linbakesbread

Hey there. It’s way too early in the year to break my New Years’ resolution - so this weekend I get to make it up and bake two breads. Kinda looking forward to it. We’re getting our very first snowstorm of the season, so it’s a perfect weekend to spend time in our tiny, 1950s-era kitchen.

For my first bread, I will make Joanna Gaines' biscuits. I’ve had her cookbook for a little while now and have been looking for an excuse to try out that recipe. I read somewhere that she spent an entire year testing and fine-tuning the biscuits. I guess the secret ingredient is the egg – not normally found in a biscuit recipe. Anyway, I have high expectations.

Here is the recipe. Please bake these biscuits with me.

Tools you will need:

Large bowl
Measuring spoons
1 cup dry measuring cup
Spoon to mix the dough
Knife to cut the butter into small pieces
1 cup liquid measuring cup
Plastic wrap or foil to cover the dough
Biscuit cutter (or glass cup)
Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Small cup for the egg wash
Fork to whisk the egg wash
Brush for the egg wash

Here are all the ingredients:

Ingredients:

2 cups self-rising flour, plus more for work surface
1 Tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ sticks salted butter, cold and cut into ¼-inch pieces
1 large egg, beaten plus 1 large egg for brushing
¾ cup buttermilk plus 1 Tablespoon for brushing

Directions:

1.       In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda.
2.       Add the cut-up butter and rub in until the butter is about the size of peas.
3.       Stir in the beaten egg.
4.       Stir in the buttermilk until the dough comes together into a sticky mass.
5.       Cover the bowl and refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to overnight.
6.       Position rack in middle of oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
7.       Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
8.       Put dough on a floured work surface. Flour your hands (or sprinkle a little flour over the dough) and gently press into a round until it’s about ½ inch thick.
9.       Cut out rounds with biscuit cutter and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet, positioning the biscuits so that they are just touching each other.
10.   Make the egg wash. In a small cup, whisk together the remaining egg and 1 Tablespoon of buttermilk.
11.   Brush the biscuits with the egg wash.
12.   Bake until golden brown, 15-20 minutes.

By the way, I halved the recipe – there is only so much bread you can eat or give away!

My halved recipe made 10 biscuits.

Here are the baked biscuits

Reflections on this bake:

The biscuits were good – extremely tender. But…they actually tasted quite salty to me, which considering there is no added salt surprised me. There is a lot of butter – which is salted, so thinking that’s where it came from. Or else I’m registering the tang from the buttermilk as salt? Is there salt in self-rising flour? Let me check. Okay – surprise! There is salt in self-rising flour. It’s 3^rd on the list: Bleached wheat flour, leavening, salt….. Anyway, the texture was great -- but definitely way too salty. Sorry Joanna. I really wanted to love them.