Biscuits

It is that time of year when I start preparing for the holidays and since I had a class to teach on Sunday about stuffing, I decided to try a new idea of using biscuits instead of bread. I made the biscuits in three separate ways, and am able to let you know what you need to remember when making them yourself (because we all have the time to make buttermilk biscuits, right?)

First, I would never make these if I did not have a food processor. I have used the Kitchen-Aid Pro-Line Food Processor for years and think it is the greatest workhorse around. Mix all your dry ingredients together in the workbowl, then add your cubed, cold butter (make them cold, bake them hot). Pulse this together to cut the butter into smaller pieces. Do not add your wet ingredients before this or your butter chunks are going to be too large and your biscuits will not turn out. Also, only add half of your wet ingredients - pulse, then 1/2 of the other 1/2. If your dough has come together nicely, stop. Only if needed add the remainder of the 1/2 as you do not want your dough to get too wet.

At this point I roll the dough (room temperature) between two silpats with a french rolling pin and throw it in the freezer for 10-20 minutes (depending on how much other stuff I have going on). I then pull the dough out, using a 2 1/2" cutter - I cut out the biscuits and throw them into the oven for 12 minutes, rotating the pan 1/2 way through to get even browning. I do bake them on the silpat mats as well. Also remember if you have the gray, non-stick pans to lower your oven temperature 15-20 degrees as those pans brown faster than regular baking sheets. Here are the results: