Tuesday, February 26, 2008

TWD - Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

This week's TWD recipe made me feel right at home for me as I am a huge fan of all things biscuity. Growing up in Texas, homemade biscuits were something to savor. And, I love all things nutty so I was excited for this week's challenge.

Ashley of eat me, delicious chose this week. Man, how much did I love these biscuits! So very good. Mine weren't as tall as I expected them to be but I think I may have overworked the dough a bit. Also, I cooked them a bit too long but they still tasted amazingly good. I can only describe it as nutty with a side of sweet. Next time, I may add a bit of cinnamon as cinnamon makes all things better but these biscuits were great as is. I will definitely make these again!

Tuesdays with Dorie now has over 50 members - can you believe it? Check out the other fab bakers at Tuesdays With Dorie to see what these Doristas did to these biscuits. I'm so inspired! :)

PS The hubs loved them, too!

PPS None of my pictures took. I'm not sure what I did wrong! :'(


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 bowl. 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.

6 comments:

slush said...

So glad you liked them!!!

CB said...

Bummer about pictures! Blogspot might be down... try again later, k? I love the biscuits too! and OMG love the new blog design!!

Engineer Baker said...

Too bad about pics not turning out, but I'm glad you enjoyed them!

Beth G. @SweetLifeKitchen said...

Gald you loved them, we loved them too!!

Rachel said...

Thanks all! Hugsx4 and stuff. I believe the camera issue was, in fact, user error. ::hangs head:: I'll work on that for next time.

Jaime said...

awww, no pics?!

funny - you grew up in TX and live in CA now... i grew up in CA and live in TX now :)