Apricot Cobbler — The Graduation-Sunday Cobbler

I graduated from Sapulpa High School Saturday afternoon. The ceremony was at the school auditorium at four PM and ran an hour and forty-five minutes including the speeches, the awards, the diplomas, and the hat-toss at the end. The class of 2019 was one hundred and forty-three of us in caps and gowns in alphabetical order in the metal folding chairs that had been set up in the gym all week. The auditorium was full. The first row was reserved for the school board and the principal. The second through tenth rows were families.

Mama sat in the third row, center section, wearing a navy dress she’d picked up at JCPenney three weekends ago and a single strand of pearls Aunt Linda had loaned her for the occasion. Cody sat next to her in a charcoal suit Mama had insisted he buy for the wedding and that he’d worn early to break it in. Aunt Linda and Roy sat to Mama’s right. Aunt Patty and Bobby and the twin teenage cousins came up from McAlester and sat in the row behind Mama. Mr. Briggs sat in the seventh row by himself in his charcoal suit and the bow tie he wears for graduations only. Iris drove down from Bristow alone — her parents were in Memphis again, this time for a family wedding — and sat next to Aunt Patty’s family because there had been an empty seat. I had two full rows of people in the audience.

I walked across the stage as a member of the National Honor Society with the gold cord around my neck and the silver pin from the AP Scholar designation on the lapel of my gown. Mr. Briggs had let the principal know in February that he wanted to be in the diploma-handing rotation for his AP English students, and the principal had agreed because Mr. Briggs has been at Sapulpa High since 1996 and gets the small things he asks for. He handed me the leatherette diploma cover with the rolled diploma inside, looked me directly in the eye, and said, very quietly, just to me, “You did the work. Now go do the next one.” Then he shook my hand for a second longer than the average ceremony handshake. The audience clapped through it. I think I saw Mama crying in the third row but I didn’t look directly at her because I was holding myself together by not looking.

Cody had bought a small disposable single-use camera at Walgreens that morning, the kind with the cardboard wrapper and the plastic wind-on knob, and he used the whole roll of twenty-four exposures across the ceremony and the lobby afterward. He’d gotten the camera because he wanted physical photos — not phone photos, not cloud photos, photos that could sit in a shoebox in his closet next to his old high-school photos and his Polaroids of me as a seven-year-old. Mama held a small yellow-rose bouquet Aunt Linda had brought her, and she didn’t put it down for two and a half hours, including in the receiving line and in the lobby and in the parking lot when we were taking the “graduate with family” photo against the brick wall of the school.

I hugged Iris on the lawn outside the auditorium and we cried. I hugged Mr. Briggs near the trophy case in the lobby and didn’t cry, which surprised both of us. He said, “You don’t have to cry every time, Turner. Some thresholds are dry-eyed.” That sentence has stayed with me all week.

Sunday I made an apricot cobbler because Mama wanted something simple and seasonal for our first post-graduation family Sunday, and because apricots were in at IGA on a manager’s special at three pounds for five dollars on the front-of-store rolling cart. The cobbler is a one-bowl mix-and-pour Southern method that I’d learned from a Sapulpa church-cookbook page Mama had taped into the kitchen notebook in 2014. The technique is dead simple and is a forgiving Sunday dessert that makes itself.

The method: one stick (a half-cup) of butter melted in the bottom of a nine-by-thirteen baking pan. Separately, in one bowl, whisk a cup of self-rising flour, a cup of sugar, and a cup of milk into a smooth thin batter (you can use all-purpose flour with a teaspoon and a half of baking powder added if you don’t have self-rising; the self-rising is the lazy way and works fine). Pour the batter directly over the melted butter in the pan. Do not stir. The batter and the butter stay separate, which is the entire technical point of the technique — the batter rises through the butter during the bake and the butter rises through the batter at the same time, and you get a tender almost-pound-cake-like crumb with a buttery crispy top.

Halve and pit two pounds of fresh apricots, toss them in a separate bowl with a half-cup of sugar, a tablespoon of cornstarch, the juice of half a lemon, a pinch of cinnamon, and a teaspoon of vanilla. Scatter the apricots and all their juices evenly over the surface of the batter. Do not stir. Bake at three-fifty for forty-five to fifty minutes until the top is deep golden and the fruit juices are bubbling at the edges of the pan. Cool fifteen minutes before serving.

The kitchen smelled like an old farmhouse Sunday afternoon. Mama and Cody and I ate the cobbler in pajamas at six PM on the back porch with a single scoop of vanilla ice cream on each warm portion. We didn’t say much. The week had said a lot of things already.

Pour the batter over the butter and don’t stir. Scatter the fruit on top. Don’t stir again. Here’s the bake.

Apricot Cobbler

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 40 min | Total Time: 55 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 4 cups fresh or canned apricots, pitted and halved (if canned, drain and reserve juice)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 350°F. Pour the melted butter into a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
2. Prepare the fruit. In a medium bowl, toss the apricot halves with 1/4 cup of the sugar, the lemon juice, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. Let sit for 5 minutes so the fruit begins to release its juices.
3. Make the batter. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the milk and stir until a smooth, thin batter forms — don’t overmix.
4. Layer the cobbler. Pour the batter directly over the melted butter in the baking dish. Do not stir. Spoon the apricot mixture evenly over the top of the batter. Again, do not stir — the batter will rise up around the fruit as it bakes.
5. Bake. Bake for 38 to 42 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the batter section comes out clean. The edges should be slightly crisp and bubbling.
6. Rest and serve. Let the cobbler rest for at least 10 minutes before serving. Spoon into bowls and top with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if desired. Best served warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 275 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 40g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 130mg