FoodMayhem

Scouring Reddit the other day, we saw a delicious-looking picture of some biscuits made by ‘kaldrazidrim’ using a recipe from “Williams-Sonoma Bread“.  As always, the comments are the best part of a Reddit post and in this case he decided to post the whole recipe. Without buttermilk in stock we decided to change the recipe and hopefully improve upon it.  Having not tasted the original we can’t honestly say this one is better (although it makes for a nice alliteration in the title); but we can say this one is damn good.

As you can see, these biscuits bake up nice and high, a picturesque way to start a Sunday morning. The wonderful layers split easily for a nice dab of butter, though they’re delicious just the way they are.  Though ‘blueberry’ may conjure tastes of dessert, these are savory biscuits.

It’s not that we were short on biscuit recipes mind you.  Have you seen those Perfect Biscuits or when Jess reproduced the BLT Cheddar & Chive biscuits?  But still, there we were: great-looking recipe, no buttermilk.  We had to decide on another acid.  Should we use milk with vinegar? Milk with lemon? I even considered separating heavy cream into buttermilk and butter — yes, I’m this crazy.  Then I remembered we had some open Fage yogurt, that would be a good acid, but I didn’t have a cup of it.  Anyway, Fage is so thick, it would totally change the texture.  Then Jessica had a brilliant brainstorm: blueberry yogurt; specifically the Stonyfield-brand low fat blueberry yogurt.  I carefully separated the yogurt from the blueberry and noted it had 1/2 cup of yogurt and 8 teaspoons of blueberry topping.  We had a the basis for our recipe!

Blueberry Yogurt Biscuits
~ makes 14 biscuits 2.5-inch biscuits

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups (235 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups (185 grams) cake flour (plus extra for dusting)
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1-1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
• 2 (6 oz) containers Stonyfield low-fat blueberry yogurt, cold and stirred together

We haven’t tried, but you can probably substitute the blueberry yogurt with one cup low-fat plain yogurt + 1/3 cup blueberry preserves or 1/3 cup frozen blueberries (for less sugar).  If you do, let us know how it goes.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 deg C). Grease two baking sheets or line with parchment paper.

2. In a food processor, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.  Pulse to mix.  Add the butter and pulse to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (about 15 seconds).  Add the yogurt (if using separate preserves, add as well) and pulse to just combine (about 10 seconds).  The dough will be a spongy, lightly sticky product.  Do not over mix.

3. Dust work surface with cake flour.  Scrape mixer bowl and turn out the dough.  With floured hands, lightly press dough together, then with floured rolling pin roll to about 1 1/2 inches thick.  Using a dough scraper, fold the dough like a letter, overlapping 1/3 of each edge over the middle, resulting in three layers.  Roll the dough a second time, slightly thinner to a one-inch thick rectangle, sprinkling flour beneath to avoid sticking (don’t over flour).  Don’t over-roll or work the dough.

4. Using a 2-1/2 diameter round biscuit cutter, dipped in flour, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Use a straight up-and-down motion, don’t twist.  Place directly onto baking sheets, spaced about one inch apart.  Pack together the scraps and press back to a one-inch thickness and cut the remaining biscuits.

5. Place in freezer or refrigerator for at least five minutes, or until oven is at temperature.

* This is a great point to hard-freeze the biscuits.  Place directly into freezer (on baking sheet) for an hour, then remove to plastic, air-tight freezer bags.  These will keep up to six months and can be baked directly from frozen.  The result is often better than not-freezing!

6. Place baking sheets into oven and cook for 15-18 minutes or until tops are golden brown.  Serve piping hot with some butter.

These biscuits really rise!

Piping hot with butter…

posted by Lon at 10:59 AM Filed under American, Bread, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.