Friday, June 4, 2010

Blue Cheese Scallion Drop Biscuits

Let me just start by saying that I've never made a homemade biscuit that I really love. Really, I haven't. Until now, anyway. I made these the other day for some friends and I thought they were just amazing. Scallions and blue cheese? Yum. In a perfectly constructed biscuit? Amazing. Easy, too! I served them with White Chili...mmmmm.
There are a lot of pictures in this post. It turns out when the weather finally starts to come around and you have a lot of natural light in your house again little things like chopped green onions can look all profound:
The recipe says to mix in the butter with your fingers until it's crumbly. That technique is to ensure that the butter doesn't get completely incorporated into the mixture, but stays in clumps which will create pockets of flaky deliciousness. You can get the same end product with a pastry blender, which I happen to have, and seeing as I already wash my hands about 100 times a day chasing after my two little ones, I figured it was a good idea to spare one hand washing and just go straight to the pastry blender.
Awaiting their turn in the oven, just moments away from reaching their fullest potential of deliciousness:I was really pleasantly surprised by the splurges of cheese that I felt in my mouth. The recipe has you blend it just enough that the cheese flavor is infused throughout the biscuit, yet also in concentrated pockets. These will be my go-to biscuits for a long time to come.Oh, and I used gorgonzola, because that's my favorite. But you can use whatever kind you like. She actually adapted this recipe from a cheddar drop-biscuit, so you could potentially use that as well. She also mentions freezing them at the dough stage after dropping them onto the cookie sheet and then placing them in a plastic freezer bag for another day. Next time I make these I will definitely be doubling the recipe and freezing half of them.

5 stars!

Recipe here and below.

Blue Cheese Scallion Drop Biscuits

Adapted from Gourmet

These are everything a good drop biscuit should be; super speedy to make (one bowl!), with a golden craggy crust and soft interior. I (only) made a couple changes to this. Based on responses on the original recipe, I added an additional scallion and because I completely missed the ingredient when I read the recipe, I didn’t add the baking soda. And they were still fluffy and delicious. But I bet they’d even be more so with it.

If you’re blue cheese-averse, you can make this with an equal volume of coarsely grated cheddar.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick or 3 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 1/2 cups crumbled blue cheese
4 scallions, finely chopped
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk (or, you can make your own)

Preheat oven to 450°F. Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, then blend in butter with your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in blue cheese and scallions. Add buttermilk and stir until just combined.

Drop dough in 12 equal mounds about 2 inches apart onto a buttered large baking sheet, or one lined with parchment paper. Bake in middle of oven until golden, 16 to 20 minutes.

Do ahead: Biscuits are always best the day they are baked. However, if you wish to get a lead on them, you can make them, drop them onto your baking sheet, freeze them until they are firm, and place them in a freezer bag or container until you’re ready to bake them. They can be baked while still frozen (straight from the freezer), you’ll just want to add a few minutes to the baking time.

1 comment:

  1. Looks really yummy and I am a big fan of bleu cheese :) I love this blog too btw - grea work!

    ReplyDelete