In summer, I buy loads of berries. It's partly to do with my mood, but mostly about cost—they practically give the things away around here during the hot months. Unfortunately, I often can’t get through all my containers before they start drying up in the fridge, or worse, growing mold.
The best way to buy myself a little time before the inevitable wrinkling begins is to use all of my berries up in a single grunt. That's the food, not the guttural sound I make when attempting to eat an entire container of raspberries in one go. (But I can’t promise that won’t happen too).
It’s not just you—most folks haven’t heard of this fruit-forward baked good. There is a whole world of eccentrically entitled fruit desserts (slumps? betties?), and a grunt is just one more of them. So what is it?
A grunt is a cake and fruit dessert (or breakfast) very similar to a fruit cobbler. Honestly, I find that the two indiscernible, but if you have some intel on what differentiates them, I'd love to hear it. But essentially, you pour the fruit into the pan, drop batter over the top, and bake it all together. The fruit cooks while the batter fluffs and browns, forming hills and valleys amongst the fruit’s juices.
Cooking the fruit extends its life at least another five days in the fridge, and you can use as much or as little fruit as you have. This is why I like to turn to the grunt to deal with my rapidly expiring store of berries.
I will continue to push pancake mix upon your household. It is the single most useful all-purpose mix you can get, and the biggest bargain in the baking aisle. If you refuse to use the boxed stuff, just make your regular pancake recipe with two small modifications: cut the liquid for a slightly thicker batter, and sweeten it up a tad.
Could you argue that the result is simply berry pancakes? Since the purpose is to use up a glut of berries, which can't normally do with a single batch of pancakes, I will say no. As noted, this recipe allows you to use as much or as little fruit as you need to get rid of. It’s perfectly okay for your grunt to be mostly juice and fruit pulp with the occasional cake morsel. Something more akin to a giant slab muffin is also perfectly legal.
Make sure your oven is preheated, because assembling the grunt takes barely a moment. First, butter a baking dish. Mix the pancake batter in a large bowl with a few tablespoons of added sugar. (If I use two cups of dry pancake mixture, I’ll usually add a quarter cup of sugar.) Whisk in enough liquid to make a spoonable batter. You want a consistency similar to thick cake batter—thinner than brownie batter but not as thin as your average pancake batter.
Now you have a choice: fruit first, or batter first. I like to add the batter first (the results of which I’ll call a “reverse grunt”) so some of the fruit bursts and stains the cake while the rest sits on top of it, as illustrated in the picture at the top of this article. If you want all the fruit to burst and pool up to create something closer to a cobbler, put the fruit in first.
Once whatever you want to go in first is in the dish, unceremoniously pour or spoon the second component on top and all around it. Bake at 375°F for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling and the cake bits have risen and spring back when you poke them.
When you pull it out of the oven, the results will sometimes be ugly. The batter might get weirdly steamed, rising here and disintegrating over there, but it’ll always taste delicious. Dust the grunt with a generous flurry of powdered sugar (a handy trick to improve the appearance as well), and don’t be shy about serving it with a scoop of ice cream. Keep the leftovers covered in the fridge to graze on over the next five days.
Ingredients:
Butter for the dish
1-2 pints of berries
1 serving complete pancake mix
¼ less water than the pancake mix instructs
2-4 tablespoons sugar (according to your preference)
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Thoroughly butter a baking dish or cake pan.
2. Dump the berries into the dish.
3. Pour the dry pancake mix into a large bowl and add the sugar. Whisk in enough water to make a thick cake-like consistency. It’s roughly a quarter cup less than the instructions indicate for pancake mix. Pour or dollop the mixture over the berries. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the berries are bubbling and the cake mixture is risen and springs back when prodded.
