(For those of you who’ve been wondering, this is a microplane grater. GET ONE.)

Now and then, you feel like trying a recipe, and then you realize that you can’t make all of it because it’d be a little much. I mean, yes, having your own 9x13 dish of some baked good would be awesome, but, again, moderation in all things, etc, etc. And as ever, baking is like chemistry — you mess with ingredients too much, you break the balance of sugar and egg, flour and fat. (My mom — who, as she taught me to bake and cook, with my dad an expert in sauces and proteins, deserves much of the credit for this blog, even if, were she still with us, she’d be dissecting it for grammar errors and unwieldy language — once said it to me best: Putting twice as many chocolate chips in the chocolate chip cookies doesn’t make them more chocolaty; it just makes a mess.)

But some dishes look too good to pass up, and if cooking is chemistry, it’s also math. Now and then, this math is annoying — I was in Whole Foods on Sunday, muttering darkly to myself “Okay, how many goddamn ounces are in a pint?” — but now and then it’s easy, like the fact that 9x13 = 127, while 8x8 = 64, meaning that, yes, a 8x8 square Pyrex baking dish is half the area of a 9x13 one. Now, that doesn’t mean that you can take any 8x8-dish centered recipe and double it — there’s often a long, sad road of soggy, sunken centers that happens with that, as the inverse-square cube law takes over, where you double the size but cube the mass  —but it does mean that, if you have a good eye on the actual dish as it bakes, you can halve any 9x13-centered dish for an 8x8. Like I did with this Texas-Style Berry Cobbler.

(I am a bad scatter-er)

I read this recipe in Cook’s Country — which I jokingly  call “Cook’s Illustrated’s slovenly, backwoods, overall-wearing cousin” — and Blueberries are in season. AND it gave me chance to use my microplane grater. Come on. Like I wasn’t going to try the recipe; at the same time, they have a name for people with a 9x13 dish of cobbler in their house all by their lonesome, and that name is ‘Diabetic.’ Hence, the half-dish version. And I wound up giving 80% of it away, which is fine; that just means I can’t wait to make it again.  As for the name, what makes the Cobbler Texas-Style isn’t that it’s drunk or armed or friendly — ha, ha — but rather than instead of being dough over fruit, it’s fruit over dough — or, rather, batter — and the photos will explain all.

(Close-Up. The strawberries got a little juicy, but to paraphrase Robert Evans, did I mind? You bet your ass I didn’t …) 

TEXAS-STYLE BERRY COBBLER  

(The recipe reductions for the 8x8 version will be in parentheses. Yes, I know you can all do math, but now and then, it’s nice to look at the divisions instead of doing them in your head.)

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 4 pieces, 8 tablespoons melted and cooled.  (2 and 4 Tbsp.)

1 1/2 C. Sugar (3/4 C.)

1 1/2 Tsp. grated lemons zest. (NOTE: I left this the same in the half-size, because, mmmm, lemon.)

15 Oz./3 Cups Blueberries (Note: I used 6oz Blueberries and some frozen strawberries I had int he fridge, thawed, to bring it up to 8 oz. Improvisation!)

1 1/2 C All-Purpose Flour (3/4 C)

2 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder (1 1/4)

3/4 tsp salt (Really, just add, like, a dash. You don’t have to be counting grains of salt here.)

1 1/2 cups milk (3/4 cups — this recipe is a bit nebulous, as it doesn’t say if you want whole, 2% or skim; I used 2%, and it was fine.)

(Lemon Sugar, Mmmmm.)

1) Preheat oven to 350. Put unmelted butter in 9x13 baking dish until melted, 8-10 minutes.

2) While above occurs, pulse sugar and lemon zest in food processor until combined, about 5 pulses.

3) With potato masher, mash berries and 1 Tbsp. sugar until berries are coarsely mashed.

4) Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; put aside 2 Tbsp sugar and reserve; add sugar and whisk.

5) Whisk in milk, melted butter until smooth. Remove dish from oven safely, and place on rack. Pour in batter.

6) Scatter blueberries on batter, sprinkle with remaining lemon sugar and bake until golden brown with crisp edges, 45-50 minutes. (The 8x8 version took approx. 35-40; again, use judgment and your eyeballs.) Rotate halfway during baking. Cool on rack for 30 minutes. Serve warm. Or, rather, devour.

TOMORROW: Oh, I have no clue. I haven’t cooked yet. Any ideas? Any requests?