Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Old Fashioned Country Biscuit

For the lightest biscuits, the less you handle the dough, the better. A delicious country classic; like mom used to make!

2 cups GF flour blend, plus 1 T. extra for dusting
1/2 t. salt
4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
2 T. butter, chilled and chopped into pieces
2 T. coconut oil, chilled
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk

Preheat oven to 450˚F.

Combine all dry ingredients and whisk together. Add the butter and coconut oil and work into the dry ingredients quickly, using a pastry cutter or fork. Do not allow the fat to melt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour in the buttermilk. Stir just until the dough forms a soft, moist glob. It should be sticky. But it still needs to have enough body to be able to form a very soft dough that you can cut into loose biscuits. We are not making hockey pucks here!

Plop the ball of dough onto a tea towel that has been dusted with the extra flour. With floured hands, very gently knead the dough 4 or 5 times and gently pat down  into a mound that is about 1 1/2 inches thick. Again, do not overwork the dough!

Cut biscuits with a floured drinking glass or 2.5 to 3 inch biscuit cutter and  arrange them, touching each other, in an unbuttered cake or pie pan.

Bake 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden and flakey (not doughy) when pulled apart. They should read around 205˚F on an instant read thermometer.

Makes: Eight biscuits.

Notes: For a shortcake biscuit to be used with berries and as dessert, add a
little extra sugar to the recipe and sprinkle extra sugar on top of the
biscuits just before baking.

This recipe is from my cookbook: "The Farmer's Daughter Cooks Gluten Free."
To watch a slide show "tour" of the cookbook, click this link: