Summer Cherry Cobbler (Vegan!)

One of my many favorite things about summer is the large selection of perfectly ripe fruit that crowd the grocery store refrigerators. I recently picked up a few pounds of cherries at the store to keep around the house as a healthy snack... but in typical fashion I ended up baking with them instead.

I ended up making a delicious yet light and somewhat healthy vegan cobbler. This can easily be a vegan recipe or not... if you're a huge dairy aficionado then just replace the earth balance with salted butter and the almond milk with regular skim or whole milk!

Also, one last disclaimer.. I don't use measuring cups when I bake... so I did my best to converted my eyeball measurements to cups and teaspoons, but when in doubt just use your chef's intuition... I know its in there somewhere!

Ingredients-

Cherry Filling:

2 cups fresh cherries pitted and halved

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup dark brown sugar (could also use coconut nectar or agave!)

Cobbler Topping:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon (ok... maybe 1.5... see what you feel, it should smell yummy)

1/2 cup almond milk

3 tablespoons melted earth balance

Directions-

For the filling, just mix all the ingredients together and divide among 4 ramekins.

For the the cobbler topping, mix the sugar, flour, vanilla, baking powder, allspice and cinnamon together. Melt the earth balance and then mix that into the flour mixture. The texture at this point should still be lumpy and a little a dry. Add the almond milk a little at time. The mixture should get doughy and then a little more liquid, like a pancake or biscuit batter. Once you have reached the biscuit batter consistency stop adding milk (may take a little more or less than a half of a cup). Taste it and make any necessary spice adjustments before pouring it over the cherry mixture.

Bake at 350 for approximately 30 minutes. The top should be golden and the cherry mixture should be bubbling around the sides.

Enjoy!!