Alton Brown's Blackberry Grunt

When life gives you blackberries make grunt! You never heard of that one? Well it may not be an official saying but this is just what I did with the blackberries I found in my backyard. We have a ton of thorny blackberries bushes planted by some previous owners. They are overgrown yet still are producing great sized blackberries. One of the recipes I have been wanting to try for quite a while is Alton Brown's Blackberry Grunt. So what is a grunt anyway? It is fruit topped with a biscuit dough. It is cooked on the stove top and it called a grunt but it sounds like the word when it cooks (although in a house full of screaming kids I never heard it!). The reason blackberries make for an especially good grunt is that they contain a lot of pectin, so they jell really well without much effort.

To learn more about different types of baked fruit desserts, read my post on What is the Difference Between a Cobbler and a Crisp?

My Recipe Notes | Print the recipe

1. The dough is really easy to make. If you have ever made biscuits this is a snap. You don't even have to roll the dough out and punch out the biscuits. Just dispense the dough on top of the fruit using a disher - makes it so easy.

2. When cooking the fruit, be patient. Make sure your blackberries have thickened before adding the topping. If you play your cards right you will have thick fruit beneath your dough and not a soupy mess. If you are not confident that the berries are thick enough, then it cook it longer. Stir often - you don't want blackened berries.

3. I love that this dish is cooked in cast iron. Makes for an excellent table presentation as well as a photo. I used my Lodge Cast Iron Skillet.
Lodge makes high quality American made products that I highly recommend and they are affordable.

4. You can finish this dish on the stove top if you want to be traditional. But you can also stick it in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. This will brown up the dough on top, which is something you won't get on top of the stove.

5. I recommend eating it all in one day. The leftovers aren't nearly as good. The biscuits dough will soak up too much liquid in the fridge and just become unappetizing. Safe this dish to make when you have enough people coming over to eat it. Alton says this feeds about 6-8 people.

I was very pleased with the way this came out. The fruit was delicious. The texture was jam like. The dough on top was a nice change of pace from my standard cobbler topping. Overall very happy with this dish and would make it again. The only thing I would change was making sure not to save any for another day.