You’ve got to make our easy huckleberry cobbler with fresh fruit topped with an oat crumble complete with honey roasted nuts today! Best dessert we have made in a long time.
Huckleberries are here! They’re the state fruit of Idaho (where we live) so we’re lucky enough to pick them fresh each August right off of the bushes but you can make this with store bought or even frozen too. (affiliate links present)
How to Make Huckleberry Cobbler
There are two ways we have made this. You can make the one you see on top, or include more of a cake like topping with our Bisquick cobbler recipe. You’ll want to freeze the berries you have before adding them to this. That way they will hold up a bit better and not break down as easily.
If we’re lucky enough to go for a drive when my kids were younger and pick them we have a yummy time! Have you been yet? This is what it looks like in case you encounter some on a hike. The deeper the color the sweeter they are.
What can you make with fresh huckleberries?
Most of the time we will bake huckleberry muffins with these. Tossed with a bit of flour so they don’t sink to the bottom it is a fun breakfast or dessert idea with berries. You can fold them into pancake batter, make jam out of them or make into an Old Fashioned treat like this one.
We live in an area where can find them and just pick away! Many times I will enjoy half and freeze the rest. If I don’t have time for this though it’s great to know that I can buy some at Albertsons each year. They’re a great snack for sure. BUT…..I wanted to make some huckleberry recipes with these and dessert is where I started. 😉
Ingredient Notes
We were lucky enough to make this with a large batch of picked Fresh huckleberries. After we made it that once we were so obsessed with it I bought another bowl full at the store and made another and it was very close to as delicious. 😉
- Brown sugar
- Lemon juice – I prefer fresh squeezed
- Flour
- Vanilla
- Nuts – Honey roasted pecans worked great
- Butter
- Sugar
- Old Fashioned Oats
- Baking dish – I used my 1.5 quart oval pan
- If you wanted to use this crumb topping for muffins vs. the oat mixture listed you could. Just add it 10 minutes before it’s done so it doesn’t burn.
with Frozen Huckleberries
It is possible to make this with frozen fruit with a few adjustments. You do want to thaw these at least halfway. If you don’t, when they bake and defrost there will be excess liquid which will make your “sauce” more watery. Set in a bowl for about 1 hour and then drain the liquid before adding into your recipe here.
Made with Cake Mix
You would want to use 1 box cake mix + 1 can pie filling (blueberry works great) + about 2 cups of these with the juice to make it this cheater way. Follow our Easy Dump Peach Cobbler for more detailed directions on this one.
How do you thicken the sauce?
Flour is the key. That is why it is listed as an ingredient. It coats the berries and acts as a thickener to combine with the juices that will be released when baked. That way you will get an almost pie filling consistency to it. It will also thicken as it cools so keep that in mind.
Tips
When mixing your berry mixture remember to gently mix it together in a large bowl. You want the berries to stay in tact and don’t break apart. Secondly, the fresher the better to make this or our fresh cherry crisp recipe.
If you purchase huckleberries that have been picked a while ago and have been sitting in a bowl on the store produce shelf for a while they will be softer. Also, your overall end result will be a bit looser because the berries aren’t as firm. Your best bet with this is to drain the liquid, and then measure them out.
Huckleberry Cobbler
Equipment
- 1 8×8 pan
- 2 bowls
Ingredients
- 4 c huckleberries, fresh is always best
- 1 tbsp lemon juice, fresh is always best
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 3 tbsp flour
- 3/4 c oats, old fashioned oats, not quick oats
- 1/3 c flour, all purpose
- 1/4 c brown sugar
- 1/4 c butter, softened
- 1/2 c pecans, I used honey roasted
- 3/4 c sugar, white
Instructions
- Gently rinse huckleberries and spread on paper towels to absorb excess water. Gently mix these with your white sugar, your 3 tbs of flour, vanilla and lemon juice. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- In another bowl put room temp. butter in with your brown sugar, 1/3 c flour, old fashioned oats and mix well with a fork until all dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Pour berry mixture into an 8×8 pan topped with oats mixture evenly and then sprinkle with your pecans (or any other type of roasted nuts).
- Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until berries are bubbling and top mixture is slightly golden brown.
- Take out and put on a cooling rack until completely cooled. It will thicken as it sits so it is best to allow at least 30 minutes to cool off.
- Serve!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
How do you know when huckleberries are ripe?
They ripen in mid to late summer and can be found in red, blue or black colors. Perfection is when they are slightly soft when gently squeezed. If they are still firm or hard, they need more time to ripen. The taste sweet with a slight tartness. If they taste too sour or bitter, they are not fully ripe.
You can see the batch I found, they look like a deep blue or purple I’d say. 😉 It was the perfect amount for both creations, but if you had a larger crowd to feed you could easily double this recipe.
What’s the best use for huckleberries?
If you enjoyed this fresh huckleberry cobbler recipe, you will enjoy these other ones below with produce in them. I bought about 3 pounds last time because I wanted to make this and some huckleberry jam in my pressure cooker as well. 😉 Let us know below how else you use this delicate fruit in desserts.
Other fresh fruit desserts you’ll love
Our fresh apple monkey bread is so yummy and easy to make. Instant Pot apple crisp uses fresh Granny Smith apples and takes 1 min. to cook! We’ve made Crockpot apple crisp too. Huckleberry cake sounds amazing too. Or our fresh fruit strudel pastry for dessert are great to try too. We used blackberries but any fresh fruit could be used.
I show you my shopping experience here and all the wonderful huckleberry goodies they have in the produce section where these containers are.
I feel like nuts are necessary to top any type of cobbler dessert but that is totally up to you as well. Walnuts or pecans are best, honey roasted chopped pecans are my favorite if you ask me. Serve this quick and easy dessert warm with vanilla ice cream on top too if you want.
Want to mix something else with this? Like we did with our cranberry cobbler you could add half peeled and sliced apples into the mix too!
I think milk or something similar is missing. Mine was incredibly dry.
I definitely wouldn’t use milk and don’t understand what part you thought was dry, ours is always nice and juicy from the berries. Unless your berries were dried out and not really fresh I am unsure why you’d say it was dry at all.
that looks so good! Gotta try to make it! Thank you for sharing
Amazing dessert. I am very impressed with this dessert.
We don’t really get huckleberries around here, but I have some relatives who make huckleberry jam and send it our way occasionally and it’s SO good. I’d definitely be all over this cobbler!
I’ve had them straight off the tree before too and they’re great. You can find them here in Boise at Albertsons, hope you can come across them as well and try this. We made homemade jam with what I had left and I am posting that recipe tomorrow, that was delicious as well. 😉
Use quick cook tapioca, about 4T, sprinkle it in mix. we dont use flour for berry fillings.