Besh's Fluffy Breakfast Biscuits

Bread

Recipe courtesy of Chef John Besh, New Orleans

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients: 
 

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 5 tablespoons cold butter, preferably European style, diced
  • 1 cup whole milk

Besh's Fluffy Breakfast Biscuits

Besh's Fluffy Breakfast Biscuits 

Click image to enlarge

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl. Using a fork or a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until it resembles cornmeal. Add the milk, stirring until the dough just comes together to form a ball.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Gently pat the dough down with your hands and fold it over on itself. Pat the dough down and fold it over once or twice more. Loosely cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel and let it rest for a half hour or so.

Being careful not to overwork the dough, roll it out until it is 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Cut dough into biscuits using whatever cutter you like. Grandmother used an inverted juice glass, which was really an old preserves jar. For more biscuits, use a smaller glass.

Place the biscuits on a cookie sheet and bake until uniformly golden brown, 10 to 14 minutes.

 

Louisiana Recipes Weekly



 

Every Thursday you'll receive new recipes, events & festivals and more. See archive

 

Comments

Several have emailed to ask what European butter is; it tends to have a higher fat content than average American butter, and produces a flakier crust in baked goods.

Where does he get it? Thanks Ann

Upscale grocery stores, specialty gourmet stores; you'll find it in a well-stocked cheese counter sometimes, and you can also check your local farmer's market for a dairy vendor. Here's a web site with quite a bit more information about butter: http://germanfood.about.com/od/resources/a/all-about-butter.htm

There is a good supply at Whole Foods.

RE: European Butter Cook's Illustrated made a side by side taste BLIND test a few years ago. Their opinion: They could not tell the difference between a good grade of domestic butter and the very expensive European butter. I tried it myself. I had the same verdict. Save your money.