Unripe Fruit? Make Biscuits!

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

Many times I hear people telling me that they buy fruit to use in a dessert, but when they get it home from the market and cut into it, they find out it’s unripe and think it can no longer be used. And while that’s true for fruit that they wish to serve fresh, it’s quite the opposite for other fruit desserts or baked goods. In fact, unripe fruit is the perfect thing to bake with because it is sturdier than when ripe and can be heated without breaking down too much, while still imparting a great flavor.

Peaches and apricots are the unripe fruits of the moment at farmers’ markets where I live in San Francisco. But just because they’re not ready for fruit salads or parfaits, doesn’t mean they can’t be used to make a mean cobbler, pie, or biscuit.

One of my favorite ways to use under-ripe peaches, as well as apricots, strawberries or even bananas, is to dice them and toss them into biscuit dough made with cream. Peaches and cream is a cliché dessert pairing, but it’s my favorite, and baking it into a biscuit makes for a rich breakfast pastry that is offset by the under-ripe fruit.

The fruit holds up beautifully in the biscuit and is a refreshing way to serve a plain biscuit until the season is ripe for you to split said biscuit and sandwich it around fresh cream and soft, juicy peaches.

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Peaches and Cream Biscuits
Makes about 12

4 cups flour
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
24 tablespoons (¾ pound) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes and chilled
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
2 to 3 under-ripe peaches, peeled and pitted, cut into ¼-inch cubes
2 tablespoons sugar

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add the butter, and using your fingers, rub and crush the butter cubes into the flour, over and over again, until they resemble small crumbles with a few larger pieces of butter still remaining. Form a well in the flour with your hands and then pour in the cream. Using a fork, slowly bring in the flour from the side of the bowl and stir until a shaggy, wet dough begins forming. Once you see no loose pools of cream in the bowl while stirring, stir in the peaches, and then dump the dough out on a floured work surface and pat into a 1-inch-thick round. Using a 2 ¾-inch round or square cutter (or another size, depending on how big or small you like your biscuits), cut out rounds and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, spaced about 1 inch apart. Take any crumbs of dough you have on the counter and place them in a bowl and stir in the sugar. Sprinkle this on top of the biscuits for a crunchy, crumb-like topping, if you want. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze the biscuits until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight and up to 1 week.

When ready to serve, heat your oven to 425°F. Place the biscuits, directly from the freezer, into the oven and bake until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

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