I think with a little more prep at home you can do better cobbler with a scratch biscuit topping vs. anything made with Bisquick (yech!).
One key to making a good cobbler is to cook the fruit filling a while before you put the biscuits on top. The fruit filling should be bubbling nicely before you drop the biscuits. That will enable the biscuits to cook from both the bottom and the top, which gives you nicely cooked biscuits that are not soggy on the bottom.
Here's a recipe I adapted from from a recipe I use at home. This one is berry based, but you can also use it with peach filling - use you favorite peach cobbler filling recipe. I've also made it with fresh berries and fresh cherries. The topping part of the recipe is very adaptable to any type of cobbler you want to make. Note that the filling prep for fresh berries is a little different than what is described here.
To make life a little simpler on the trail, I measure and prepackage the dry ingredients in ziplock bags at home. Dry ingredients for the filling go in one ziplock. Dry ingredients for the biscuit dough go in another, and a third small ziplock contains the sugar/cinnamon mix for the top of the biscuits. I place this third ziplock inside the bag with the dry ingredients for the biscuits.
I also measure the buttermilk at home and put that in a small plastic container.
Dave's Berry Cobbler
This is sized for a 10" dutch oven, but I have also scaled it for an 8" oven. The 10" recipe serves 6 or so, maybe up to 8, especially if you're serving with ice cream.
You can use any type of berries you like with this. The original recipe was for blueberries, but I usually use a mix of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and cherries that happens to be readily available in my local grocery.
While the berries are baking, prepare the ingredients for the topping, but do not stir the wet into the dry ingredients until just before the berries come out of the oven.
Filling
Frozen berries: 36 oz
sugar: 1/2 C
cornstarch: 1 T
cinnamon: 1 pinch
salt: 1 pinch
grated lemon zest: 1 ½ t
lemon juice: 1 T
Topping
Flour: 1 C
Corn meal: 2 T
Sugar: ¼ C
Baking soda: 1/4 t
baking powder: 2T
salt: 1/4
Butter, melted: 4 T
buttermilk: 1/3 C
vanilla: ½ t
cinnamon: 1/8 t
Coals:
375 (top/bottom) 16/7
425 (top/bottom) 18/9
1. Thaw frozen berries in colander set over bowl to catch juices. Transfer juices to small saucepan; simmer over medium heat until syrupy and thick enough to coat back of a spoon, about 10 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
3. For the Filling: Stir sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl. Add berries, with syrup, and mix gently with rubber spatula until evenly coated; add lemon zest and juice and mix to combine. Transfer berry mixture to oven, bake until mixture is hot and bubbling around edges, about 30 minutes.
4. For the Topping: Whisk flour, cornmeal, ¼ C sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl to combine. Whisk melted butter buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl. Mix 2t sugar and cinnamon in second small bowl and set aside. One minute before berries are done, add wet ingredients to dry, stir with rubber spatula until just combined and no dry pockets remain.
5. Pinch off 8 equal sized pieces of biscuit dough (~4 for 8” recipe) and place on hot filling, spacing them about ½” apart (they should not touch). Sprinkle each mound of dough with cinnamon sugar.
6. Increase oven temp to 425 degrees. Bake until filling is bubbling and biscuits are golden brown on top and cooked through, 20-22 minutes.
You may want to let the cobbler cool for 5-10 minutes which helps the filling set a bit. Serve with ice cream (of course!).
Bon appetite! :drool: