Lemon Biscuits With Black Pepper Glaze, Whipped Cream & Summer Peaches
Apologizing for long recipe titles is not something I do anymore. Sorry.
… (Damn it).
I don’t want to oversell this but… This is the PERFECT dish for Sobre Mesa.
It’s casual, easy to serve and people can assemble their own little perfect plate. (My favorite serving dynamic, because the idea of me assembling individual plates for each guest? … Yeah, not gonna happen.
The whipped cream provides the usual and expected richness and softness. The bisquits are sweet and salty and their glaze is decidedly acidic. Then you have the black pepper which is floral and brings a very slight -yet super interesting- level of heat. Finally you´re serving with freshly cut summer peaches, which are juicy and sweet and tart.
On top of that, you’re squeezing the juice of half a lemon. (Yes, this really is about the lemon, in all it’s glory!) Then more black pepper and flaky salt (Because flaky salt should go on top of everything?).
Serve with something fresh to drink on the side, like cold rosé or Prosecco.
ingredients
The Biscuits
70g lemon juice
60g heavy cream + more for finishing on top
100g greek yogurt
300g flour (AP)
Zest of two lemons
90g sugar, plus more for sprinkling
12g baking powder
12g kosher salt
1 stick of butter
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
The Glaze
100g of granulated sugar
50g of lemon juice
20g heavy cream
black pepper and salt to taste
To Serve With:
1 carton of Whipped cream
1 lemon
5 summer peaches
Freshly ground black pepper
Flaky salt
instructions
Preheat your oven to 420ºF
In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, cream and yogurt. Whisk to combine
In a larger bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt & lemon zest. Whisk to combine.
Grate the butter into the flower using the large side of your box grater. (A good tip is to first throw the stick of butter into the flour mixture to get it dry and then grab it and grate it. You want to keep everything as cold as possible, so if necessary, wash your hands first on cold water, so that the heat from your hands doesn’t melt the stick as you’re grating it).
Combine wet ingredients, making a small well in the middle of the dry ingredients, pouring over the cream mixture, then shaking the bowl, turning and shaking so that the movement inside does the better part of the combining (No hands involved at first). You´ll see some bigger and smaller lumps forming. You want to do this until you see the least amount of lose flour in the bottom of the bowl.
Turn your mixture onto a floured surface and softly knead with your hands and bench scraper into a lose rectangle (The dough will feel sticky and shaggy and lumpy, this is ok, It’ll come together, just don’t be too aggressive with it). Remember to stop and cool your hands as necessary as you don’t want to melt the butter in the dough).
Every time you form your dough into a rectangle, cut it in half with your bench scraper and then cross-wise twice so you’re left with 4 equal squares of dough. Place all of them on top of each other and press them into a 1 1/2 inch thick dough.
Do this a couple of times, flouring your hands and the surface as necessary.
When done, cut the dough into 6 equal squares and place in a baking sheet. Cool in the fridge for 30 mins.
For the glaze, combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice and cream and whip until you´re left with a mixture that is loose enough to drizzle but still feels sticky, dense and opaque. Season with salt and pepper to taste. It should be tangy, sweet and the pepper and salt should feel present enough.
After 30 mins, brush the tops of the biscuits with more cream and pop into the oven for 25 - 30 mins, until they've risen and the tops are golden brown. (The perfect time to pop them in the oven is halfway through the meal. Then you’ll have enough time to have them cook & cool to be ready for Sobre Mesa!)
Once cooked, leave your biscuits to cool off for at least 15 mins.
Drizzle the glaze on top of each of the biscuits, let the glaze drip over the sides.
In a bowl, combine the cream and the juice of half a lemon, a pinch of sugar & salt and whip until you´re left with luscious, soft, airy whipped cream.
Dollop the cream in big spoonfuls on the bottom of your serving dish so you have big, dramatic swooshes of cream.
Place the biscuits on top of the cream.
Cut your peaches in slices and place them next to the biscuits and on top of the cream. (In my opinion organized chaos is better, but I’ll let you follow your own aesthetic intuitions).
Squeeze the other half of the lemon on top of the entire thing.
Finish with fresh ground pepper & flaky salt.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The dough for these biscuits as well as the technique for them was very much influenced by both the scones in Alison Roman’s amazing “Sweet Enough”, as well as the Buttery Sugar Biscuits by Eric Kim, featured in NYT Cooking.
Everything I’ve ever tried and developed has come from inspiration and lessons from great, accomplished and experienced cooks that have shared their knowledge in written and video form and I continue to always be humbled by how much I learn from others to eventually, after try, mistake, change and tweak, make something that I can consider to also be, ultimately mine to share.
