How I Messed up Cobbler

Alright...so I didn't ruin it as much as I could have, but I definitely messed up the Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler from Everyday Dish. Everything was going well; the fruit filling was super easy to make, the sweet biscuit topping was simple, and the cobbler had already been in the oven for about 6 minutes when I looked in and realized that the biscuits weren't spreading at all. Hm.....that was odd. Then I realized it- there was no leavening in the recipe! I knew that this couldn't be correct, so I double-checked the ingredients list and, sure enough, the biscuit dough was supposed to have 2 t. baking soda added. I couldn't believed that I missed that step in the directions, so I reread the recipe and it turns out that, while baking soda is in the ingredient list, there is no mention of it in the instructions! Actually, the recipe posted on The Urban Housewife does mention when to add the baking soda, but the Everyday Dish recipe does not.

So now I had a decision to make: do I let the cobbler continue baking and hope that the biscuits turn out okay? Or do I try to salvage any of the topping that I can, scoop it off of the fruit filling, mix in the baking soda, and then dollop it back onto the cobbler? Well....I chose the second option. Thankfully, the dough wasn't very cooked when I decided to scrape it off, so the baking soda mixed in easily. However, some of the strawberry rhubarb mixture stuck to the biscuits and was mixed into the dough, making the topping get random black spots from the fruit sugars caramelizing as the cobbler baked. Also, I'm sure the topping is not as flaky and tender as it is supposed to be due to the extra mixing.

So how did it taste? While not the most attractive cobbler (at all....), it was really good. Good, that is, until I bit into a giant clump of baking soda- ewwwwwwwww. Because the baking soda wasn't mixed in well, some clumps were still in the topping and made it taste really salty (who knew that baking soda tastes like salt?). My mom also noticed this and we came to the conclusion that this cobbler was just not meant to be, but then my mom mentioned, "Why waste all of this delicious fruit in the filling? Save it and we'll eat it over vanilla ice cream!" And that's why I love my mom- always there to save the day :) While I'm upset that I messed up this cobbler because I know that it is a good recipe that I just screwed up, I'm glad that I was able to save the filling so my family and I can still enjoy part of this recipe.