Saint-Germain-Des-Pres Biscuits

Time for French Fridays with Dorie! Our recipe today is Saint-Germain-Des-Pres Onion Biscuits, I am not an onion fan so left off the onions, cut me a little slack, please, I did make the Cheese Topped Onion Soup a couple of weeks ago :)

These were a pretty simple and straight forward biscuit. I went "rustic" and cut my patted down biscuit dough with a pizza cutter and separated them on the baking sheet.

Here they are, tall and puffy after baking. I got 12 biscuits from this recipe and they were pretty small, that was just fine with me though. Seems like I am always making biscuits around here, usually for picky husband and his favorite dessert of strawberry shortcake. I'm sure some of these will be turned into strawberry shortcake by dinner time.

These were nice and fluffy and had a good texture and flavor. My four year old and I enjoyed them as lunch with some strawberries, Anjou pears, and absolutely yummy Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese.

Basic Biscuits & Apple Nut Muffin Cake

Time for a Tuesdays with Dorie twofer! I didn't get to last week's recipe on time, but late is better than never, right? I made the Apple Nut Muffin Cake with an apple fresh from the orchard and it was delicious!

my three sweeties at the apple orchard

All three kiddos loved the cake, which I cut into squares for a quick breakfast snack.  I followed the recipe almost exactly, my only change was to use a 9 by 13 pan since I couldn't locate my 8 by 8 one, so my muffin cake squares are a little thinner than they should be, but that just made them easier to munch :)   Thank you to Katrina at Baking and Boys for this TWD pick, you can find the recipe for Apple Nut Muffin Cake here at Katrina's site if you do not have Baking From My Home To Yours.

I made today's TWD pick, Basic Biscuits, yesterday when my kids got home from school.  They were wonderful, were the the best biscuits I've ever made or had? Could have been, yeah, they were that good!  I mixed the ingredients in the food processor (a tip I've learned from Baking From My Home To Yours) to ease up preparation (not that it was that difficult in the first place.  I also always just cut my biscuits one time, unless I'm going for specially shaped (i.e. heart) biscuits.  It is quick and easy, gives them a rustic almost square shape, and no scraps to re-roll :)

Above is before baking, below is after. I baked on an insulated baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.  I baked for 14 minutes just like the book said, although I usually take my biscuits out a touch sooner, these were just perfect. 

Look at how light and fluffy and "top hat high" these got, love that part of Dorie's description in the recipe!

All in all, two perfectly delicious TWD treats in a row!  A huge thank you to Jennifer at Cooking for Comfort for this recipe pick -- you can find Dorie's recipe for Basic Biscuits here at Jennifer's site, this one is a keeper :)  I'll leave with an extra shot of the Apple Nut Muffin Cake, a side view so you can see all the goodies (apples, raisins, walnuts) baked in...yum!

Tender Shortcakes -- Tuesdays with Dorie Rewind

Time for a Tuesdays with Dorie rewind -- Tender Shortcakes! This was our pick back in June thanks to Cathy at Tortefeasor, you can find the delicious recipe here at Cathy's site.

We love strawberry shortcakes at our house, and while they are nice in the summer with some simple macerated berries, they are also a great winter treat with some warm cooked strawberry sauce from frozen berries (or fresh if you can find decent ones this time of the year). Dorie's shortcake recipe was delicious, perfectly tender and a touch crumbly, just perfect for soaking up all of those yummy berry juices.


Wishing you and yours a wonderful New Year! I have a blogging resolution to be a little more consistent since I've really missed keeping up with everyone these past couple of months. See you soon :)

Sky High Sweet Cream Biscuits & Swedish Visiting Cake -- Tuesdays with Dorie

Time for Tuesdays with Dorie and I have two treats to share this week! First off, our pick for today, Sweet Cream Biscuits, chosen by Melissa of Love At First Bite -- thank you Melissa! These biscuits were amazing, probably the easiest of all TWD treats we've made, and the end results were completely delicious.


We love biscuits and I make them often, I have a favorite recipe that uses butter and cream (which can be swapped for buttermilk) and is a little sweeter, and we mostly use it for strawberry shortcake which is one of picky husband's favorite desserts. I can't wait to make these Sweet Cream Biscuits again for shortcakes, and see if anyone notices I've switched from my old standby biscuit recipe.

before baking

I almost always skip the biscuit cutters and just pat my dough into a rough rectangle, then slice it into misshapen squares with a pizza cutter. As long as you don't mind biscuits that are not all identical and a little rustic looking, that is the way to go. Pizza cutters are usually sharper than biscuit cutters, and a nice clean cut is essential to the rising. Also when I just cut the dough into squares, it eliminates the need to reshape and cut scraps, because there are none. That way there are no tough biscuits and all are nice and fluffy...

after baking

Speaking of fluffy, look how tall and fluffy these guys got!

I think they even rose more than my usual biscuit recipe! I baked them at 425 as suggested in the recipe, on an insulated baking sheet (which helps biscuits not get burned bottoms), for 12 minutes. I set the timer for 12 just to start checking since the recipe calls for 14 - 18 minutes, and as soon as I checked at 12 I knew they were done.

These were a huge hit for breakfast and I can't wait to make them again, who knows, they might even become my go to biscuit recipe!

Now on to Swedish Visiting Cake, which was last week's pick, chosen by Nancy at The Dogs Eat the Crumbs -- thank you Nancy! This was a fun cake to make and also an easy recipe to put together and get in the oven. I loved baking in my new cast iron pan (this was the first time I used it, after seasoning) and the cake looked just like the photo in the book.

Although I baked along last week, I didn't get to post about the cake last Tuesday because the internet was down, purposely, thanks to the construction of an addition on our home -- a new master bedroom and bath. I am so excited to have more space! I shared the cake with our construction crew and it was a hit :)

Sweetheart Buttermilk Biscuits -- Tyler Florence Fridays

This week for Tyler Florence Fridays I tried a batch of Tyler's Better Buttermilk Biscuits. There are a few biscuit recipes on the foodnetwork website with Tyler's name on them, but these had the best rating and I love buttermilk biscuits so I just had to give them a try.

Better Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, chilled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup buttermilk

In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients together with a fork. Cut in the shortening using a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and add buttermilk. Quickly fold dry ingredients into buttermilk with your hands until a sticky dough forms.

Turn dough out onto floured surface. Gently fold the dough over itself 3 or 4 times to create layers. Roll dough out to 3/4-inch thick. Cut with a 3-inch biscuit cutter. Transfer dough rounds to a sheet pan. Gather scraps and repeat. Make a dimple in the center to help the top rise evenly. Brush with butter. Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven until golden brown.

Look at that biscuit height!

Changes I made to ingredients were using a 1/2 cup of margarine (one stick of Blue Bonnet) instead of vegetable shortening. I probably would have used butter flavored Crisco sticks but didn't realize I was out. I was debating using butter or margarine but figured I'd give the margarine a try and it worked perfectly! That was the only change to ingredients. I decided to try mixing the ingredients in my food processor and that was also a success, first I pulsed the dry ingredients, then the margarine in until it was the texture of coarse crumbs, then I added the buttermilk and pulsed until it was all mixed together. It looked a little dry...

but it really was not, once I touched it I knew it was perfect biscuit dough consistency. I smooshed it all together, then went through Tyler's method of folding over about four times to make layers, and then patting back out. I used a heart cookie cutter instead of a biscuit cutter (you could really use anything, an upside down glass, basic shaped cookie cutter, etc.) and was able to get 10 biscuits out of the dough.

I brushed the tops with melted butter, then sprinkled red sugar sprinkles on 3 of them, parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning on 3 of them, and left 4 plain with just butter.


I dropped the baking temp to 375, I was afraid of burned bottoms at 400 -- but may try 400 next time just to see if I could get the tops more brown. I'm just so leery to use 400 because I hate burned bottoms -- you know, now that I'm thinking about I bet 400 on an insulated baking sheet would probably be just perfect -- I used a single ply sheet this time. The browned tops didn't end up mattering much after we tasted these though. I bet cooking them in a cast iron skillet would be wonderful as well and will have to try that next time.


The bottoms were a perfect crispy golden brown, the insides were tender and flaky, the flavor was perfect!


We loved these biscuits. One of the best part of the recipe is how easy it it, especially utilizing the food processor for the mixing. I can not wait to make strawberry shortcakes with these biscuits when strawberry season arrives! Strawberry shortcakes are a favorite dessert of my husband and I make them all the time in the summer. I may even have to buy some off season strawberries and make shortcakes next week for my husband's birthday :)