Strawberry Sonker Is the Retro Southern Dessert You Have To Make

Most of my favorite desserts have funny names: cobbler, slump, pandowdy, and sonker. Yet it’s not the names that keep me coming back for second helpings every time one of these rustic fruit desserts hits the table. It’s that they’re chock full of juicy, colorful fruit (it doesn’t hurt that they’re almost always served with ice cream).

There’s also a touch of nostalgia that makes them taste even better. These are the desserts my grandmother made most often. She never thought of herself as a baker, but in the South, a meal isn’t complete without something sweet. So she often whipped up cobblers using whatever fruit was in season (or in her freezer).

My mother’s side of the family hails from Surry County, North Carolina, home to Mt. Airy, which inspired the fictional town of Mayberry in “The Andy Griffith Show.” Apart from the beloved TV show, the town’s other claim to fame is a highly regional rustic fruit dessert: the sonker.

What Is a Sonker?

Perhaps the most notable thing about the sonker is that there is no standard way of making it. If you follow the “sonker trail,” you’ll encounter sonkers made with all kinds of fruit, from blackberries to peaches, and even some made with sweet potatoes. Some sonkers have biscuit toppings, others are made with pie dough, and still others have cakey toppings reminiscent of a cobbler. There aren’t many rules for this dessert, which is part of why I love it so much.

My favorite version of sonker is made with strawberries and is so easy to make that even the most adamant non-baker can whip it up, no problem. Not all sonkers call for pre-cooking the fruit on the stovetop, but because I like my sonker very, very juicy, I find that this is the best way to ensure a dessert that bubbles brightly with sticky strawberry juices, all the better to mingle with melting ice cream on your plate.

How To Substitute Other Fruit for the Strawberries

This recipe can be used with almost any kind of fruit: blackberries, peaches, plums, and cherries can all be swapped for the strawberries without any other modifications. To use apples instead, increase the sugar added to the fruit to 1/3 cup (65 grams). 

You can even use canned or jarred pie filling, and frozen fruit works just as well as fresh, though you’ll need to cook it a little longer on the stovetop to thaw it.

More Easy Strawberry Desserts

• Strawberry Shortcake
• Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
• Strawberry Pretzel Pie
• Strawberry Eton Mess
• Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Melt the butter: 

Add the butter to a 9x13-inch baking dish. Set the baking dish in the preheated oven until the butter is completely melted, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven and carefully tilt it to coat the bottom and halfway up the sides with the melted butter. Set aside.

Make the topping: 

Whisk together the flour, milk, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Set aside.

Make the fruit filling: 

Combine the strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar in a large saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently, over high heat. The strawberries will be dry at first, but as they heat up and mix with the sugar they will release their juices. 

Reduce the heat to medium to keep the berries at a brisk simmer until the mixture is very juicy, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Assemble and bake the sonker: 

Pour the still-hot strawberries into the buttered baking dish. Pour the batter as evenly as you can over the berries. It won’t look perfect and there will be pockets of strawberry and pools of butter showing through the topping. That’s okay!

Bake until the topping is browned and set, about 45 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Love the recipe? Leave us stars and a comment below!