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.

Fruit & Nut Granola Bars

It's no secret I'm a major hippie when it comes to my overwhelming love for granola. I used to swear by Bear Naked Fit vanilla almond crunch, as well as their fruit and nut granola. If it came down to me being able to put $5 worth of gas in my car or buying a bag of granola, let's just say I'd be sitting at home with a spoon and a big grin on my face! Don't worry about me ever running out of gas though, because I will never buy store-bought granola again. For my first homemade granola adventure I used a recipe by Ina Garten, but I followed Smitten Kitchen's wise adaptations. I omitted the butter and left out the brown sugar. Because after that King Cake, I thought it best to cut calories wherever possible. Instead of chopping dried fruit, I used 1 1/2 cups of a mix of Archer Farms Raisin Nut trail mix and Sunny Cranberry trail mix. Altogether I had raisins, golden raisins, cranberries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and a few hazelnuts and pistachios (I picked out the whole almonds from both trail mixes). I also omitted the salt from the recipe, because the nuts in the cranberry trail mix were salted. And for the coconut I used shaved coconut instead of shredded because it was prettier! ;D On the day the granola is made, it's of the chewier variety. But as time passes, it becomes suitable for crunchy granola lovers. Either way, it tastes phenomenal! PS: It's also delicious crumbled over fresh fruit and yogurt! Another checkmark on my Top 100!
Granola Bars
Makes 12 to 16 granola bars

2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup sliced almonds (I used slivered almonds)
1 cup shredded coconut, loosely packed (I used shaved)
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
2/3 cup honey
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups diced dried fruit (I used fruit and nut trail mix)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter an 8×12-inch baking dish and line it with parchment paper.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F.

While the mixture is still warm, stir in the honey, vanilla and salt until the mixture is well coated, then the dried fruit. Pour the mixture into your prepared baking dish and press, press, press it in (wet fingers and/or a silicon spatula work great for this) until the mixture is packed as tightly as possible.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool for 2 to 3 hours before cutting into squares.

Store in an airtight container between sheets of wax paper.

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffins

The scenario:
2 bananas sitting on the table, rapidly turning brown
My all-purpose flour container, almost empty
My bag of whole wheat flour, FULL
What to do?
Whole wheat banana nut muffins! Mmm, I should've known the subtle sweetness of whole wheat flour would go perfectly with the taste of overripe bananas. Add to that a tangy zing of dried cranberries and a delicate crunch from toasted walnuts... It's the perfect muffin! It's not too sweet, so you don't feel guilty about eating it for breakfast. My only complaint was that the banana flavor was mild. But I think that let the flavor of the whole wheat flour shine through. So, I guess I have no real complaints after all!
The original recipe is from Betty Crocker: Baking for Today. It uses all-purpose flour, but I substituted whole wheat flour for most of the AP flour. The original also adds a streusel topping. You can do that if you want a sweeter muffin, but I omitted it.

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffins (adapted from Betty Crocker: Baking for Today)
12 muffins (or about 10-11 if you fill the cups to the top)

1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 medium)
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
Streusel topping, optional (recipe below)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or use nonstick spray.
2. Make streusel topping; set aside.
3. In large bowl, beat milk, oil, egg, and mashed bananas with fork or wire whisk. Stir in flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Fold in cranberries and walnuts. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle each with about 1 tablespoon streusel topping, if using.
4. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown (Mine didn't take near that long! I think they were done at about 17-18 minutes. Check them with a toothpick.). If baked in greased pan, let stand about 5 minutes in pan, then remove from pan to wire rack; if baked in paper baking cups, immediately remove from pan to wire rack. Serve warm if desired.

Streusel Topping
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons firm butter or margarine

In medium bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in butter, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until crumbly.

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.

Banana Bars w/ Streusel Topping

We had some bananas that were very VERY ripe (AKA on the verge of becoming compost). My mom told me to use them or else they'd be thrown away in the next 24 hours. Well, duh, I never pass up a reason to bake! While shopping with my aunt Tammy this week, I bought 3 new cookbooks. This recipe comes from Betty Crocker: Baking for Today. The price on the inside bookcover is $24.95, but the price at Ross was only $4.99. How could I pass that up!?! (Speaking of Ross, I recently saw Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan at Ross for like $8 last week! Made me mad that I bought it from Amazon for $11). These Banana Bars are more like cake than what I think of when I here "bar" mentioned as a snack (My mind goes to "cookie/brownie," what about you??) They'd also be perfect as muffins! However I think they're too soft to be made into banana bread. I made them special by using some Vietnamese Cinnamon (from TJ Maxx, $3.99!). This cinnamon smells sooooooo good. I highly recommend buying it if you can find it! Anyway, here's the recipe along with a few photos.

Mmmm, they make a yummy breakfast!
From Pepper Creek Farms, definitely worth a little extra $!

Banana Bars (Makes 2 dozen bars)
1 cup sugar
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 medium or 3 small)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Streusel Topping (my own addition)
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1. Heat oven to 350F. Grease bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan with shortening or cooking spray. In large bowl, mix sugar, bananas, oil, and eggs with spoon. Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Spread in pan. (For streusel topping, in a small bowl combine ingredients with your fingers until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of batter halfway through baking time.)
2. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. (We ate them warm!)

Good Morning Muffins

Saturday, Josh (my boyfriend) and I decided to take a day trip to Belle Isle in Richmond. It is one of our favorite places to go to relax on the rocks and explore the trails in the woods. I always wake up way before he does, so I decided to kill time by making some hearty muffins to take with us. I started with a recipe from 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly. Neither Josh nor I really love raisins so I subbed some dried cherries, cranberries, and blueberries. I also added some chopped walnuts for a little crunch (Oh now I sound like Giada!). And I was fresh out of wheat bran, so I just added more oats. I ended up not pouring in all of the wet ingredients, because the batter was looking extremely loose. I had about 1/4 cup of wet ingredients left out. The muffins came out delicious and moist, but a little on the greasy side. Next time I'll probably reduce the oil by 1/4 cup. These muffins are a perfect portable snack for a road trip!

Oh yeah....... no pictures. Sorry.

MY NOTES: I omitted the wheat bran and added 1/3 cup MORE oats. I made my own buttermilk by mixing 2 tbsp. white vinegar with 2 cups minus 2 tbsp. whole milk. I substituted mixed berries for raisins. I added chopped walnuts. I got 16 muffins.

Oatmeal Muffins (Adapted from “500 Cupcakes” by Fergal Connolly)
Makes 12-16 muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup wheat bran (I omitted this)
1/3 cup rolled oats (I used 2/3 cup oats)
Pinch of salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 lightly beaten eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 cup (6 oz.) raisins (I used ½ dried mixed berries (cherries, blueberries, cranberries) and plumped them in hot water for about 10 minutes)
½ cup chopped walnuts (My own addition)

Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Grease or line a 12-cup regular muffin pan.
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. In a large measuring cup, beat the buttermilk, eggs, and oil with an electric mixer until combined.
Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until almost blended. Fold in the raisins (and nuts).
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the muffins and cool on a rack.
Store in airtight container for up to 2 days (mine were still good after 4 days!), or freeze for up to 3 months.


Overall rating on a scale of 1-5
Moistness: 5
Tenderness: 5
Frosting: [none]

Mini Cinnamon Rolls

For the past few weeks, I've been haunted by a major craving for cinnamon rolls. Every time I passed the biscuits in the refrigerator section at the grocery store, I could see that little dough boy staring at me from the can of sweet sticky cinnamon rolls. I never bought any because I wanted to try making them from scratch. Finally this morning I didn't have anything to do, so I began searching food blogs for a great recipe. Much to my chagrin, all of the recipes called for yeast. Now excuse me while I go off on a rabbit trail... Last year, I bought some of those little yeast packets. I put them in the cabinet where we keep all the baking powder/soda, corn starch, gelatin, etc. A few months later I wanted to make something with yeast, so I searched and searched and searched and could not find those freakin packets. To make a long story short, I bought them and they disappeared before I got to use them. That's why I didn't have yeast this morning! Great story, eh? Anyway, I decided to use a simple biscuit recipe but tweak it a little, and this is what I came up with. They are really delicious. I ate two while they were hot out of the oven!

Mini Cinnamon Rolls (10-12 small rolls)

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons COLD unsalted butter, cut into 8 cubes

1/2 cup COLD whole milk

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened, to spread on the dough

1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup raisins, soaked in hot water until plump, then drained

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted

2/3 cup confectioners' sugar

2-3 teaspoons warm water

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a 8x8, 9x9, or 13x9 baking pan with cooking spray.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor or in a bowl. Mix well. Add cold butter and pulse in a food processor (a pastry cutter or a fork will work also) until the butter is the size of small peas. Pour in milk and mix just until dough comes together.

Working on a well-floured surface, knead dough 4 or 5 times. Roll into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Using your hands or a pastry brush, smear butter over dough. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over butter and pat it down so it sticks. Sprinkle walnuts and raisins evenly over dough. Starting on the long side of the rectangle, roll into a long log. Cut ends off, and cut remaining log into slices about 1 inch thick.

Place rolls cut side down into a small baking pan about 1/4 inch apart if you want them to touch. Place rolls in a larger baking pan 1 inch apart if you do not want them to touch. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and make glaze.

Whisk together confectioners' sugar and water together to make a paste (add more water 1/2 teaspoon at a time if it's too thick). Spread glaze over warm rolls. Enjoy!