Blackberry Cobbler

I can always rely on my cooking buddy Paula Deen for a great recipe. We had fresh blackberries in the fridge that we picked this past weekend so Mark has been begging for me to make a blackberry cobbler. I used Paula Deen's famous peach cobbler recipe, with the fruit switch, and it turned out great.

Ingredients:
- 4 cups fresh blackberries
- 2 cups sugar, divided
- 1/2 cup water
- 8 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- Ground cinnamon

Directions:
- Combine the blackberries, 1 cup sugar, and water in a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Put the butter in a 9 x 13 baking dish and place in oven (heated to 350) to melt.
- Mix remaining 1 cup sugar, flour, and milk slowly to prevent clumping. Pour mixture over melted butter. Do not stir.
- Spoon fruit on top, gently pouring in syrup.
- Sprinkle top with ground cinnamon.
- Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.
- Serve with your choice of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Tips from a Kitchen of Reality:
- It is Paula Deen, so of course she'd use a whole stick of butter. However, I thought it was a little much, so next time I'll probably use 4-6 tbsps instead.
- My blackberries had a lot of syrup with them after cooking in the saucepan, so my actual cobbler took almost 50 minutes to bake. Just watch for the top to brown.
- The cinnamon was an optional ingredient in Paula's recipe, I think it is an AWESOME addition. Try it and see.