Adventures in the land of biscuit making

Tonight's adventure was baking biscuits from scratch. I watched Bobby Flay's fried chicken episode this morning, where he taught his wife to make chicken, baked black beans, and of course, biscuits. He made it look so easy that I thought I'd give it a try. It wasn't quite as simple as I had hoped, but in retrospect, since I've never made bread or biscuits or anything along those lines, I should have figured I'd be struggling a bit. The only dough I've made is of the cookie variety. I'm not even sure I've used a rolling pin in the last 10 years. I think I may have used it a couple of times as a kid for sugar cookies or something like that. Not that I had to use a rolling pin tonight--I don't own a rolling pin, so the only way I was going to be making these suckers was if it didn't require the use of a rolling pin.

I started out by cubing a stick of butter and then sticking it in the freezer to chill while I measured out the dry ingredients. Bobby didn't re-chill the butter, but I've seen Ina do it that way when she makes her biscuits. I finished off another bag of flour, so I got to break into a new one while measuring out 2 cups of flour. I added baking powder, baking soda, and salt before hand mixing them. I don't think I've ever put my hands in flour like that before. I didn't realize how silky the stuff is. Anyway, the butter was crumbled in and mixed. I then added buttermilk and heavy cream and then went to work kneading it. I guess it wasn't really kneading, but I had to work it until it came together in a ball.

I made quite a mess trying to get my dough right. I had to keep adding buttermilk because it just wasn't coming together. Looking back, the butter probably needed to be incorporated better before adding the buttermilk. I also added a bit of cream, too. Finally the dough was more or less sticking together and I patted it out before using Jim's cocktail shaker to cut out seven biscuits. A wash of heavy cream glazed the biscuits and in they went into the oven to bake at 350 for a long time. It was much longer than the recommended 15 minutes, probably 25.

They didn't quite rise like I think they were supposed to. However, drizzled with a bit of honey, they were quite good. They were pretty tender and flaky. The flavor wasn't as rich as I thought it would be, but it started to grow on me after a few bites. The honey added a really nice touch to them. I went outside for a bit and when I came back in, I was able to smell the biscuits, and the smell was quite yummy. When I got home, I re-watched the episode to review what I did in comparison to Bobby.

The short version: I need to practice a few more times before saying I can bake biscuits. I needed to work the dough in the bowl instead of on the cutting board. That should have been reserved just for patting it out into a disk. The cocktail shaker was also too big. Bobby's were much smaller and thicker in diameter, which probably made the difference with the baking times. That may have affecting the rising, too, since mine were on the thin side. What I had going for me this time was that I didn't overwork the dough, my biggest concern. And they tasted pretty decent, so it definitely wasn't a failure by any means. There's just lots of room for improvement.

Biscuits are actually not that difficult to make from scratch. I think that with time, I can get them down no problem. And they are certainly better for you than Pillsbury, if for nothing else but the lowered sodium content. At least Jim liked them. He said I did good. :-)

On another positive note for Jim, the last of the chicken is gone, along with the asparagus. I guess I should make sure to avoid a chicken and asparagus meal for a while. I haven't the slightest idea what to make tomorrow night, but that's half the fun!

Oh yeah, and for the record, Silpats rock!