COLORADOFLAVOR | Rhubarb for breakfast
No one wants to spend a fine summer morning slaving over a hot stove. But if you still need something a little special to serve for company breakfast, try this simple scone recipe from the “San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market Cookbook.” If you’re not growing it at home, rhubarb can be found at the grocery store or the farmers market. Or, better yet, spend some time getting to know your gardening neighbors; they might have some rhubarb they would happily trade for a copy of this recipe.
Rustic Rhubarb Scone Cake
Quicker to make and easier to handle than pastry dough, this rustic Irish cake soaks up the delicious rhubarb juices. Serves 6-8.
Ingredients
Dough
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup (1/4 pound) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
Filling
- 1 pound rhubarb (about five stalks) chopped
- Grated zest of 1 orange
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg white, lightly whisked with a little water
- Sugar for sprinkling on top
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch deep-dish pie dish and set aside.
To make the scone dough, sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Add the butter and, using pastry blender, two knives or your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture until it has the consistency of coarse cornmeal. Gradually add the buttermilk, folding the wet and dry ingredients together until a soft, shaggy dough forms. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead lightly just until the dough comes together. Don’t work the dough too much, or it will be tough. Divide the dough into two equal portions.
To make the filling, combine the rhubarb, orange zest and sugar in a bowl and stir to mix well.
Roll out half of the dough into a 12-inch round on the floured work surface and transfer it to the prepared pie dish. If it falls apart, don’t worry. Just gently pat it back into place. Fill the dough-lined dish with the rhubarb mixture. Roll out the remaining dough into a 12-inch round to form a pastry lid. Brush the rim of the bottom crust with water and put on the lid. Press the top crust to the bottom crust to seal.
Brush the whisked egg white evenly over the top crust and then sprinkle lightly and evenly with sugar. Make three or four steam slits in the lid. Bake until the crust is golden brown and looks dry, and the fruit is soft when tested with a knife tip through a slit, about 1 hour.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
