I've had a busy week!
The Germantown Garden Club stopped by for a guided tour...
The pantry received a thorough cleaning...
I purchased a black bracelet that counts my steps...
And just for fun, I baked some herbal biscuits!
These are not your run-of-the-mill biscuits. They are creamy with cottage cheese, flakey with butter, and perfectly-perfumed with parsley and basil. In other words, they are simply scrumptious. They are also easy to make. Here's the step-by-step:
First, run out to the garden, and grab a bunch of parsley a few leaves of basil.
Strip the leaves from their stems, and finely-mince the herbs. You'll need enough to measure 3 tablespoons. Set the herbs aside for a moment.
Next, pour 2 cups of flour into a big blue bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon baking powder...
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt...
And 1/4 teaspoon baking soda.
Whisk to combine.
In a separate bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup each of full-fat cottage cheese and full-fat milk.
Obviously, these biscuits are high in fat. And flavor. And everything else that makes life worth living.
Now scatter 6 tablespoons of cold, diced butter over the flour mixture...
And add the aforementioned 3 tablespoons of fresh, minced herbs. You can't go wrong with a combination of parsley and basil.
Then use your fingers or a metal pastry-blending gadget to rub or cut the butter into the dry ingredients. For the flakiest biscuits, don't over-do the job. The mixture should look extremely coarse, with lots of different-sized bits of butter.
Next, tip the cottage cheese-and-milk mixture into the flour...
And lightly mix everything together with a fork to achieve a soft dough.
Then dump the crumbly dough onto a lightly-floured surface, and gingerly form it into a ball. I say "gingerly," because the less the dough is worked, the lighter and better it will be. That's why we're using our hands, not a food processor, for our dough-mixing adventure.
Pat or roll the dough into the shape of Wyoming (or Montana, if you prefer), about 1/2-inch thick.
Then grab your 2 1/4-inch biscuit cutter, and use it to cut out rounds. Cut the rounds very closely together, so you can achieve as many rounds as possible from just the one rolling or patting of dough. Gather leftover dough, and pat or roll it out until all biscuits have been cut. I manage to cut 12 from mine.
Put the biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them at least 1 inch apart on all sides.
Ahead of time note: At this point, you can freeze the biscuits on their baking tray. When solidly frozen, transfer to a zip-lock bag. You will not have to thaw the pastries before baking them. Just bake as usual, but add 3 minutes extra baking-time.
When you are ready to bake, center the oven rack, and preheat the oven to 425°F. Bake until the biscuits puff, and their tops turn softly-brown. In my low-end gas oven, the biscuits were done at exactly 16 minutes. Briefly cool them on a wire rack.
If you are like me, you'll want to serve these babies while warm...
And split and topped with...this stuff.
Viewer discretion: These biscuits are dangerously delicious. You'll probably want to eat them all by yourself. Brenda Johnson, my taste-tester, received two. The remaining 10 were cheerfully consumed by my imaginary friends.
Think you'll give these tender, flaky, exquisitely-scented biscuits a try? You can let me know by leaving a comment. I can't tell you how much I enjoy hearing from you.
Meanwhile,here's the printable:
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:12]
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