Monday, February 25, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie, Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

This week on Tuesdays with Dorie it is Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits.

This was one of my better goes at a kneaded biscuit. I have a tendency to over knead. It came out as a good plain biscuit. I think that it would work great as a base. It would not take much to make them savory or sweet. These would be good for strawberry short cake or cheese and ham. Next time I make it I think that I will add some dried currents and vanilla. I did not add the pecans, right now I can not eat them. I do not have a biscuit cutter so I used a pentagon cookie cutter. The biscuits split in half fairly easy.

I froze half of them to see how that would work and it just took an extra 5 minutes to cook. This worked well for me because there is only 2 people in my house and well eating 12 in one night is just a little much. I was able to make them as needed. This was nice.


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:

Michelle said...

I'm glad that these turned out well for you - they look great!

I also froze half of mine, so I'm glad to hear that they're great after freezing as well.

Unknown said...

Cheese and ham, yum! It ain't easy to avoid over kneading, and I'm glad to see you obviouslly managed it this time. Such tasty biscuits!

Mary said...

great ideas for modifications...glad to know they freeze well. I just cut the recipe in half and we liked them so much, it's probably good that I did. nice job!!

slush said...

YUM! I think they would be great for savory or sweet breakfast sandwiches. Good idea!

Joy the Baker said...

I like the idea of making these biscuits into a sandwich of sorts, or a shortcake biscuit. That would be outta this world!

Marie Rayner said...

Great looking biscuits! I didn't freeze half of mine. The ones that we couldn't eat I made into bread and butter pudding that is baking in the oven right now! It smells gorgeous!

Tempered Woman said...

Some great ideas for future use of the biscuits! I love the creativity~ Gets the baker brains a plotting.

Madam Chow said...

Glad these turned out so well for you!

Judy said...

I like the shape variation. Yep, freezing is the way to go. You can enjoy them another time without having to mix everything up again.

Erin said...

These look good! I froze mine as well, and I'm looking forward to bringing them out again =)

Engineer Baker said...

Great ideas for changes, and thanks for the tip on how much longer they take out of the freezer. Glad they turned out well!

Jaime said...

i need to remember to freeze some next time! we ate all of ours (oops) in 2 days!

good job on successful biscuits!

Beth G. @SweetLifeKitchen said...

Great job, they look delicious!! I love that these can be made and frozen before baking, that is awesome :)

Jhianna said...

Great to know (the freezing then baking time)! I'm going to try these again, but it's just way too many of them for the two of us too!

Amy said...

I would have never thought of ham and cheese on these. But that sounds wonderful.