The highest praise for fruit isn’t absolutely calling it candy. The excellent fruit tastes complicated, from time to time sour or bitter or both, maybe with tips of vegetation or grass or almonds. And it evolves as the season does.
This time of year, rhubarb is at its ripest and reddest. It’s nevertheless tart sufficient to make you pucker, but it is juicier and mellower than early spring harvests. That way you may preserve massive chunks of it intact when cooking it fast right into a compote, which is like a super chunky but saucy jam. When you chunk into a still-crisp piece, it is going to be fresh and vibrant, not unpleasantly acidic. And you may get inexperienced notes of some thing like artichokes.
To supplement this compote is another candy-tart treat. Blueberries are just beginning to show up in gardens and markets, and they’re tiny and a touch tart with a hint of crunch. They might not be ideal for snacking, however they’re amazing for baking. Instead of couching them in a sugary muffin or pancake batter, I fold them right into a one-bowl drop biscuit dough. If you want to veer sweeter into scone-land, you can bathe the tops with sugar before baking.
I prefer tangy bursts of berries in the savory, smooth biscuits due to the fact that they get slathered with rhubarb compote. To highlight the scrumptious nuanced tartness of each, I add lime zest to the biscuits and its juice to the compote. Combining the cease of wintry weather citrus with peak-of-spring rhubarb and almost-summer season blueberries consequences in the proper weekend brunch or teatime treat.
Blueberry Biscuits with Rhubarb Compote
30 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.
2 cups all-reason flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling (elective)
four teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
eight tablespoons bloodless salted butter, cut in ½-inch cubes
1 cup blueberries
Zest of 1 lime
1 cup entire milk
Rhubarb Compote, for serving (recipe follows)
1 Heat oven to 425 ranges. Line a massive baking sheet with parchment paper.
2 Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a massive bowl with a fork. Add the butter, toss to evenly coat, then press the butter into the flour speedy with your arms till the aggregate resembles coarse meal with pebbly pieces ultimate. Add the blueberries and lime zest and toss to coat. Add the milk all of sudden and stir gently with a fork simply till no dry bits remain and a shaggy dough bureaucracy.
Three Drop 24 heaping spoonfuls of the dough onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing 1 inch apart. Sprinkle the tops generously with sugar in case you’d like.
4 Bake until golden brown, 18 to twenty minutes. Cool on a cooling rack. Serve warm or room temperature with the compote.
Variation
Blueberry Buttermilk Biscuits: Reduce the baking powder to 3 teaspoons and add 1 teaspoon baking soda. Substitute buttermilk for the whole milk.
Make in advance: The biscuits can be cooled completely, then frozen in resealable plastic freezer bags. Reheat in a toaster oven or oven until crisp outside and warmed via inner.
Rhubarb Compote
15 minutes. Makes about three 1/2 cups.
1½ kilos rhubarb, trimmed and reduce into 1-inch pieces (4 cups)
1½ cups sugar
2 tablespoons sparkling lime juice
Combine the rhubarb, sugar and lime juice in a medium saucepan. Set over medium heat and cook dinner, stirring every now and then, till saucy and with some complete portions of rhubarb remaining, about 10 mins. Serve heat or room temperature.
Make ahead: The compote may be refrigerated in an hermetic box for up to two weeks.
