Individual Cherry Cobblers - Le Creuset Giveaway - Enameled Cast Iron Mini Cocottes

Did you know May 17 is National Cherry Cobbler Day? And that includes individual cherry cobblers as well.

There is a time for big pies and time for cute little individual pies. I must lean toward the latter, though, because I have so many vessels for cute little pies: Corning cornflower petite pans, white ceramic round ramekins, larger white ceramic ramekins, custard cups, tartelette tins, etc, etc. 

But now I have a new favorite: the  Le Creuset® Cast Iron Mini Cocotte. They arrived at the same time cherries arrived at the farmers market! Hence, this recipe for individual cherry cobblers. Of course, I also will be using these adorable little cast iron mini cocottes for my French Onion Soup.  

They come in five colors; I chose Black, which is a flat black. Here are the colors: Flame, Cherry, Marseilles and Palm.

And, of course, Black. They're all beautiful, so it was a tough decision. Perhaps I should have chosen four different colors?

This recipe makes exactly the right amount of filling for 4 of these cocottes. They will settle as they cool, leaving room for a big scoop of ice cream on top! If you're using larger or smaller baking dishes, it will make a different number of cobblers.

For those who are thinking it can't be cobbler if it doesn't have a biscuit topping or a cakey topping, read my (inherited) view on cobblers in my Blackberry Cobbler with No-Roll Pie Crust post. You can also make a quarter of that pastry recipe and use my fabulous no-roll method for these mini cobblers.

For this batch, I used a quarter recipe of my easy Ruff Puff Pastry that I happened to have on hand.

But if you really feel you must insist that pie crust makes these pies instead of cobblers, you may call them Individual Cherry Pies. I'm not going to be dogmatic about it! 

Individual Cherry Cobblers

(Makes 4 in 10-ounce cocottes or ramekins)

1/2 recipe of pastry for single-crust pie
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups pitted sweet* cherries (about 2 1/4 pounds, unpitted)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

* If you use sour cherries (also called tart cherries), you'll likely want to use more sugar. I always use the more readily available sweet cherries.

You can also use 20 ounces of frozen cherries (unthawed), but I wouldn't use canned.

1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In medium bowl (I use a 2-quart glass measure), whisk together sugar, tapioca flour and salt. Stir in the cherries, lemon juice and almond extract. Let stand for 15 minutes.

2 Roll out pastry to 7- to 8-inch square about 1/4 inch thick. With a 3 1/2- to 4-inch round cutter, cut out 4 rounds of dough. Put them in the refrigerator until you're ready to use them.

3 Divide the cherry filling among the 4 cocottes. Put some small pieces of butter on top of the filling in each cocotte. Top with the chilled pastry rounds. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the cherries are bubbling. Let cool for about 15 minutes before serving (unless you need to peel the inside of your mouth for some reason!).

Le Creuset® Cast Iron Mini Cocotte Giveaway 

This giveaway is open to US residents 18 years of age or older. Leave a comment below (one entry per person, plus see below for ways to get up to two bonus entries). First comment should include your color choice (Flame, Cherry, Marseilles, Palm or Black) and the first thing you'll make in your cocottes. Please include your email address in the body of your comment. Must enter by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday May 21. 

Winner will be chosen by random drawing and be announced here in the comments before noon Eastern time on Thursday May 22. If I don't hear back from the winner of the random drawing by noon Eastern time Sunday May 25, another drawing will be held and a new winner selected from the original entrants (those who commented before the giveaway deadline).

For up to two bonus entries (each in a separate comment):

• follow Le Creuset on Twitter and leave comment below with your Twitter name. (Must include Twitter name!)
• follow Delightful Repast on Twitter and leave comment below with your Twitter name. (Must include Twitter name!)

Disclosure: Le Creuset provided a set of four cocottes for review purposes and a set of four cocottes for the giveaway. I received no compensation. The views expressed here are entirely my own. I always tell my readers what I really think!