Monday, February 25, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie

I am posting my first baking results participating with Tuesdays with Dorie. This is a group of bloggers who pick a recipe from Dorie Greenspans cookbook Baking-From My Home to Yours. This week the recipe was Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits. I have to admit to being a terrible biscuit maker. I over mix and they never rise. So before baking I read and reread the whole recipe from Dorie. I got all my ingredients out and prepared mentally. Alas, I over mixed, but not to my usual level, so I have hope that if I keep baking biscuits, I will make light and fluffy biscuits soon. These are delicious though. After about 8 minutes in the oven the wonderful aroma hit me. Pecans and brown sugar baking is the best. After letting them cool we all sampled them and went back for more. Maybe next time I will shape them like a scone instead. My scones always are soft and yummy.

Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits
(Makes about 12 biscuits)
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

Getting Ready: 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.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




15 comments:

Mary said...

oh, they look delicious! Biscuits can be tough, but it's also important to know that homemade biscuits aren't supposed to look like pillsbury grands! those are fake and manipulated to be flaky!

slush said...

They look great! I always over mix too. I will conquer biscuits, I will!

Great job!

Joy the Baker said...

I think I may have over mixed mine too. Oh well, they were still pretty delicious! Good job with yours!

Marie Rayner said...

Great looking biscuits! The smell got to me when I was rubbing the butter in. The mixture smelled all butterscotchy with the butter and the brown sugar. A light touch is the key to making great biscuits. That's what my mama taught me!

Madam Chow said...

Yours look great. I agree about how wonderful they smelled when they were baking - that gave me hope!

April said...

They look great! Welcome to the group!

Erin said...

Yours look great!

Engineer Baker said...

Congrats on joining - they look delish! And I'll second the scone-like texture, but I love scones, so I was okay with that!

Jaime said...

they turned out really well from what i can see. i only mixed mine until just barely combined and then i patted them out instead of rolling them out. glad you joined TWD!

Beth G. @SweetLifeKitchen said...

I think they look awesome! You did a great job & Welcome!!

eatme_delicious said...

Yes you must make more biscuits! :) I should too. Biscuits are delicious. Yours look yummy!

Rachel said...

Welcome to the group! Your biscuits turned out great. :)

M said...

Those look great! I over mix about 99% of the time. LOL

d said...

Tasty biscuits for me, yum.

Sweet and Savory Eats said...

I could totally see me making these again and shaping them like a scone. Great flavor, just didn't seem like a biscuit. (It's probably chef's error in my case.) Great job!