Biscuits, 2 Ways

Rolled biscuits on the left; drop biscuits on the right.

First, an update on strawberry picking at Adam’s Berry Farm: Adam's crop was attacked by birds last week, apparently “cedar waxwings.” They devoured his delicious strawberries, so pick-your-own has become slim pickings. He will re-open for pick-your-own as soon as other berry varieties ripen. We hope the remainder of his season yields good harvests.

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Did you know that strawberry shortcake is now localvore? That’s right, when you source your ingredients at City Market, you can make fantastic all-local biscuits with Red Hen all-purpose flour, Butterworks Farm cream or buttermilk, Vermont Butter & Cheese Company butter, and, well – that’s it, other than the salt and baking powder. There’s not much to it, actually.

Biscuits are simple enough. It’s the cutting in the butter step that seems to throw people off the most. The butter has to be really cold, but the colder it is, the more you also have to work to get the butter cut up into those little pea-sized pieces all the recipes talk about. Then you have to briefly knead it, but be careful not to overhandle the dough when you roll it out or the butter will melt and become sticky. Like everything else, practice makes perfect, and this is mastered in a short while.

In the meantime, there are some versions of biscuits that are a little simpler, and simple is what you want to expedite getting those delicious fresh-picked strawberries onto the table.

 

Recipe #1: Localvore Cream Biscuits (Rolled)

When you make biscuits with cream, you skip the cutting in the butter step – just mix and go!

 

2 cups all-purpose flour (can be part whole wheat)

2 ½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

Preheat oven to 450. Have ready a large, ungreased baking sheet. Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add heavy cream and mix until just moistened (do not overmix). Knead briefly until the dough comes together, pat into a circle, and roll out in a little flour.

 

The Joy of Cooking recommends rolling it to ½-inch thickness and making 20 biscuits. I find that rolling it a littler thicker and making 10-12 biscuits guarantees taller biscuits, that are easier to break open for strawberry shortcake.

Bake until golden brown on top, abut 12 minutes. To make them a little “fancy,” you can glaze the tops before you bake them with a little cream or milk melted butter, and perhaps a little sprinkle of granulated sugar. Voila.

Recipe #2: Localvore Drop Biscuits (Not rolled)

An extra-moist batter dropped into a muffin pan. No rolling necessary. You can make them either with regular milk or buttermilk. Here’s the buttermilk version (with the milk version in parenthesis).

 

2 cups all-purpose flour (can be part whole wheat)

2 tsp. baking powder (2 ½ tsp. if using milk)

½ tsp. baking soda (omit if using milk)

¼-1/2 tsp. salt

5-6 Tbs. butter, cut into pieces

1 cup buttermilk

 

Preheat oven to 450. Have ready a large, ungreased baking sheet. Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry knife until the pieces are the size of large crumbs. (If you don’t have a pastry knife, some cooks use their fingertips and break the butter into smaller and smaller pieces, being sure to rub them in the flour mixture.) Getting it perfect is not as important for drop biscuits. Add the buttermilk and stir until well-moistened. The batter should be sticky, but not smooth. Use two spoons to scrape into 12 muffin cups lined with muffin liners. Bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes.

Drop Biscuits (half whole wheat pastry flour)