Ramadan Kareem to you all! I’m super-excited to share my annual Ramadan recipe with you this year. East met West again in this apple and dried fruit cobbler with its warm Middle Eastern flavors and absolutely delectable taste.

With the sugar crisis still going in Egypt, I wanted to think of a different way to make dessert with less sugar, because there simply isn’t any on the market 😦

This recipe uses just about a half cup of sugar to make 6 servings. Which also means that each serving only contains one tablespoon of added sugar… Not too bad if you are watching your waistline! 😉

A cobbler is a classic dessert where a semi-sweet pastry batter gets poured over a spiced fruit mix and baked to form a top crust and a bottom that resembles a syrupy fruit jam. There are many ways to define a cobbler and people are still torn about all the different recipes that have been discovered over the years. But without further ado, let me talk you through the ingredients that make this cobbler Middle Eastern and full of Ramadan goodness.

• Ingredients:
  • For the filling:
    • 2 apples, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
    • 80g nuts (mixed of choice: almonds, cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts)
    • 80g dried apricots, finely diced
    • 80g dried figs, finely diced
    • 80g dried prunes, pitted and finely diced
    • 50g medjool dates, pitted and finely diced
    • 500ml hibiscus tea
    • 2 Tbsp corn starch
    • 2 Tbsp sugar
    • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
    • 1/2 tsp ginger
    • 1/4 tsp cloves
    • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
    • Pinch of salt
  • For the batter:
    • 80g AP flour
    • 40g semolina flour (coarse)
    • 60g granulated white sugar
    • 40g butter, cold, cut into small cubes
    • 1/2 tsp baking powder
    • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
    • 100ml whole milk, cold
    • Pinch of salt
    • Coarse sugar for sprinkling or pine nuts (optional)

Before I tell you how to make it, I need you to know that I used a 30cm x 21.5cm x 5cm oval oven-safe dish for this amount of filling. If your baking dish is larger, deeper, shallower or smaller than these dimensions, then you might need to adjust the quantities accordingly.

• Method:
  • First, pre-heat your oven to 200°C
  • Mix all the dry ingredients together (corn starch, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and salt) and mix & toss all the diced fruit and nuts in that mixture.
  • Place your fruit and nut mixture in the baking dish and pour over the hibiscus tea to cover all the fruit pieces.
  • Bake for 45 minutes.
  • In the meantime, prepare the batter by mixing all of the dry ingredients together and cutting the cold butter into the powder mix.
  • Then add the milk and vanilla extract and mix until just combined. Set aside or refrigerate.
  • Once the fruit mixture has come out of the oven, turn the heat down to 170°C.
  • Let the bubbling, hot filling cool for just 30 minutes on the counter top over a trivet.
  • Now start scooping spoonfuls of the batter over the fruit layer in a way that most of it gets covered.
  • Optionally, you could sprinkle some pine nuts or coffee sugar (or both) for extra texture on that cobbler crust.
  • Bake for another 20-25 minutes until the top of the crust starts turning golden brown.
  • You can serve the cobbler, hot or cold, garnished with some clotted cream or freshly whipped cream.
  • Indulge!