I had not had a biscuit for a long time until I ate at a trendy little southern style restaurant here in San Francisco. Farmer Brown knows fried chicken and it is quite an indulgence every now and then. They recently opened a to-go window near my office which I finally tried this week. They serve a range of chicken lunch boxes and waffles and chicken + waffles, and they all come with what they call their "Angel Biscuits". One of my co-workers gobbled it up on the way back to our office repeatedly saying, "it's so good!" and it got me thinking... I haven't made biscuits since I have no idea and I have a lot of good recipes to try.... hmmm.
For dinner I made grilled chicken, roasted green beans and finished the meal off with a pretty little biscuit. I adapted 2 recipes to create what I find was a perfect accompaniment to a simple dinner. They came out well, though not as tall as I imagined, and were really tasty. They were nice and flakey, moist, and not too sweet for a dinner biscuit. They are also quick to pull together if you find you have no bread component for your meal.
Enjoy!
Biscuits
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours (and a little insight from Paula Dean)
2 C flour
1 T baking powder
1 heaping tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
8 T butter
3/4 C buttermilk
1/4 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 425* and center rack in oven. Whisk together dry ingredients and cut in butter until it resembles oatmeal and pea size pieces. Add milk and stir together with a fork. Knead once or twice in the bowl and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll to 1/2" thick and cut as many biscuits as possible with a 2" round. Gather the scraps and working the dough as little as possible pat into 1/2" thickness and cut again. (mine yielded 11) Lay cut biscuits on a silicone mat lined baking sheet (or freeze biscuits) and bake for 14-18 minutes until puffed and golden brown.
I made mine with buttermilk because I had it on hand. If you don't have it, just substitute for whole milk - or at least 2% - and don't add baking soda. They were delicious just plain and I they are a fine compliment to tea with jam and honey!
ps. roasting green beans is amazing!
It is possible that this recipe needs a little more acidity for the biscuits to raise higher. Baking soda needs an acid to form carbon dioxide bubbles, which is what produces the volume. Some gas is produced when the liquid is added and some is produced when the batter is heated (thus batters with these levenings should not be mixed with liquid until just before baking).
ReplyDeleteBaking powder is just baking soda with an acid, usually cream of tartar. The recipe that I use has both baking powder ANF cream of tartar and no soda. Yours has powder, soda and buttermilk, which is acidic, but perhaps not enough to compensate for the soda or augment enough the acidity already in the powder? A guess.
Hot biscuits are a real treat! Even though they are very easy to make, I have found that not many people have eaten one that is homemade but... very few people can resist one right out of the oven with real butter and perhaps, honey.