Chocolate Shortcakes with Mascarpone Cream

and figs

Every year around this time I decide I need to publish a fig recipe even though I’m not really crazy about figs. But I know you all are! The figs are accessory to this recipe, though, so it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. That being said, this recipe could work with many fruits: raspberries, strawberries, bruléed bananas, even passionfruit (if ya got it.)

Adding cocoa to any kind of biscuit or scone or shortcake is tricky. The dough can’t be too wet, otherwise the flaky layers that you worked hard for will simply dissolve into one another. At the same time, cocoa has a way of sucking up all the moisture in a bake and drying it out. Then comes the sugar. We had to balance out the bitterness of the cocoa with at least some of the sweet stuff, while also keeping in mind that sugar turns to liquid when the cream and egg hit it, making the dough more slack.

Well, after eight recipe tests — this one had me at my wit’s end, folks! — we got it. I used a 50/50 mix of Dutch-processed cocoa and black cocoa on the final batch to really get that deep color and extra-rich flavor, but this recipe also works with natural cocoa. You can see the color difference between all Dutch-processed cocoa and the batch with black cocoa in the photos below.

A dollop or two of mascarpone whipped cream cuts through the richness of the shortcake and the figs make the whole thing feel fresh and like the perfect finale to summer and intro to fall.

Chocolate Shortcakes with Mascarpone Cream and Figs

Makes about 10 shortcakes

Ingredients

For the shortcakes