*summer rhubarb scone cake*

I've recently been fortunate enough to score some space at a most choice section of community garden space across the street from my apartment. The Gardens at Lake Merritt are easy enough to bypass while walking around the lake; only chain link fences with subtle signs beckon passers-by inside. But once you take that step inside the wiry gates, you enter a feast for the senses: a blanket of aromas and a cinema of colors and textures. Each time one visits, a new flower has bloomed, a new fruit has ripened on the vine, a new plant has been propagated into beds across the garden space. 

I plan to write more in detail about this place...it will take effort and time to truly capture its magic...but in the meantime, a recipe using some of the scavenged bounty from the plot across from mine. A healthy, prolific rhubarb plant grows there, its stalks rich and thick, begging for harvest. I've heard through the sweet pea vine that the woman who owns the plant loves to donate its bounty freely, so I helped myself to a few stalks the other day. This cake is adapted from a recipe in the San Francisco Farmer's Market Cookbook by Christopher Hirsheimer and Peggy Knickerbocker.


ingredients:
for the dough
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup Shakefork Farms Barley flour (or use all ww pastry flour)
1 t baking powder
1/4 cup Lemon Verbena Sugar*
pinch of salt
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon cider vinegar


for the filling
1 pound rhubarb (about 5 stalks), chopped
1/2 cup Lemon Verbena Sugar*


for the topping
1 egg white, lightly whisked with a little water
Lemon Verbena Sugar* for sprinkling on top


directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 10" deep dish pie dish and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the milk, cream and cider vinegar. Set aside to let curdle a bit. (NOTE: you can also just use 3/4 cup buttermilk instead of all three of these ingredients)
3. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, sugar and salt.
4. Add the butter to the flour mixture and using a pastry cutter or your fingers, work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture feels like a coarse cornmeal.
5. To that, gradually add the milk/cream (or buttermilk) mixture, folding it into the dough until a shaggy mixture forms. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead just until the dough comes together. Don't work it too much or it'll get tough! Divide the dough into two equal portions.
6. To make the filling, combine the rhubarb and sugar in a bowl and mix well.
7. Roll out half of the dough into a 12" circle on a floured work surface and transfer it to the prepared baking dish. If it falls apart, Macgyver it back into place, no worries.
8. Fill the dough-lined dish with the rhubarb mixture.
9. Roll out the remaining dough into a 12" round to form a pastry lid. Brush the rim of the bottom crust with the egg white mixture and place the lid on. Press the top and bottom crusts together to form a seal.
10. Brush the whisked egg white over the top crust and sprinkle lightly with sugar. Make several steam slits in the lid and bake until the upper crust is golden brown and looks dry and the fruit is soft, about one hour.

Serve warm or at room temperature with a dollop of whipped cream, if you've got it.

*Lemon Verbena Sugar is a pleasure of mine...to make it, I harvest about ten fresh lemon verbena leaves and mix them with about 2 cups of cane sugar in a mason jar and let the whole thing sit for a couple of days. When using the sugar, I sift out the leaves. If you do NOT have Lemon Verbena Sugar, you can use regular sugar in the scone dough and regular sugar plus the grated zest of an entire lemon or orange in the rhubarb filling. If you'd like to purchase Lemon Verbena Sugar, please contact me at kerstinkeifer@yahoo.com. I sell the sugar for $15 per 3 cups, plus shipping costs.