rhubarb buckle

i had never heard of a buckle before in the baking world, until a few days ago when i received my cookie of the day recipe in my inbox from martha stewart. the world buckle just made me want to know more, and suddenly i wanted to bake everything that could be attached to that word. it’s also very fun to say. rhubarb buckle rolls of the tongue especially well. but anyways, from what i read, buckles are basically a rustic style baked fruit dessert similar to crumbles and crisps. my perfect dessert. i really do love chocolatey cakey sweets, but i think i’d almost always choose a warm, crumbly, cinnamony baked fruit dessert first.

makes about 9-12 bars | inspired by this martha stewart recipe

ingredients:

pastry:

• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 c. wheat flour
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 c. butter ( 1 1/2 stick butter) softened (not melted!)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 c. sour cream

filling:

• 1/2 c. white sugar
• about 1 1/2 c. chopped rhubarb (about 1/2 inch size pieces)

topping:

• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp. light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 4 tbsp. (1/2 stick) butter, melted

directions:

preheat oven to 350°F. spray a 9×9 baking pan with cooking spray. stir together the rhubarb pieces and white sugar in a bowl, and let sit while you make everything else. to make pastry, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. cut in the butter with two butter knives or a pastry cutter. in a separate smaller bowl, beat the egg and sour cream with a fork. mix this into the flour mixture with a fork. the mixture should now be moist, but a little clumpy looking.

pat about 3/4 of the pastry mixture onto the bottom of the baking dish. flatten slightly with a spoon. sprinkle the rhubarb mixture over this. then sprinkle the remaining pastry mixture over the rhubarb with your fingers.

make the topping by stirring together the flour, brown sugar and salt. then mix in the melted butter with the fork. sprinkle this topping over the rhubarb with your fingers. bake until golden on top and cooked through about 50 minutes. let cool completely on wire racks. 

blueberry scones

i know, i know, it’s another scone recipe. i just can’t help it! a). i had leftover blueberries from homemade poptarts and b). i have a very profound love of carbs and breakfast pastries. one good thing about making so many scones is that i get to test very many recipes, and hopefully someday will be a scone expert. or maybe someday if i can dream big, i will have my very own cookbook full of scones.

with a cream cheese glaze. makes about 8 scones.

ingredients:

• 2 c. flour
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 tbsp cold butter, one stick, cubed
• 1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/2 c. buttermilk, shaken
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

glaze:

• 3 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 3 tbsp. powdered sugar, plus extra if needed
• 2 tbsp. milk, plus extra if needed
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

directions:

preheat oven to 400°. line a baking sheet with parchment paper. in a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. cube the butter, and then cut into the flour mixture using two butter knives or a pastry dough cutter. the mixture should look coarse, but the butter pieces should be no bigger than pea-sized. stir in blueberries. in another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla. drizzle this over the flour mixture, and use a fork to stir lightly until dough comes together, leaving a small amount of flour at the bottom of the bowl. use your hands to turn the dough over a few times in the bowl, gathering most of the excess flour. it’s okay if you squish some of the blueberries. i definitely did and maybe it’s a little messy, but it makes for such a pretty color. pull apart pieces of dough that are slightly smaller than a baseball in size. form into a rough ball shape, and then pat down the tops slightly to make them into discs. place on baking sheet. repeat with the rest of the dough. it should divide into enough for 8 scones. bake for 15-17 minutes, until lightly golden. to make the glaze, beat together cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. add in milk and vanilla extract. it should be pourable but not totally liquidy. you can use a traditional pastry bag to drizzle the icing over the scones, but i just poured it into a ziploc bag and trimmed off a corner before doing some pretty zig zags.