Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

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TWDPecan Sour Cream Biscuits (minus the pecans) This is my first Tuesdays With Dorie post as well as my first attempt at making biscuits, and I think they both went well! (Photos of the process here.)

First things first–I’m not a huge biscuit person. Growing up, the most popular kind of bread in our house was bagels (you can eat anything on a bagel!) so the majority of my biscuit consumption has been limited to the rare times I have ordered something at a restaurant that comes with a biscuit. (Every Father’s Day it’s chicken, waffles, and biscuits at Roscoe’s in Hollywood, but that’s a story for another time.)

These were good, but not exactly what I imagined them to be. I suppose I should have realized that a biscuit with brown sugar would be a bit sweeter than your everyday biscuit, but for some reason, I ignored that hint. Also, these were definitely a lot denser and browned a lot more than I expected.

And of course, it should be noted I don’t have a round cookie or biscuit cutter, hence the um, flower shaped biscuits. Also, I left out the nuts because nuts in baked goods just ruin everything! (So says my ten-year-old self.)

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1/3 cup cake flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
1/2 cup cold sour cream
1/4 cold whole milk
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans, preferably toasted
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Get out a sharp 2-inch-diameter biscuit cutter and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Preparation
Whisk the flour(s), baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a bow. Stir in the brown sugar, making certain there are no lumps. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips (my favorite method) or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You’ll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces the size of everything in between– and that’s just right.

Stir the sour cream and milk together and pour over the dry ingredients. Grab a fork and gently toss and turn the ingredients together 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 just enough to bring everything together. Toss in the pecans and knead 2 to 3 times to incorporate them.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Dust the top of the dough very lightly with flour, pat the dough out with your hands or toll it with a pin until it is about 1/2 inch high. Don’t worry if the dough isn’t completely even– a quick, light touch is more important than accuracy.

Use the 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 the first round. By hand or with a small spatula, transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet. Gather together the scraps, working with them as little as possible, pat out to a 1/2-inch thickness and cut as many additional biscuits as you can; transfer these to the sheet. (The biscuits ca be made to this point and frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight and kept for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting– just add a couple more minutes to the oven time.)

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

Yields 12 biscuits.

Recipe from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

February 26, 2008 | Filed Under Bread | 22 Comments 

Gougères

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Last week, Deb posted about these delicious Gougères she made. I took one look at the recipe and thought how could they possibly not be amazing? I mean, pastry and cheese? Yum!

Gougères Gougères Gougères Gougères
Gougères Gougères Gougères Gougères

Well…they’re good. The cayenne flavor is pretty nonexistent, but the cheese is definitely sharp and the pastry is flaky on the outside and light and airy on the inside. They ended up a little smaller than I expected. The recipe says to put them two inches apart on the cookie sheet, so I expected them to spread a little; they did, but just barely. They’re pretty small–you could easily eat one in two bites. I think they would be delicious with soup.

Ingredients
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash cayenne pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups grated Swiss cheese (Emmenthaler or Gruyère)
Coarse salt (fleur de sel or kosher salt) to sprinkle on top

Directions

  1. Bring the milk, butter, salt, and cayenne to a boil in a saucepan.
  2. Remove from the heat, add the flour all at once, and mix vigorously with a wooden spatula until the mixture forms a ball.
  3. Return the pan to the heat and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 1 minute to dry the mixture a bit.
  4. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor, let cool for 5 minutes, then process for about 5 seconds.
  5. Add the eggs and paprika to the processor bowl, and process for 10 to 15 seconds, until well mixed. Transfer the choux paste to a mixing bowl, and let cool for 10 minutes.
  6. Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a cookie sheet with a reusable nonstick baking mat or parchment paper. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the grated Parmesan cheese, then add the remainder and all the Swiss cheese to the choux paste. Stir just enough to incorporate.
  7. Using a tablespoon, scoop out a level tablespoon of the gougère dough, and push it off the spoon onto the cooking mat.
  8. Continue making individual gougères, spacing them about 2-inches apart on the sheet. Sprinkle a few grains of coarse salt and a little of the reserved Parmesan cheese on each gougère. Bake for about 30 minutes, until nicely browned and crisp.

Serve lukewarm or at room temperature with drinks.

Makes about 30.

Recipe from Food & Wine.

July 2, 2006 | Filed Under Bread | 2 Comments 

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

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I’m not sure where I got this recipe, I think it’s the one my mom gave me when I was in college and could only bake two things–this banana bread and the peanut butter chocolate swirl cookies. It’s very simple, the bread is moist, and is great to make when you have some overly ripe bananas at home.

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Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening (or butter)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 to 3 mashed, ripe bananas
2 cups flour
1 tbs. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine sugar, shortening, eggs, and vanilla. Beat until fluffy.
  3. Blend bananas into mixture.
  4. Combine flour, baking power and salt. Add to mixture.
  5. Fold in chocolate chips.
  6. Put mixture into loaf pan.
  7. Bake 60-70 minutes at 350 degrees.

Note: I use miniature chocolate chips, and lightly dust them with flour so they don’t sink to the bottom of the loaf.

May 7, 2006 | Filed Under Bread | 2 Comments