Food Friday - Throw Me A Biscuit!

from Tracey G.

Another thing Kris and I have in common is our love of breads, rolls, biscuits etc. I always have, even as a kid I could make a meal out of bread, lol. I love any kind of super easy bread recipe, because the easier it is, the quicker I get my fix, lol. I used to drive my mom nuts when she was making any kind of tomato sauce because I'd grab whatever bread was available and sneak a serving of her sauce and make a snack out of it by dipping my bread in the sauce, lol. I still like to do that ;-)

I have had this recipe for years - all the way back to my camping previous life, lol. So, that would mean at least 15 years, at least. I can't remember what cookbook I got it from, but for some reason I think it was in my Betty Crocker's Good and Easy book. I know it didn't call for cheddar cheese, but it's an addition that I just had to use. It pairs perfectly with the flavors. You could use any kind of shredded cheese I imagine, I'm thinking one of these days Pepper Jack might be kind of good...hmmm, things to experiment with! This one I discovered just before a camping trip actually. I was looking for some easy recipes to make in the travel trailer while on vacation. I had a small oven to work with so I was trying to come up with some easy things that required very few ingredients so I didn't have to either pack a bunch of stuff or buy a bunch of stuff when I got to my destination. ;-)

These biscuits fit the bill as they are born of only four ingredients - baking mix, French onion dip, milk and shredded cheddar cheese.

The most work I did was to shred my cheddar cheese. You can use pre-shredded cheese and cut down on the prep time - without shredding, I think total prep time for the recipe is like 5 minutes max, lol.

The Players: 4 cups Bisquick (or any other all-in-one baking mix), 1/2 cup milk, 2 cups (16 oz) French onion dip, and about 4 oz shredded cheddar cheese.

Combine all the ingredients in a medium-large bowl and mix until a soft dough forms.

Drop by spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. I just foil my pan - but this batch seemed to stick a little bit, so I may use a spritz of cooking spray on the foil next time. I get about 18 biscuits out of the batch.

Bake them in a 450° F oven for about 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. I let them cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet then remove to a rack to finish cooling. Serve them warm or room temperature.

Here's the recipe:

Quick Cheddar French Onion Biscuits

Prep time: approx 5 min

4 c baking mix (I used Bisquick)

2 c (16 oz) French Onion dip

1/2 c milk

4 oz shredded cheddar cheese

Mix all ingredients until a soft dough forms. Drop by spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 450° F for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm or at room temperature.

from Kris B.

Since I have mentioned repeatedly that I am a carb addict, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I love biscuits.  As a child the only biscuits that I knew were those that were made from Bisquick.  2 1/4 cups of Bisquick and 2/3 of a cup of milk and boom! Biscuits were on their way.  Sometimes my mom actually rolled and cut the biscuits and other times we just had drop biscuits, which, as a child who was fascinated by space exploration,  I affectionately referred to as “moon rocks” having to do with their shape, not their taste or consistency.  Even with none of the fancy ingredients that Tracey added to her biscuits, these were pretty darn good biscuits!  It wasn’t until I moved to Texas that I learned what a big deal biscuits really are.

Though I had lived in many places, from New England to Hawaii, before settling in Texas, I had never been introduced to the importance of biscuits in one's diet, especially as part of the breakfast staple of biscuits and cream gravy with sausage.  To my mind, the biscuit is definitely the most important component here.  I quickly discovered that not all biscuits were made with Bisquick and thus I began a quest to find what I considered to be the best non-Bisquick biscuit recipe.  That took me until about two years ago.

My oldest daughter gave me Heidi Swanson’s cookbook, Super Natural Every Day, for my birthday a few years back. 

 Because of my then nearly thirty year perfect biscuit quest, I tried her biscuit recipe almost immediately.  Definitely the winner, hands down!  These are the best biscuits that I have ever tasted.  Very rarely do I ever use a recipe exactly as it is written, but this one I do.  It is perfect exactly as written.  For that reason, the instructions that I am including here are quoted exactly from Super Natural Every Day.

As an aside, I have made many of Heidi Swanson’s recipes, both from her cookbooks and her blog, 101 Cookbooks.  They have all been fabulous!  I urge you to check out her blog and/or buy one of her cookbooks.  You won’t be disappointed!

The biscuit recipe is super easy, requiring only six ingredients.  

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt

1 TBS aluminum free baking powder

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups Greek style yogurt

The whole wheat pastry flour is the one ingredient that you may not have readily available.  I buy mine from a local community that has a gristmill.  I will confess here that in a pinch, I have used all unbleached flour.  When I want fresh biscuits, I WANT fresh biscuits! And I'm not going to let a little thing like a lack of pastry flour get in my way!

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a rack in the middle of the oven.  Place an ungreased baking sheet in the oven to preheat as well.  

Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a food processor.  Sprinkle the butter across the top of the dry ingredients and pulse about 20 times, or until the mixture resembles tiny pebbles on a sandy beach.  

Add the yogurt and pulse a few times, or until the yogurt is just incorporated.  Avoid over-mixing; it’s fine if there are a few dry patches.  Gather the dough into a ball and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.  

(There is just something about the way that dough feels in your hands that is refreshing and relaxing.)

Knead five times and press into an inch thick square.  Cut in half and stack one on the other.  Repeat two more times—flattening and stacking then cutting. 

Add more all-purpose flour to prevent sticking when needed.  Press or roll out the dough into a 1/4 thick rectangle, but no thicker; if the dough is too tall, the biscuits will tilt and tip over while baking.  Cut the dough into twelve equal biscuits.

Transfer the biscuits to the preheated baking sheet leaving 1/2 inch between each biscuit.  Baker for 15-18 minutes, until the bottoms are deeply golden and the biscuits are cooked through.

Makes twelve biscuits.

No matter how you eat these, they are good.  My favorite way is with a little homemade butter and jelly.  I will say that to drench these in sausage gravy is a waste of some awesomely delicious biscuits.  At our house, we find these almost as good when reheated in the toaster oven.  Reheating in the microwave does not work very well.  For a real treat, toast them with some butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Yum!

Here is this week’s disclaimer:  The biscuits that I made for this post did not rise as much as they normally do because I used baking powder that was a little too old.

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