Easy Fig Cobbler Recipe: 4 Tips for Making Fig Cobbler

Fig cobbler is a freeform dessert that features a fresh fig base baked under a tender cake or biscuit-style topping. Popular variations on the easily customizable dish include peach cobbler, apple cobbler, and blackberry cobbler.

The name “cobbler” comes from the shape of the biscuit dough once dropped in dollops over the fruit, which puff up to look like cobblestone streets when baked. Some Southern-style cobblers, like lemon cobbler, feature a loose, cake-like batter rather than thick portions of biscuit dough, which rises in and among the fruit.

To prepare figs for the cobbler, trim away the stem end, and slice the fruit into quarters. Next, toss the fruit with a little sugar, salt, and lemon juice, and season with spices like cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, or black pepper.

Fig cobblers are a perfect dessert for when you find yourself with an unexpected windfall of perfectly ripe fruit from a neighbor’s fig tree or your favorite market. Here are a few tips to consider before making your own cobbler:

1. 1. Choosing the fig: While you can use any type of fig to make this dessert, different varieties will vary in sweetness and overall flavor. Pale green Adriatic (“candy-striped”) figs, deep purple Black Mission figs, and reddish-pink Brown Turkey figs are the most common. Taste the figs first, and scale back the amount of sugar as needed.
   
2. 2. Using fig preserves over fresh figs: If you’re craving the cobbler outside of fig season, you can use fig preserves. Pair unsweetened fig preserves with seasonal fruits. If you go with apricots, cherries, or pears, the figs will add a musky note similar to honey. Alternatively, finely chop the dried figs and rehydrate them in a bit of hot water or liqueur, like brandy.
3. 3. Pre-baking figs for a jammy consistency: For tender, fall-apart figs, bake the fruit for ten minutes separately before adding the topping and returning the cobbler to the oven.
4. 4. Using a slow cooker: Fig cobbler is a flexible dessert that’s easy to bring together on a whim—no oven required. You can add the ingredients to a slow cooker to slow-bake the dessert or use a pressure cooker to expedite the process.