Archive for: biscuits
The wonderful thing about biscuits is that they pair well with almost every dish you can think of. You can serve them at breakfast, at lunch and and dinner – and you can even use them to make berry shortcakes for dessert. The even more wonderful thing about them is that they are quick and easy to make. But I have to say that no other biscuit recipe is as quick and easy to make as these Secret Ingredient Biscuits are.
Secret Ingredient Biscuits are fluffy, tender biscuits that get their name because they are made with an unusual ingredient: mayonnaise. The mayonnaise actually replaces butter (or other fats) that you would typically put into biscuit dough. It works because mayonnaise made with eggs and oil – two fat sources that are often used in biscuits.
I first saw this recipe in an issue of Cook’s Country (Mar/Apr 2013) and knew that I had to try them. Not only did they sound delicious, but the ingredient list was short and biscuits required virtually no prep time. It literally took less than 5 minutes to measure and mix the dough, then get the biscuits in the oven (which I had preheated). They were delicious, with a slightly savory quality from the mayonnaise that made them addictive – especially when they were served with a little bit of butter while they were still warm.
If you’re not a big mayonnaise fan, don’t worry: the biscuits don’t have a strong mayonnaise flavor and you probably wouldn’t know they were made with mayo. I did end up cutting back the amount of salt in the original recipe very slightly as my first batch turned out a touch salty, possibly because of the brand of mayonnaise that I was using – Best Foods, in this case. This is an easy recipe that everyone should be able to put together easily on short notice, and that means that it will be making a few more appearances in my house in the near future!
Cook’s Country calls for these biscuits to be made with full fat mayonnaise and whole milk, since it is the fat from these two items that tenderizes the biscuits and gives them their great texture. You can get away with using reduced fat versions of the two, but your biscuits may loose a bit of their tenderness. Fat free mayo and skim milk aren’t going to give you a good result here, so don’t use those if you want great biscuits.
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Plain biscuits are a dinnertime favorite for many. The flaky biscuits are perfect for sopping up sauces, and are just as good topped off with butter or jam. Although we pair them with many flavors, most of the time the biscuits themselves are quite plain. It can take your biscuits to a whole new level to infuse a little flavor into them directly. These Rosemary Orange Biscuits are an easy to make variation on your basic biscuit for a sweet-savory side.
The biscuits get their flavor from rosemary, fresh or dried, and from orange zest. The rosemary works well with all kinds of flavors and gives the biscuits a distinctly savory note. The orange zest adds some sweetness into the mix. The biscuits can be served with just about any entree and are delicious when drizzled with honey, too.
I make these biscuits by hand, cutting the butter into the flour mixture to create a sandy meal (just as you might do for pie crust). Kneading the biscuit dough briefly after it has been made leads to a slightly flakier – and higher rising – biscuit. I cut these into squares just for a change of pace, but you could cut the dough with a regular round cutter, as well.
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Homemade apple butter is a delicious topping for all kinds of things, such as toast, muffins and even yogurt and oatmeal. Since I make it in the fall, I tend to serve it with biscuits and dinner rolls during big holiday dinners, too. This year I wanted a change of pace and decided to stuff my biscuits with the apple butter instead of serving it on the side.
These Apple Butter-Stuffed Buttermilk Biscuits are buttery, flaky biscuits that have a small pocket of apple butter baked inside of them. The apple butter adds a nice sweetness to the biscuits, and makes these a tasty snack, in addition to being a tasty side dish. I roll my biscuit dough out in a much thinner layer than I usually do and cut out twice as many rounds. I add the apple butter to the center of half of the rounds, just as I would do if I were making sandwich cookies, and place another biscuit round on top. The warm apple butter is a great treat when you’re biting into a freshly baked biscuit.
Usually I work biscuit dough on a well-floured surface. Since I was planning to stuff these, I wanted the dough to be a little on the sticky side so that I would get a good seal around the filling with my dough. Use flour sparingly and use a bench scraper if necessary to get the cut biscuits off your work surface. If you do find that your biscuit dough isn’t sticky enough to form a tight seal, simply wet the edges of the dough with a little water and pinch to close. Even if some of the apple butter escapes during baking, it’ll still create a sweet center in each of the biscuits and they will still be delicious – you just might want to serve them with a little extra apple butter on the side.
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There are quite a few different foods that people associate with Southern cooking, but biscuits stand out as one of the constants that you’ll find in any restaurant and in just about every kitchen in the South. Biscuits are a quick bread and a side dish, and there are a tremendous number of variations on a basic biscuit recipe out there. Some are crispy, some are crumbly and some are soft. A classic Southern biscuit is light, tender and flaky with a very slightly crisp, browned exterior and a moist interior. They’re made fresh and served hot out of the oven – and once you’ve eaten one, you’ll know exactly why they’re so popular. Southern Biscuits is a cookbook devoted to the biscuit, with dozens of recipes for every biscuit you can think of – and some you probably haven’t.
Making good biscuits is like making good pie crust: it isn’t difficult to do once you have the technique down, but learning the technique can be a bit of a challenge. This book definitely approaches biscuit making step-by-step, holding your hand (if you need it) as you learn to make biscuits. There are quite a few recipes for easy, biscuit biscuits that will be easy for a novice biscuit-maker to master and still satisfying for those who are already experienced and looking for a quick biscuit fix. Easy biscuits make up the first chapter of the book, but there are also chapters on Basic Biscuits, Embellished Biscuits and Party Biscuits. Past the biscuit recipes, you’ll find chapters that offer recipes for things that can top biscuits, such as jam and gravy, and main dishes that use biscuits, such as Chicken and Dumplings. The book wraps up with a chapter dedicated to desserts.
You might not have thought that the biscuit was such a versatile quick bread, but you’ll be surprised wehn you see the variety of recipes presented in this book. Whether you’re looking for quick and easy or more
“gourmet,” you’ll find the recipe in here. There is even a recipe for a basic biscuit mix – rather like Bisquick – that you can mix up a big batch of and store in your fridge, just adding milk before you bake for almost-instant homemade biscuits. The recipes are clearly written and easy to follow along with, and the book is packed with plenty of tips to ensure that your biscuits come out perfectly, as well as with many beautiful photos. The one thing that the book doesn’t come with is the smell of freshly baked biscuits, so you’ll have to supply that yourself!
It is hard to beat a flaky, buttery buttermilk biscuit. They’re quick and easy to make, and ready to eat almost as soon as they come out of the oven. They also take to other flavors very well – and I’m not just talking about the fact that they can easily served with jam at breakfast and alongside chili at dinner. I’m talking about the fact that you can add some fresh herbs, some cheese or even some berries into the dough and get something completely different, yet just as delicious, as the original biscuit.
These Sun Dried Tomato and Feta Biscuits are one of my favorite biscuit variations. They are plain buttermilk biscuits with lots of sun dried tomatoes and chopped up feta cheese in the dough. I like to use the sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil because they are so moist and flavorful that they really add a lot of character to the biscuits. Feta adds a nice saltiness to the biscuits without making them seem overly cheesy. They’re fantastic with salads and as a side with dinner, and work well both plain and when spread with a bit of butter.
I typically make these as drop biscuits, meaning that I shape them into big rounds in much the same way as I would shape balls of cookie dough (only larger!). It is a quick and easy way to shape these biscuits, especially because the dough is slightly sticky from the sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese. If you prefer a more traditional biscuit look, simply knead the dough a few times on a well-floured surface, roll it out until it is about 1 inch thick and cut rounds using a 2 1/2- or 3-inch biscuit cutter. The baking time doesn’t change – and neither does the biscuit’s delicious flavor.
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