Well, what do you do when you have an abundance of zucchini? You make Zucchini Cobbler, of course!

Many of my friends have tasted this dessert I like to make and all of them were stunned to learn the fruit in the filling was zucchini. Most people guess it is either apple or peach filling, but nope, it is made with zucchini and as promised, I am sharing the recipe.

(While most of us consider the zucchini as a vegetable for culinary purposes, botanically, it is a fruit.)

Ingredients for the filling:
2/3 Cup lemon juice
8 Cups chopped zucchini
1 Cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon (or more to taste)

Directions for the filling:

-Peel the zucchini and remove the seeds from large or more mature fruit.
-Cut zucchini into small cubes
-In a large saucepan, over medium heat, add the lemon juice and the zucchini
-Simmer zucchini until tender (about 15 to 20 minutes).
-Stir in 1 cup of sugar and the cinnamon, continuing to cook the filling for an additional minute or two to dissolve the sugar.
-Remove from heat and set the filling aside.

Ingredients for the crust:
4 Cups of flour
2 Cups of sugar
3 Sticks of butter

Directions for the crust and cobbler:
-Preheat the oven to 375°F
-Grease the bottom and sides of a 10 X 15 baking dish.
-Combine the flour and sugar.
-Cut in the butter using two knives or a pastry knife, unless of course you have a mixer that will do crusts. I do not have one so my hands ache by the time the crust mixture is the desired texture, that of coarse crumbs.
-Put 1/2 cup of the batter into the zucchini mixture and stir well.
-Press 1/2 of the remaining crust mixture into the bottom of the baking dish.
-Pour the zucchini mixture over the bottom crust and spread evenly.
-Sprinkle the remaining crust mixture over the filling.
-Bake for 45 minutes or until top is golden.

Serve this treat warm or cold. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and no one will ever guess you just tricked them into eating zucchini.

Go ahead and bake this up in your kitchen and see how many folks you can fool!