How To Curb Soggy Cobbler Disasters With Boiling Water

No line of poetry or prose can describe the sadness a foodie feels when they read this simple phrase — soggy cobbler. Yes, like burnt cookies and dry cake, for dessert lovers, baking or biting into a cobbler with a wet crust can really hurt. That's why, if you plan to make this baked good, you will likely see many articles dedicated to ensuring cooks don't make this dire mistake. Mix your fruity center with cornstarch, advises Spatula Desserts. Steer clear of fully covering up your fruit with the dough top, McCormick warns. However, even if you follow these hacks, you could still fall victim to creating a peach cobbler that is wet and sad. What's the near surefire way to avoid soggy cobbler? Boiled water.

That's right, according to James Beard Award-winning chef Renee Erickson (via Epicurious), skipping the oven and making your cobbler rise via scorching hot water will almost always ensure your dessert has a delicious, crispy texture. Erickson vouched for the anti-soggy cobbler hack in her cookbook "A Boat, A Whale, and A Walrus." Here's the reason why.

When a writer for Epicurious came across Renee Erickson's hot water cobbler, they knew they had to try it. The result? A treat that was far from soggy. The writer reported that baking their cobbler with hot water gave the dessert a top layer firm enough that a light spoon tap couldn't break it. However, the topping perfectly crumbled when dug into. Underneath that crispy exterior was a middle that reportedly "tastes like cake batter," followed by a bottom filled with sugar-dusted fruit. If you're ready to embrace the thought of a hot water-baked good, know that making a cobbler this way is as straightforward as it sounds.

According to Erickson's recipe, once you've prepped your fruit of choice and added cobbler batter, you should sprinkle a hefty helping of sugar on top. (Food.com also recommends mixing your sugar with cornstarch before you layer it on the dough.) After that, pour in your boiling water and watch the dough rise. Once your dessert has set for at least 30 minutes, you can serve your delightfully crisp cobbler with a side of ice cream.

Peach cobbler isn't the only baked good that can be upgraded with a bit of hot water. In fact, there's a whole genre of treats chefs report taste better with this unconventional secret ingredient. Have you ever heard of hot water cornbread? One blogger's recipe claims to make a version of this southern staple that tastes "perfectly crunchy." You only need to pour boiling hot water into a cornmeal, sugar, and salt mixture. Then you can fry up the dough in a skillet for a fast and crisp cornbread side.

There's a whole list of sweet treats that can also be enhanced with hot water. Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake recipe uses hot water perfectly blend the cocoa powder with other ingredients, leaving you with a silky-smooth chocolate cake. And that's not all. The New York Times even reports that adding hot water to your pie dough makes for a smoother, effortlessly rollable pie crust. So with a bit of hot water, your favorite recipes could be easier to make and, most importantly, easier to eat.