Well, that's a lot of words, isn't it? But it's not complicated and totally worth it. I'm a fan of biscuits. When I'm driving, it's a serious effort to avoid pulling into some awful fast food place and just buying one. Barring that sort of weakness (and I can clearly remember a time when I was on the road for work last year and I got one at a Roy Rogers), I don't experience biscuits that I don't make. I don't know when I'd encounter a biscuit. Restaurants I go to don't have them, and I'm not frequenting the sort of picnics and backyard parties that have fried chicken and homemade baked beans and biscuits (please invite me to your backyard picnic). So when there's biscuits, it's because I made them. Several months ago I made some cheddar biscuits, which were awesome, but this time I was looking for something half-healthy, and a bit less luxurious than the Red Lobster style.
There's a lot of stuff in my kitchen, appliances and tools and also foods, but I never own shortening or buttermilk. Shortening is "icky" and I don't bake enough to justify buttermilk, though I keep thinking I should buy it and freeze it.
I said "half-healthy". Let's talk about butter. Sometimes when I'm baking something (read: not that often), Sous Chef Brian will look into the bowl and ask me if I'm using as much butter as Paula Deen would. Sure, probably, in these biscuits, but don't eat these every day, and don't deep fry them after. You'll live. I used the good butter for these - local Hillacres Pride.
Flour, baking powder, baking soda. I used 50% whole wheat and 50% white. The first time we ate them, I thought they might be too heavy, and that maybe I should have only done 30% whole wheat, but I really like the nutty flavor of whole wheat. You have to do your own math. These taste like buttery, good biscuits, but there is a bit of that instant fullness and the sense of, "Whoa, I'm still chewing." I think 50/50 works. The second time we ate them, we agreed we wouldn't change anything.
Today's photos have the shadowy weirdness of this past winter's photos. I don't know what happened.
Cut in your butter. I don't have a pastry blender because I bake so rarely, but use a pastry blender, or two knives, or a food processor, or like me, your hands. Integrate the butter and dry goods so that it's just buttery dry goods. Buttery sand.
Yogurt.
Skim Milk.
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| this is like the salad dressing problem. it's not pretty, but I want to show you all the steps. but some steps look like this. |
And work that into a dough.
I have biscuit cutters, because I'm fancy like that. A glass works just as well. Pat your dough out to about an inch thick and cut out biscuits. I just flattened a handful of dough at a time, because I was doing it on a smallish cutting board, but do what works for you.
Ungreased baking sheet (I didn't even use a silicone mat!) for 10 - 15 minutes at 450. I made big sandwichy biscuits, because I wanted to use them for sandwiches, and got 9 out of the dough, but I imagine a standard biscuit is about half this size, or a little bigger. Maybe you'll get 12-15.
Sous Chef Brian models an Ove Glove. We love our Ove Gloves.
They're done when they're golden.
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Whole Wheat Honey Yogurt Biscuits
Buttery, nutty, rich biscuits
Ingredients
- 1 cup Whole wheat flour
- 1 cup White flour
- 2 tablespoons Honey
- 3/4 cup Yogurt
- 1/4 cup Skim milk
- 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 tablespoon Baking powder
- 4 ounces Butter, cold, cut up
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450.Mix dry goods together in a large mixing bowl. Cut in butter, to create buttery sand. Use two knives, pastry cutter or your fingers. Add wet ingredients. Mix well. Knead dough and pat down to 1-inch thick. I did this in batches.Cut out with biscuit cutter or water glass. Bake on ungreased sheet for 10 -15 minutes, until golden.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 9 huge biscuits