Dorie Greenspan's Basic Biscuits

Pop quiz! Who can tell me what the acronym BFD stands for?? Anyone? You, in the back? No? ANYONE? Okay, okay, the answer is....

...BREAKFAST FOR DINNER! It's a staple at my house because (on the off occasion he spends the night) Josh doesn't like to eat breakfast in the morning, and it's my favorite meal! Well, technically French toast is my favorite meal. It would undoubtedly be my last meal if I were ever put on death row. Yeah, I've thought about it! Where am I going with this? Oh yeah! The other night I was totally out of ideas about what to make for dinner. I remembered that my dad had just bought FIVE BAGS of unbleached flour from Target (on clearance for $1.34, how could he say no?). What could I make for dinner that would utilize that flour? Sausage gravy and biscuits!

I don't consider myself much of a biscuit maker. I've said it before, and I don't mind reiterating it, Hardees is my #1 favorite biscuit. I know I could never come close to recreating it at home, so I don't try. But sometimes I gotta have a biscuit without driving to Hardees. I don't have a go-to recipe because, like I said, I'm not a biscuit maker. I flipped through a few cookbooks and settled on a recipe from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours." It did the job as a platform for a giant pile of sausage gravy. But, comparatively speaking, Hardees is still my main squeeze.

Getting ready! I like to grate frozen butter into the flour. I only got 7 biscuits out of the first roll! =/ I'm no biscuit queen, but they tasted yummy!

Basic Biscuits (from "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan)
Makes 12 biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1/3 cup cake flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
3/4 cup cold whole milk

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl. Drop in butter and using fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Using fingertips or pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into dry ingredients until mixture is pebbly. You'll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces of everything in between - and that's just right.

Pour the milk over the dry ingredients, grab a fork and toss and gently turn the ingredients until you've got a nice soft dough. Now reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick gentle kneading - 3 or 4 turns should be enough to bring everything together.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Dust the top of the dough very lightly with flour and pat the dough out with your hand or roll it until 1/2 inch high. Don't worry if its not completely even. Light touch is more important than accuracy.

Use a 2-inch biscuit cutter to cut out as many biscuits as you can. Try to cut the biscuits close to one another so you get the most you can out of this first round. By hand or with a small spatula, transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet. Gather together the scraps, working as little as possible, pat to a 1/2 inch thickness and cut as many additional biscuits as you can; transfer them to the sheet.

Bake the biscuits for 14 to 18 minutes, or until they are puffed and golden brown. Transfer to a serving basket.

The Best Buttermilk Biscuits

"The Best" according to America's Test Kitchen. Not the best according to me. I think it's the flavor of the buttermilk powder I don't like, but these biscuits were not my what I am looking for when it comes to the perfect biscuit. They weren't quite fluffy enough. And the baking time was WAY too long. I took them out 2 minutes early, and they were still too brown for my liking. I think I'd like them a little better if I baked them with the sides touching. They'd be a lot softer, and maybe even fluffier. The photo of the biscuits in he America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book even looks like they baked their biscuits side-by-side, but the instructions say to space them apart. Hmm... I might try this again. But overall, I'm not pleased with the first recipe I chose to break in my brand new biscuit cutters! If you want to suggest your favorite biscuit recipe, I would gladly accept any and all advice! Thanks :D

The Best Buttermilk Biscuits (from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book)
MAKES 12 (I got 9 when I halved it!)
“You can substitute 1¾ cups regular buttermilk or soured milk for the milk and powdered buttermilk; however, the biscuits will be less flavorful. Baking the biscuits upside down ensures a more even rise.”

3¾ cups (18¾ ounces) all-purpose flour
½ cup powdered buttermilk
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening, chilled and cut into ½-inch pieces
1¼ cups whole milk

1.Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2.Pulse the flour, buttermilk powder, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a food processor to combine, about 3 pulses.Scatter the butter and shortening evenly over the top, and continue to pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 15 pulses.
3.Transfer the flour mixture to a large bowl. Stir in the milk with a rubber spatula until the dough comes together. Turn the dough out ontoa well-floured surface. Lightly flour your hands and the dough, and knead the dough gently until uniform, about 30 seconds. Roll the dough intoa 10-inch round, about 1 inch thick.
4.Using a floured 2½-inch biscuit cutter, stamp out 12 biscuits, gently patting the dough scraps back into a uniform, 1-inch-thick piece as needed.Arrange the biscuits upside down on the prepared baking sheet, spaced about 1½ inches apart.
5.Bake for 5 minutes. Rotate the pan, reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees, and continue to bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes (Mine were done at 10). Transfer to a wire rack, let cool for 5 minutes, and serve warm.

To Make Ahead
The cut, unbaked biscuits can be covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours; bake as directed. (They do not freeze well.)

“After lots of testing and tasting, we concluded that the best buttermilk biscuits are made with buttermilk powder. Not only does the buttermilk powder produce biscuits with a slightly finer, fluffier texture, but we can add as much of the powder as we want to the dough for maximum buttermilk tang with no textural side effects. When using liquid buttermilk, on the other hand, you can only add as much as the dough can handle; using too much liquid will turn the dough into a batter.” -THE AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN FAMILY BAKING BOOK

Cheddar Bay Biscuits... AKA The "Cheesy"

Earlier this month I wrote about how I'm on a quest for the perfect biscuits. I want to find recipes for what I'm calling The "Fluffy," The "Flaky," The "Lazy," and The "Cheesy." So far I found a recipe for The "Lazy." Next, my tastebuds have me craving The "Cheesy." Many of you e-mailed me and recommended I try a copycat recipe for Cheddar Bay Biscuits. If you don't know what Cheddar Bay Biscuits are, then good for you. It means you've never wasted money at a Red Lobster restaurant. You'll have to excuse me, but I have a slight distaste for chain restaurants (with Olive Garden as my only exception... oh and Ruby Tuesday, but only because of the croutons!). I've been to RL once or twice with my parents, and the only thing that left any sort of good impression were their Cheddar Bay Biscuits. The biscuits come to the table warm, fluffy, and cheesy with a nice hint of garlic. They're quite delicious, and they're definitely what I want The "Cheesy" to be! While googling for a recipe, I noticed that all the copycat recipes I saw called for Bisquick. Hurray for shortcuts! Recently while throwing together a quick Sunday breakfast, I discovered that I really do like the flavor and texture of Bisquick biscuits. Shoot me if you want to, but they're so easy to throw together, how can you not love them? Don't worry. I'm sure someday soon I'll browse my cookbooks for cheesy biscuits from scratch. But today I'm SO craving these easy Cheddar Bay Biscuits!

Of course when I typed Cheddar Bay Biscuits into google I got about 38,900 results. I chose the first five and compared them. I eliminated the recipes that required rolling and cutting the biscuits. I eliminated the biscuits that called for italian seasoning (I don't remember that from the biscuits at RL). I chose the winning recipe because it calls for cutting in cold butter to get more lift and texture from the Bisquick mix.

The biscuits were delicious. Soft and cheesy with a good punch from the garlic. However I thought they were a bit too greasy with the addition of the butter in the dough AND brushed on top. Next time I'll make them sans the butter in the dough. I also think they could benefit from fresh grated garlic instead of garlic powder, which kinda had a weird flavor. All in all, for being extremely simple biscuits, I give them a 4 out of 5!

I found this recipe online. It actually comes from a book called Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2.

Cheddar Bay Biscuits I got 8 biscuits using a #30 disher

1 1/4 cups Bisquick mix
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons cold whole milk (I needed an extra Tbsp or 2 of milk)
2 tablespoons cold butter
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F.
2. Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or a large fork (I froze the butter first, then grated it with a box grater to eliminate this step). You don't want to mix too thoroughly. There should be small chunks of butter in there that are about the size of peas. Add cheddar cheese, milk, and 1/8 teaspoon garlic. Mix by hand until combined, but don't over mix.
3. Drop approximately 1/4-cup portions of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop.
4. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.
5. When you take the biscuits out of the oven, melt 1 tablespoons butter in a small bowl in your microwave. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder and the dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread this garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits. Use up all of the butter.

Easy Drop Biscuits... AKA The "Lazy"

Lately, I've been really interested in biscuits. Should they be small or large? Should they be fluffy or flaky? Should they be dropped or cut out? I think those are all a matter of opinion. I like my biscuits to be about 3" in diameter, about the size of the palm of my hand. I like them fluffy and moist. Ya know when fresh sandwich bread sticks to the roof of your mouth? I LOVE when biscuits do that! Most importantly, I like the top of my biscuit to be golden brown and brushed with salty butter. My quest is to find a recipe for the perfect-sized fluffy biscuit. I won't lie, Hardee's makes my dream biscuit! I want to find a recipe for a biscuit very similar to their's. I also wanna find the perfect flaky biscuits (my parents love those for sausage biscuits), quick and simple biscuits, and savory biscuits (cheddar biscuits are my FAVE!).

I was feeling a little lazy this morning so I chose an easy recipe for drop biscuits. Instead of kneading the dough, rolling it out, and cutting it into circles, you simply use a measuring cup or disher and scoop it right onto the baking sheet! They came out fluffy and soft with a nice crust on the bottom. They weren't as light and airy as my dream biscuit, but that might be because they're dropped and not cut out! I have this complex. It's a condition caused by my abundance of baking books and knowing that I have so many biscuit recipes on my shelves. I'm always trying to find one better. So I'll probably try a few more lazy biscuit recipes before I settle on the one I'll keep making til I'm 90.

Measuring flour... 10 ounces exactly! Mixing the melted butter and water.... ehhh... yum?
Biscuit dough!
Perfect size!
A biscuit with orange juice.... and later another with grape jelly!

Simple Drop Biscuits
Makes 12 (I got 11 with a #20 scoop)

2 cups (10 oz) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold buttermilk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons salted butter, melted (for brushing on top)

I didn’t have buttermilk, so I added 4 tablespoons of buttermilk powder to the flour mixture. Then I used 1 cup cold water in place of the cold buttermilk.
Center a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 475 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, soda, sugar, salt, and buttermilk powder (if using) together in a large bowl. In a large measuring cup, stir the cold buttermilk (or water) and melted butter together until the butter forms small clumps. (Mine pretty much all clumped together.) Stir the butter mixture into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until just incorporated and dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. (My dough never came away from the bowl.)
Scoop dough using a 1/4 measuring cup or disher and drop onto baking sheet 1 1/2” apart. Bake until golden brown, 12-15 minutes.
Additionally, you can brush the tops with melted butter as soon as the biscuits come out of the oven. Serve warm.