The Better Chocolate Cobbler

Today we return to an oldie but goodie.  Yesterday I did a demonstration on how easy it is to cook in a solar oven and this is one of the recipes that I mentioned.  I figured why not bring it back.  Especially now that my youngest, my daughter, is off to pre-K.  It's really just half day kindergarten...but what it gives me is a few hours every afternoon to give back to myself.  I finally get to return to blogging, but as I will soon explain, things are being "rumbled" up a little.  While my love of all things food and cooking will still play a prominent role, my life has changed a lot in the last few years and the blog will reflect that.  But in the meantime...why not enjoy one of my favorite recipes of all time?  One that I even surprised my family with at a recent Saint Paul Saints Game.  I did indeed cook it in the solar oven and even the nay sayers who didn't believe it would work were amazed and gobbled it up.

Chocolate.  Is there anything better? Not to this chocoholic.  A few weeks ago I featured this amazing chocolate cobbler on Field Trip Friday.  It was really good.  But it was really sweet.  Too sweet for my family actually and they didn't gobble it up as I expected.  I reread the recipe and decided to try reducing the sugar a bit.  I made the new reduced sugar recipe a few days later and they all loved it.  And the people who had liked if before asked me what I did different because they liked the new one better!

So The Better Chocolate Cobbler is born.  It's simple, yummy and you really will need all the will power in the world to stop yourself from eating it all yourself.  But play nice and share. Or make a double batch.  Enjoy!

Update, September 2012: I made this recipe again when I cooked a large family dinner to celebrate my cousin Patrick moving from Boulder to Brooklyn to start graduate school at Pratt University (he's going for architecture design).  I wanted something that was easy to make, easy to double and a crowd pleaser. Wow did this hit the mark! I had fresh strawberries, raspberries, vanilla ice cream, whip cream and mint leaves for people to choose how they wanted to garnish it and it went over a little too well.  So well that the cook had to fight to get a serving!  There weren't even that many people there and it was a double batch!  So try it. It's deceptively easy but completely decadent.  I promise.  You can even ask my mom. Enjoy!

The Better Chocolate Cobbler (aka Reduced Sugar Chocolate Cobbler)

Link to the Original Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup flour (all purpose or white whole wheat)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

7 tbsp cocoa powder (divided)

3/4 cup white sugar (divided)

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups hot water or hot coffee (trust me on the coffee...YUM)

Directions

1.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt, half the cocoa powder and half the white sugar in a bowl.

2.  Add in milk, butter and vanilla.  Mix well.

3.  Pour mixture into the bottom of a medium size baking dish.

4.  Mix remaining white sugar, cocoa powder and brown sugar in a small bowl.

5.  Sprinkle the sugar and cocoa mixture over the wet mixture.

6.  Pour hot water or coffee over layers.  DO NOT STIR.

7.  Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.

** Note: This cooks up very well in a solar oven so I'm guessing it would also cook up nicely in a crock pot.  I'm thinking I might have to try that out.  You know...for the good of the blog.