Who’s obsessed with chocolate cobbler? I’m not obsessed! I know, admitting the problem is the first step to overcoming it. I’m not sure I want to overcome my affection for chocolate.
What’s better than dessert? Two batches of dessert. 
Recently, I saw a post on a friend’s Facebook feed that was a memory she was sharing from six years previous. That memory happened to be a recipe for chocolate cobbler. Her post indicated she was ready for some and I responded that there would be some coming to a campfire soon.
My thought at the time was to test it and if it worked, take it along to an upcoming camping trip that we might both be attending. Well, I tested it all right, and it was downright delicious. In fact my wife and I ate our fill and even slightly burned our mouths because we didn’t want to wait for it to cool. It turns out, that the seconds we had later was even better than the fresh, hot initial serving right off the fire and out of the pot.
While this recipe is called a cobbler, it is actually more of a buckle. If you want to see folks really getting excited about desert terminology, and maybe even obsessing, do a quick internet search asking for the difference between a cobbler, a crisp, a pie, or a buckle. Technically speaking, a cobbler is where you have all the fruity, sweet, good stuff in your pan and you plop dough on top of it in chunks that then cooks on top as well as throughout the mixture. The reason I call this recipe a buckle, is because that style of dessert starts with the batter in the pan first and the filling added on top. In a buckle, the batter cooks up over and through the filling, sort of like a belt, buckling it into the middle.
Proper terminology aside, this chocolate Cobbler or Buckle is a treat. It’s great with ice cream, a standalone hot tasty dessert, or for those with some patience, something entirely different as when it is cool. When we let it cool, the soft texture firmed a bit into an almost bread pudding like consistency but instead of bread, the chocolate is like something similar to the filling in a chocolate meringue pie. It really doesn’t matter how you eat it; it’s rich and will add the pounds around the waistline, causing the need to adjust one’s belt buckle however it’s consumed.
Self rising flour and sugar, cocoa and sugar, Milk, and Vanilla, all ready to go to the pot. 
Melt butter, or Coconut oil if going Vegan 
Batter poured into the pan – do not stir.
This recipe was originally designed to bake in an oven at 350 degrees in a 9×13 pan. The idea is to do this in the woods in a Dutch oven, so the best option to replace a 9×13 casserole pan with the 12″ Dutch oven.
Cocoa and Sugar combination sprinkled over the batter and butter. 
Boiling water, the final ingredient. 
Almost there. After about 25 minutes on heat, another 5-10 should do it.
The reason I initially reacted to the charge of possibly obsessing over this is that in the last few days, in addition to the test run that I’ve already mentioned, I made three more batches. While doing a Dutch oven demo for some friends, I decided to make a special treat for them to share later. That was round two. We’re providing food for some of my wife’s co-workers very soon so that became batch number 3 and since we were making batch number 3 for someone else, we went ahead and made batch 4 for ourselves and family. I guess I can confess that the 5th was on the menu for our local D.O.G. and it seemed to be a hit.
For my friends with special dietary restrictions, we did a little experimenting and blind taste testing. The recipe I’m highlighting below can be made Vegan as well as Gluten Free with some minor modifications.
Control 
Vegan 
Gluten Free and Vegan 
Gluten Free
For testing purposes, we made four batches of dessert. One was a control batch made according to the recipe below. We also made batches that included one that was Vegan, a Gluten Free batch, and one that was both Vegan and Gluten Free.
To make it for my Vegan friends, we traded out coconut oil for butter and almond milk in the place of the milk.
For Gluten Free, we tested a recipe modification using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour, (adding GF Baking Powder and Salt since the original recipe called for Self-rising Flour).
Our third experiment combined both the Vegan and Gluten Free modifications.
The taste testers were family members with a range of taste discrimination from a “supertaster” to some of us that will eat anything that we can get on a plate. One taster has been on a restricted diet for some time with Gluten among the things avoided. Each selected their samples to taste from numbered, identical appearing pans of dessert.
When compared with the others, our taste testers all liked the Control recipe. Everyone also liked the Vegan batch as well.
The Gluten Free batch tested well for flavor, and our GF tester loved it. Those who have not been on a GF diet noted a texture difference from the others but all liked the flavor.
The Gluten Free/Vegan version received mixed reviews ranging from “interesting”, “yummy with a hint of coconut”, “tastes like the others”, to “Please God, No”.
So yes, maybe we really are obsessing. That’s okay though, after all its chocolate.
Give it a try and you too can obsess.
Here’s the recipe…
Brandy’s friend, Sharon’s Chocolate Cobbler (UMOK New Favorite)
Ingredients
2 sticks of butter
1 1/2 c self rising flour
2 1/2 c sugar (Divided)
1 t vanilla
1 C milk
6T Cocoa
2 C Boiling water
Directions
Melt butter in 9X13 pan or 12” Dutch oven
Mix together flour, 1 ½ C sugar, vanilla and milk to form batter. Pour batter over the melted butter. Do not stir.
Ingredients for Chocolate layer
Mix 1C sugar and 6T Cocoa. Sprinkle over batter, again, do not stir.
Pour 2C boiling water over all the ingredients
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
