Recipes

Shortcake Biscuits with Rosé-Poached Rhubarb

Claudia Fleming

The North Fork Table & Inn, Southold, NY

After a long, cold winter, rhubarb is one of the first harbingers of spring. Celebrate the change of season with these shortcakes from James Beard Award winner Claudia Fleming.

Ingredients

White Chocolate-Strawberry Cream:
  • 1/2 cup chopped white chocolate
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons strawberry jam


Shortcakes Biscuits:
  • 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

  • 3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder

  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

  • 6 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

  • 2 hard-boiled egg yolks
  • 2/3 cups very cold heavy cream, plus 2 tablespoons for brushing

  • 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Poached Rhubarb:

  • One 750-milliliter bottle Rosé wine

  • 3 1/2 cups granulated sugar

  • 4 cups diced rhubarb

Method

To make the white chocolate-strawberry cream, place the white chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small, heavy bottomed saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Pour the cream over the white chocolate and let sit for 1 minute. Whisk until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

To make the shortcake biscuits, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a food processor or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, Pulse or mix to combine. Add the butter and egg yolks and pulse or mix until the flour resembles coarse meal. Add 2/3 cup cream and mix until the dough just comes together. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently pat into a 1-inch-thick, 6-inch square, incorporating any stray crumbs. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cut the dough into 9 biscuits of equal size. Brush the tops of the biscuits with the remaining cream and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Place the biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.



To make the poached rhubarb, combine the wine and sugar in a medium sauce pot and bring to a boil, stirring to help the sugar dissolve. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the rhubarb and cook for 3 minutes. Remove the sauce pot from heat and let the rhubarb cool in the liquid.



Place the white chocolate cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Add the strawberry jam. Whisk on medium speed until stiff.


Halve the biscuits and put the bottom halves on serving plates. Using a slotted spoon, remove the rhubarb from the poaching liquid. Mound some rhubarb on each bottom biscuit half. Top with a dollop of cream, then cover with the top biscuit halves.

Yield

9 servings