Rhubarb Butter - An Easy Way to Preserve Your Rhubarb

Not too sweet, not too sour, this rhubarb butter is something that you would love on your toast or pancakes in the morning or on a scone with tea in the afternoon.

The weather has been on everyone's mind lately!  Our spring has been rainy and mostly chilly with an occasional seasonal day thrown in to keep us hoping.  My rhubarb plant, on the other hand, is very happy with the chilly weather and is keeping me supplied with plentiful stalks.  I don't always want to make a cake, pie or other sweet dessert every week to use my rhubarb and was delighted when I found this delicious and easy recipe for Rhubarb Butter in our local newspaper.

The scones above I saw in a Instagram post on my friend's Monique's feed.  She found the recipe here and it originally came from here.  The dough is folded over and over to create those lovely, flaky layers you see.  Sooooo good!  And, ever better with a dollop of rhubarb butter.  I'm sharing the recipe I converted below to make it a little easier for my American followers to make.

Other than growing prolific rhubarb, here are a few snippets of what has been keeping me busy the past few weeks.  The Mid June Garden!

Rhubarb Butter

Printable Recipe

Makes 1 pint

1 pound rhubarb stalks, cut into pieces
1 large apple, chopped and cored
½ cup sugar
pinch salt
½ vanilla bean, seeds scraped (I used 1/2 teaspoon cardamom)

In a food processor, blend rhubarb, apple, sugar and salt until as smooth as possible.

In a heavy, not aluminum, saucepan, heat fruit over medium-low heat until simmering. Add scraped vanilla bean seeds and the pod (or cardamom). Stir frequently and cook until thick and spreadable, about 20 minutes.

Store in a glass jar in the fridge for up to a week or freeze indefinitely.

Adapted from this recipe.

Flaky Scones

Printable Recipe

3-1/3 cup all purpose unbleached white flour
2 scant Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
11 Tablespoons (1 stick, plus 3 Tablespoons) butter, frozen until firm
1-1/8 cup buttermilk
Finely grated zest of one lemon
1 egg, beaten, for glazing

A very sharp knife is necessary to as not to depress the dough when cutting into triangles for baking.  Otherwise, they will not rise properly.

Preheat oven to 400 ° F.

In a small bowl, mix together buttermilk and lemon zest. Refrigerate until needed.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Remove the butter from the freezer and, using a box grater, grate the butter quickly and coarsely onto a piece of parchment or waxed paper. Refreeze briefly, if it has become soft again, then add the butter to the flour mixture and blend the butter into the flour with a fork or pastry cutter. 

Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour/butter mixture and mix together until the ingredients are just barely blended together. Do not over-mix.

Flour a work surface and turn out the dough. Using your hands, gently flatten it to form a rectangle.

With a rolling pin, roll out dough to half an inch thick, keeping the rectangular shape. Fold dough in half and rotate 90 degrees and repeat these last two steps twice again.

Roll the dough one last time to obtain a rectangle of 18 "x 9".

Taking the shorter ends, make an 'envelope fold', folding one short end to the center and then the other short end over that fold (into thirds). You now have a 6 "x 9" rectangle.

Using a VERY sharp knife or dough cutter, cut a thin layer of dough on each side of your rectangle. This step will make those nice layers during cooking.

Cut 6 square 3" x 3" scones...then cut each square in half on the diagonal to form triangles.

Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper spaced three inches apart.  Brush lightly with egg wash.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until light golden brown.

Adapted from this recipe.