- Michelle Obama’s cobbler uses Granny Smith apples and a simple pie crust base.
- The filling marinates overnight for extra cinnamon-sugar flavor.
- The dessert bakes for 3 hours for a perfectly flaky crust.
There are few Thanksgiving desserts as satisfying as a good apple cobbler. Plus, apples aren’t just deliciously crunchy and sweet—they also pack in plenty of health benefits, making them a nutritious addition to any holiday dessert.
We’ve long been fans of Michelle Obama’s go-to dishes, including her love of breakfasts that incorporate peanut butter and jelly, so we’re not surprised that the former First Lady has a comforting, delicious apple cobbler recipe she likes to pull out during the holidays. The Obama Foundation shared the recipe for Obama’s Ultimate Apple Cobbler Recipe, and we’re already planning how to work the dessert into our holiday menus.
To make Michelle Obama’s apple cobbler recipe, gather ingredients for the filling and the crust. For the filling, you’ll need 8 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced (it’s also OK to use a bag of frozen, peeled apples, according to the recipe), 1 ½ to 2 cups of brown sugar, 1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg, ½ teaspoon of salt and ¼ cup of white flour. For the crust, just gather 3 sheets of refrigerated pie crust and a stick of butter.
Mix those filling ingredients in a large bowl and allow the mixture to marinate in the fridge overnight to infuse all of that cinnamony, sugary flavor into the apples. The next day, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and butter and flour the bottom of a large baking dish. Roll all three pie crusts out as thinly as possible and slice one of the crusts in half.
Layer the bottom of the baking dish with 1 ½ of your three pie crusts, poking a few holes in the crust. Pour the apple filling (with all of its liquid) into the baking dish and slice and place about ¾ of the stick of butter around the pan, atop the apple mixture. Cover the mixture with the remaining pie crusts.
Pinch the edges of the pie crust all around the pan to fuse the top and bottom crusts together and make an envelope of sorts to hold the apple mixture inside. Melt the remaining ¼ stick of butter and pour atop the crust. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees F and bake for around three hours.
“That’s what makes the crust flaky, like Barack likes it,” the recipe reads. “Put the cobbler in the oven and go for a walk, go to the store or do whatever you have to do around the house. Start looking at the cobbler after 2 ½ hours, so it doesn’t burn. Serve any time.”
We wouldn’t exactly recommend leaving the house with your oven on, but this low and slow bake would be a great one to set up while everyone digs into Thanksgiving dinner. Prep your cobbler the day before and leave it covered in the fridge, then pop it into the oven when dinner is served. That gives you three hours or so to enjoy the meal and spend time with your guests before dishing up something incredibly cozy.
Obama’s cobbler recipe, which makes eight to 10 servings, sounds like the perfect thing to serve with some Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, or some Bourbon Whipped Cream. Even on its own, the dessert sounds perfect for fall, and we love thinking about how that apple cobbler scent would fill the house on a cool afternoon.
In fact, we’re adding this Michelle Obama recipe to our fall rotation. Looking for other fall dessert recipes? Try our Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies or Banana Bread Focaccia. Both are guaranteed to also have your home smelling delicious this holiday season.
