'So Easy a New Mom Can Make Them' Drop Biscuits

Here is Cook's Illustrated's 'Best Drop Biscuit' recipe from the November 2007 issue to which I alluded in the Scoops post. I love this recipe! I made it with Elspeth cuddled in the sling when she was 2 months old and I made it a few weeks ago with her in the Ergo when she needed a little extra attention--it's that simple. I always make a double batch and freeze. We reheat in the toaster oven on a medium toast setting. Evan likes his with peach 'yum' (a less sugary jam), whereas I eat mine naked.

I do use my scale in this recipe for the flour. Because I substitute whole wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose flour, I want to make sure I'm not adding too much. Other than that, I think I make the recipe exactly as designed by Cook's except that I don't bother brushing the biscuits with melted butter after they come out of the oven.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (10 ounces)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp table salt
1 cup cold buttermilk
1 stick (8 TBSP) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (about 5 minutes)

DIRECTIONS
  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees.
  2. Stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in large bowl.
  3. Combine buttermilk with the melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps (apparently this helps with fluffiness)
  4. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients. Stir until just mixed. The batter should pull away from the sides of bowl.
  5. Using your handy dandy portion scoop (greased) or a greased 1/4 cup measuring cup, drop drop batter onto a rimmed baking tray lined with Silpat or parchment. The biscuits should measure about 2 1/4 inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inches high--I hope that this will be the case when I use the portion scoop. As it is now, the recipe only makes 9 or 10 biscuits, not 12, and they're not as high as I'd like them to be.
  6. Repeat until batter is gone, leaving 1 1/2 inches between biscuits.
  7. Bake until tops are golden brown 12 to 14 minutes.
  8. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Comments

Misha said…
The uncanny thing is that Stuart made these last night! Someone dropped their copy of the magazine at work, and I brought it right home. He put some flax seed meal in ours--turned out yummy!
DC said…
yummm... I've been experimenting with whole wheat pastry flour, trying to replace it in our favorite recipes, but to tell you the truth, by the time we are done replacing the fats (for bananas or applesauce)or sugar (for sucanat, or agave), things come out way too dry... Do you have any tips?