Biscuits and Cream with Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote
Biscuits and Cream with Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote
My playful vegan interpretation of strawberry shortcake
I start to think about strawberries toward the end of winter when fresh fruits are difficult to find in my part of the world. I freely admit that holding out on buying those underripe strawberries is a struggle – my cravings for the sensation of fresh berries bursting in my mouth are strong and difficult to resist after months of cold weather and limited fresh fruit choices that aren’t accumulating a ton of frequent flyer mileage. And if I can resist for a couple of months, I know I will be rewarded…but I rarely succeed.
When I sense summer is just around the corner, and I see the cherries ripen and the apricots turning seductively golden, I’ve already gorged on strawberries for nearly two months. I feel silly when I spot the fields near me advertising pick-your-own strawberries because I’ve already satisfied my desire for strawberries.
“Maybe I still have some space for strawberries” – those were my thoughts while staring at the suddenly expanding selection of fruits at the local farmer’s market. Every gentle whisper of a morning breeze filled my nose with the perfume of sweet strawberries. It was all the convincing I needed...but I had to act fast because these sun-ripened strawberries don’t have a long shelf-life – they move from peak flavor to peak mush in hours.
Ultra-fresh strawberries transform my middle-aged mind into a curious and carefree thirteen-year-old; I stuff one strawberry after another into my mouth without caring about the juices dripping off my chin and onto my shirt. It’s a delightful Dr. Who moment of time travel. I ride the fructose wave like a pro…until I’m pulled back into reality and realize that I don’t like the flood of sweetness in my mouth without something sour to balance my aging taste buds. It’s time to search for acid.
Fortunately, fresh rhubarb is abundant in the northern hemisphere during the late spring, and it marries well with strawberries. Of course, rhubarb is just a vegetable masquerading as a fruit, but labels don’t really matter – it’s the acidity and herbaceous notes I’m after. Those characteristics balance the fruity sweetness of an ultra-fresh strawberry…and that combination develops into one of spring’s defining desserts.
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Strawberry shortcake is a widely known American dessert made by placing macerated strawberries onto a base that has a crumbly scone-like texture, then topped with vanilla-scented whipped cream. It’s a simple dessert that delivers extreme satisfaction and only requires a small amount of effort. And I’m all about taking the path of least resistance to create a mouth-watering dessert.
And this vegan interpretation of the classical strawberry shortcake delivers.
It’s a dessert that doesn’t need a food stylist to turn it into something Instagram-worthy. It is presented naked; there is nothing complicated about it – just three elements harmonizing to produce a siren song of spring that lures me into a second or third helping.
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