Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie -- Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

Pardon my crumbs.



Ashley, of eat me, delicious, was in charge of this week's episode of TWD. Her choice was Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits -- tender, flaky, nutty, yummy biscuits. I opted to use the AP/cake flour version and the biscuits basically melt in your mouth. I ended up with about 22 2" biscuits, re-pats included, and chose to save most in the freezer for later use.




Freshly baked biscuits:




Enjoy baking these and enjoy seeing how the other TWD bakers did (now over 50 strong!).

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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 bow. 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.


10 comments:

Tempered Woman said...

The biscuits look great! They rose beautifully. And good idea on the freezing too. Soemtimes I need to be reminded that stuff doesn't have to be shoved down my gullet to finish them off... ;-)

Madam Chow said...

Yours actually rose! Congratulations! I froze my extras, too.

CB said...

Yours looks fab! I definitely want to make again and I'll do the freezing thing like you! Great job!
-Clara

April said...

They look great! Now I know that they can be froze!

Anonymous said...

Great job - they look fabulous! I froze most of mine as well, I'm looking forward to enjoying them later!

Engineer Baker said...

They look beautiful! And I ended up with the exact same number - weren't they tiny?!?

Jaime said...

great job! i meant to freeze some of mine, but then i forgot to...no problem though, we finished them in 2 days :)

Beth G. @SweetLifeKitchen said...

Yours look fabulous, we ate them too fast to freeze this time, but love that they freeze well for next time!! Great job :O)

Sweet and Savory Eats said...

Ours are already gone. You are a smart girl for freezing some. I will have to try that next time.

Jhianna said...

I should have frozen most of mine too, but I didn't even think about it!

Beautiful rise on yours, I'm jealous!