Strawberry Buttermilk Biscuits

A classic recipe with a sweet twist for Valentine’s Day. These one-bowl, fluffy biscuits can be cut into any shape if you don’t have a heart-shaped cutter. Omit the strawberries entirely and use the recipe for a sturdy sandwich biscuit, or swap them out for any other freeze-dried fruit you can find. I went with a strawberry glaze to make them pink for the holiday, but again, just skip it or use a different flavor for more general purposes.

I like using freeze-dried berries vs. fresh because they add less moisture to the biscuit formula, but still pack in a concentrated berry flavor. If you have an opened bag hiding in your pantry that isn’t quite as crisp anymore and you’re not sure what to do with- this is your moment! The berries reconstitute a bit in the dough, so feel free to use ones that are past their crunchy prime for the dough. For the glaze, you’ll want to reserve your crunchiest pieces so that you can pulverize them into a powder. I do this either by finely chopping, or using a food processor in larger quantities.

It is a sad truth of biscuit cutting that you can’t endlessly re-roll the dough and expect your shapes to turn out perfectly. Your very first cut will be the best and cleanest shapes. From there, you may see shifting or cracking as the butter makes more layers every time you re-roll it. To help this, instead of mashing the dough back into a ball and re-rolling it out, gently push the scraps together and keep them on the same level. Whatever you do, keep those scraps and bake ‘em- ugly biscuits are still tasty biscuits! You can also make these ahead and immediately freeze the raw biscuits for up to a week. Add 5-10 minutes of baking time from frozen. Substitutions/ideas following recipe.

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Strawberry Buttermilk Biscuits

Yield: 2.5 dozen (1.5" heart cutter)

Ingredients

For the biscuits

• All-Purpose Flour: 4 3/4 cups (680g)
• Cold, Unsalted butter: 1 cup/2 sticks (226g)
• Sugar: 2 Tbsp (30g)
• Salt: 1 tsp (10g)
• Baking Powder 2 Tbsp (36g)
• Buttermilk 2 1/3cup (269g)
• Freeze Dried Strawberries, chopped: 1 cup

Strawberry Glaze

• Freeze-dried strawberry powder (finely chopped): 1 heaping Tbsp
• Powdered sugar: 4-5 Tbsp
• Milk: 1 Tbsp

Instructions

Mix, cut and bake the biscuits

1. Measure or weigh the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in to a large bowl.
2. Cut the butter into small cubes. Using your hands or a pastry blender, 'cut' the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture reaches the texture of coarse sand. You should still have some larger chunks of butter.
3. Alternate: using the paddle attachment on an electric mixer, mix the dry ingredients and cubed butter on low speed for 4 minutes.
4. Add the buttermilk and gently mix to combine. Do not overmix- stop when all dry ingredients have been incorporated.
5. Turn the biscuit dough out onto a floured surface.
6. Using a rolling pin, roll to 1" thick and cut biscuits into desired shape. When re-rolling the dough, gently press it back together vs. mushing back into a ball. You likely will not get clean shapes from the second roll, but the biscuits will still be tasty!
7. Brush biscuit tops with beaten egg and bake for 15-20 minutes at 350* (Note- oven time is dependent on the size and shape of your biscuits)

Mix the glaze

1. In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar and milk with a whisk until smooth.
2. Add the strawberry powder, and stir to combine.
3. The glaze should be thick enough that it holds a ribbon pattern for 1-2 seconds when stirring- add a few more drops of milk or powdered sugar until you achieve the desired consistency.
4. Spoon glaze on warm biscuits after baking.

Substitutions:

• Salted butter- if all you have on hand is salted butter, skip the additional salt in the recipe. I prefer using unsalted butter and controlling the salt amount by adding it myself, but salted butter will work great here.

• Freeze-dried strawberries- I would not use fresh berries in the dough itself. If you can’t find freeze-dried strawberries, try substituting with chopped, dried fruit or two tablespoons of strawberry jam.

• Strawberry jam can also be used to make the glaze, and any fruit flavor will work!

• Buttermilk- this recipe calls for almost a pint of buttermilk (the small carton) exactly, so I typically use the real stuff and just top off with a little regular milk. You won’t have any leftover buttermilk you don’t know what to do with hanging out in your fridge. However, if you’re craving these biscuits and need to make them right now before heading to the store, you can add 1 tsp of white vinegar for every cup of regular milk in the recipe to make “buttermilk”. Combine it and allow to sit on your counter for a few minutes to sour before using it in the recipe. Do not just use regular milk without an acid, because then the Baking Powder won’t react properly and the biscuits will have a metallic taste.

• Other options: skip the strawberries and glaze, add everything bagel seasoning on top of the egg wash before baking.