ’50s-style apron, you’ll feel as if you should be.
Ingredients
Filling
- 3 pounds strawberries, hulled and cut into quarters
- ½ cup organic sugar
- 2 tablespoons tapioca flour
- 2 tablespoons rose water
- 1 tablespoon water
Pastry
- ½ cup unsweetened nondairy milk
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 3 tablespoons organic sugar
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- Generous pinch of salt
- ¼ cup canola oil
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Have ready an 8-inch square baking dish or pan. Prepare the Filling
- Mix together all the filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir to coat the strawberries and set aside. Prepare the Pastry
- In a measuring cup, combine the milk, lemon zest and juice, and vanilla. In a bowl, stir together the flour, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and the poppy seeds, baking powder, and salt. Sift together with a fork. Drizzle the oil into the flour mixture and stir with a fork until the mixture is crumbly. Add the milk mixture and mix with a wooden spoon just until the dough holds together.
- Flour a flat work surface and your hands. Give the dough a quick knead in the bowl (like five times or so) and then turn it onto the work surface. If it feels very sticky, add a bit more flour. Gently flatten the dough into roughly the size of the baking dish you are using. With a floured pizza cutter or a knife, create seven or eight strips of dough, each about an inch wide.
- Give the strawberry mixture another stir and transfer to the baking dish. Now make a Lattice on top of the Cobbler
- Gently lay four strips of dough in parallel across the top of the filled baking dish with some space between them. Then, lift the second strip and lay a new strip perpendicularly across underneath it. Lift the fourth strip and tuck your cross-strip under that one, too. So, now you have a kind of weave. Repeat with the next strip, this time lifting the first and third original strips. When all the strips are used, tuck in the edges around the strawberries.
- Sprinkle the top with the remaining tablespoon of sugar and bake for 35 minutes, until the cobbler is bubbly and the dough is slightly browned.
- Remove from the oven and let cool a bit before serving. You’ll need to cut the cobbler with a serving spoon to get all the juices. For optimum presentation, serve each slice into a bowl, then lift the crust to preserve the lattice and spoon more strawberries and juice into the bowl. Don’t forget the vegan ice cream!