Frankly biscuits are good anytime, but knowing they
are for breakfast makes getting out of bed a little easier.
I’m not sure when I developed this fixation on
biscuits. Though I do remember reading about them in novels and thinking
why didn’t I have a motherly housekeeper to bake me these addictive treats.
Eventually I got tired of my fantasy being just that- a fantasy and starting
baking them myself. Make a
double batch and freeze them and you’ll have these ready to go for an easy
breakfast or afternoon snack.
For a long time I’ve been happy with the Joy of
Cooking recipe, but when I browsed this new cookbook- Super Natural Every Day: Well-Loved Recipes From my Natural Foods Kitchen by Heidi Swanson I knew I had to try her Yogurt
Biscuits. You create these lovely feathery layers by cutting and
stacking the dough, much like the technique of making puff pastry.
Biscuits freeze well after baking. Defrost
them and then either warm them in the oven or split them in half and lightly
toast. My favorite topping is butter and jam, but honey is good
too.
Yogurt Biscuits
Having made these, I don’t recommend
preheating the baking sheet as directed in the instructions. It causes
the bottom of the biscuits to burn. Plus, I would shorten the baking time
to approximately 12 minutes. This recipe is versatile; I added lemon zest and 1/3 cup of sugar to my
batch. Other variations could include cheese, herbs, coconut, or
cinnamon. You can also substitute regular yogurt or sour cream for the
Greek-style yogurt.
1 ¼ cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (plus more
for dusting the dough)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1 1/3 cup Greek-style yogurt
Preheat oven to 450 degrees with rack in the middle
of the oven. Combine the flours, salt, and baking powder in a food
processor.
Add butter to the dry ingredients and pulse about 20
times, or until the mixture resembles tiny pebbles on a sandy beach.
Next add
yogurt and pulse a few times, or until the yogurt is just incorporated.
Avoid overmixing. 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. 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 flour to prevent sticking as needed.
Press
or roll out the dough into a ¾ inch thick rectangle- if the dough is too tall,
the biscuits will tilt and tip over while baking. Cut the dough into twelve
equal biscuits. ( I used a round biscuit cutter)
Transfer biscuits
to a baking sheet leaving ½ inch between each biscuit. Bake for 12
minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown on the edges.
