Tuesdays with Dorie: Cream Biscuits

My mom has been getting a lot of attention on the ole blog, but I don't want you to think that she's the only parenting game in town. Allow me to introduce my father:


In my family, there were a few culinary tasks that always fell to my father: grilling (of course), butchering and filleting fish, and making pie crusts and biscuits. I’m not sure how it is that a man who’s so good at breaking down large fish also has the light touch required for making fluffy biscuits and flaky pie dough, but the fact remains: no one could ever compete with his skills with the pastry cutter. Maybe that’s why I rarely (uh, never) make biscuits myself—I doubt my biscuits now could compete with the biscuits of my childhood, which, in addition to the gobs of butter and jam, also benefit from a hefty heaping of nostalgia.


Nevertheless, this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe called for cream biscuits, so I dusted off my biscuit cutter and got to work. This recipe was unusual in that it didn’t call for butter at all; instead, it gets all its fat from heavy cream. Consequently, these were the easiest biscuits I’ve ever made—no worrying about cutting in cold butter and wondering whether your butter bits are the size of a pea, or a grain of oatmeal, or any other ridiculous food analogy. All you have to do is whisk the dry ingredients and stir in the cream, and you’re done! Easier’n cuttin’ the head offa trout, as my pappy would say.


The resulting biscuits were pretty awesome. Tall, flaky, tender, with a lovely crumb and a firm crust. I’ve always been a sweet biscuit sort of girl, so I ate mine with butter…

and honey…

…and jam.

Okay, so I ate a lot of biscuits! It’s been years since I’ve had them, I was due for a major biscuit binge, and these were delicious. And I won’t say that they were better than dad’s, but I think I need some of dad’s biscuits soon—for comparison purposes, you understand. This is all highly scientific. And then he can grill me some salmon and feed me some pie. For science!

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Raised Yeast Waffles, A Cure for What Ails Ya

It seems somewhat unfair to be posting about the world's most delicious waffles now, on Sunday night, when most of the food-blogging world won't be in a position to make long, leisurely breakfasts for another 5 days. Forgive me. It's just that we had these incredible waffles this morning, and--although I wasn't planning on blogging about them--once I had them, I couldn't not share them. May I introduce: Marion Cunningham's Raised Waffles.


These waffles are actually fairly famous around the blogosphere, so perhaps some of have already made them and are rolling your eyes at me, all 2000 and late. I myself make waffles approximately twice a year (I fall firmly into the oatmeal or eggs breakfast camp) so I don't have a vast repertoire of waffle recipes to fall back on. I heard about this particular recipe this weekend on a food program on NPR. The host rhapsodized on and on and on about how great they are, and being an easily impressionable sheep, I couldn't get the thought of waffles out of my mind. One day later: ta-da!


So what makes these waffles different? They're made from a yeasted batter that's prepared the night before and left to rise overnight at room temperature. In the morning, the final few ingredients (eggs and baking soda) are stirred in, and they're ready to cook. This is my ideal set-up, because usually by the time I have talked myself into making waffles, I'm ravenous and far too impatient to wait while the egg whites get whipped and gently folded into the batter. True, this method takes a little advanced preparation, but it's only about 10 minutes in the evening, and another 2 or 3 the next morning. Even a hungry hungry hippo such as myself can handle that.


These waffles differ from their cakier cousins in both taste and texture. The overnight rise of the yeast gave them a tangy, yeasty flavor similar to a mild sourdough bread--sort of what some buttermilk waffle recipes aspire to have. The texture was what really sold me, though. They're impossibly light, and the outside is so crisp it nearly shatters right off the iron, but underneath the crisp exterior, there are soft pockets with an almost custardy interior. Bliss!

Even if you don't have a free morning this week to laze around with the paper and a plate of waffles, you could spend a few minutes before work whipping up the batter, and enjoy the ever-popular breakfast for dinner. I can't think of a better way to finish up a work day.




Raised Waffles
From The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham

1/2 cup warm water
1 package dried yeast
2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Use a rather large mixing bowl--the batter will rise to double its original volume. Put the water in the mixing bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let stand to dissolve for 5 minutes. Add the milk, butter, salt, sugar, and flour to the yeast mixture and beat until smooth and blended. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature. Just before cooking the waffles, beat in the eggs, add the baking soda , and stir until well mixed. The batter will be very thin. Pour about 1/2-3/4 cup batter into a very hot waffle iron. Bake until golden and crisp. This batter will keep for several days in the refrigerator.

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Q: What is the Opposite of a Bundt Cake?

Q: What is the opposite of a bundt cake?

A: How about...waffles?

I'm not sure if "waffles" is the exact opposite of a bundt cake (maybe doughnut holes would be a better answer?) but they do seem pretty far apart on the Baking Spectrum. Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes were the TWD choice this week, and as much as I tried, I just could not get excited about making them. Something is wrong when you have to give yourself a pep talk and force yourself into the kitchen to make a dessert.

So, I decided to take a pass this week and instead got my sweet tooth on by making nutritionally suspect but oh-so-delicious Breakfast for Dinner (or Brinner, if you will.) For this Brinner installment, we had banana waffles with amazingly, insanely, unbelievably good Banana Butter Pecan Topping.



Yes, it looks a bit unsavory, but trust me: this topping is so good you'll be sucking it out of the waffle holes and licking your chops for more. It has a rich caramel taste from brown sugar, with sweet banana chunks melted in and crunchy toasted pecans. I can also verify that it makes a killer addition to an otherwise virtuous bowl of oatmeal. We suspect it's also a delicious ice cream topping, but further research is needed in this area, just to be sure.

Epic Banana Butter Pecan Topping

1/4 cup (2 oz) butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 ripe bananas, halved and chopped
1 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped
1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1. Melt the butter in a small skillet.
2. Add the brown sugar and allow it to melt, stirring occasionally. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture is bubbly, thick, and gives off a lovely caramel smell.
3. Add the cinnamon, bananas, pecans, and vanilla, and cook for 3 minutes more, stirring frequently. Serve warm on waffles, pancakes, yogurt, ice cream, spoons, fingers, etc...

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Pear and Gouda Scones

Recently I was lucky enough to receive some samples from a company called Oh! Nuts. They sell...you guessed it...all different kinds of nuts and dried fruit, along with many candies and snack items. (The selection really is amazing, and after a quick browse-through I've discovered about 5374 ingredients I simply must have.) The samples I got were roasted hazelnuts, dried pears, raspberry-flavored dried cherries, and coconut malted milk balls. I've been happily experimenting with my fun new ingredients in some desserts, and I'll be featuring them here over the next week or so.

...but before we get to the recipes, can I please tell you how EPIC the coconut malted milk balls were?

Oh mama, these were dangerous. First of all, they were huge--larger than a quarter, I'd estimate. And secondly, they were absolutely delicious. Nothing like the stale mothballs masquerading as "maltballs" in the grocery store. These were melt-in-your-mouth, double-your-pants-size-in-one-bite good. I had to give a half-eaten bag to my father to get them out of the house.

But I digress.

Back to the fruit and nuts! I first went to town on the dried pears...I had some fabulous gouda with walnut pieces that I wanted to pair with it, so I decided to do scones.

Scones are kind of a treat around our house...we usually like to save our calorie splurges for later in the day, so I don't often do breakfast baking. This recipe might convince me to change my mind! The dried pears added a nice chewiness and sweetness to the scones, that was offset by the sharp gouda and the walnut pieces from the cheese. Add in a flaky, buttery scone base, and what's not to love?




Pear and Gouda Scones
from Chocolate and Zucchini
180 grams (1 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
A fat pinch of ground piment d'Espelette (substitute any moderately hot ground chili)
3/4 teaspoon fleur de sel (substitute kosher salt)
75 grams (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, diced
85 grams (1 cup) coarsely grated 36-month-old Gouda (substitute another type of aged firm cheese, such as Comté, Parmesan, or Cheddar)
20 grams (3 tablespoons) diced dried pears
100 mL (7 tablespoons) light (15%) cream
1 egg yolk, beaten with a tablespoon fresh water

Makes 9 small pieces.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, piment d'Espelette, and salt. Add the butter and rub it into the dry ingredients with the tips of your fingers or a wire pastry blender, until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. Add the cheese and pears, and blend with a fork.

Add the cream and mix it in gently with the fork until the dough comes together -- add a tad more cream or ice-cold water if the dough is too dry. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured work surface, gather into a ball, and roll out into a 2-cm-thick (3/4-inch) circle. Cut out circles of dough using a 6-cm (2 1/2-inch) cookie cutter or juice glass and transfer onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving about an inch of space between each. Gather the rest of the dough into a ball and repeat the rolling and cutting steps until you've used up all the dough.

Use a pastry brush or the back of a teaspoon to brush the top of the rounds with the egg yolk mixture. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until puffy and golden, rotating the baking sheet halfway through the baking. Let cool on a rack for a few minutes and serve. The scones will keep for a few days at room temperature, wrapped tightly in foil. Reheat for five minutes in a warm oven before serving.

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