First and foremost, Happy New Year!! We are looking forward to a delicious year ahead.  New Year’s Day may seem like an odd time to post a recipe for Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits.  I’m guessing a good number of you (and me) are launching resolutions today, likely containing at least one involving health and wellness. Am I right?

It’s just that I have been really working to perfect homemade biscuits over the past year.  On Christmas Eve, my work mates and I had the most incredible brunch.  We all decided the day before that we would bring in some ingredient from our fridge or pantry. No one needed to go to the grocery store, just bring what you have.  We had homemade crepes with Nutella and strawberries, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, cheesy grits casserole, home fries, toast, cantaloupe, homemade biscuits and sausage gravy, and the biggest veggie frittata you could imagine.  All prepared in our office break room.

A work family that cooks together, sticks together.

Did I mention we wore our pj’s to work that day too?  Ho, ho, ho!!

So after this Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits recipe passed the test at the office and this morning’s batch sealed the deal, I knew I was ready to put it out there.  These are buttery biscuits, with crispy bottoms & edges, and flaky insides.  They are incredible under sausage or bacon gravy.  Make one heck of a vehicle for a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit.  And my personal favorite, those flaky nooks are begging for soft butter and a drizzle of honey.  Oh my my!!

I think the key to making great biscuits is your ingredients and mixing bowl must be cold.  In fact your butter needs to be frozen, as in over night in the freezer, frozen.  Keeping your ingredients cold makes for nice flaky biscuits, instead of those dry ones.  You know the ones.

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Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes minutes

Total Time 27 minutes minutes

Servings 8 -10

Ingredients

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 2 Tbl. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 stick frozen butter
• 1 cup buttermilk very cold
• 1/4 cup heavy cream very cold
• melted butter for brushing tops

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Place buttermilk, cream and medium sized metal bowl in freezer for 10 minutes.
• Using a box grater, grate frozen butter onto a paper plate. Remove bowl from freezer, add flour, brown sugar and salt. Whisk to combine.
• Add grated butter to flour. Using a pastry cutter, combine butter with flour until mixture appears crumbly. Make a well in the center of the flour. Pour in buttermilk and cream. Using pastry cutter, gently fold flour into cream until just combined. Don’t overwork the dough.
• Generously flour your work surface. Turn dough out onto counter and sprinkle with a little flour. Turn edges of dough in toward center just a few times. Pat into a rectangle about 1 1/2 inches thick. Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut into the dough and lift without twisting. Place onto prepared baking sheet one-inch apart.
• Bake for 12 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter.

Notes

Butter should be frozen overnight. I also put the mixing bowl, buttermilk and cream in the freezer for 10 minutes before beginning.

The post Buttermilk Biscuits appeared first on Lemony Thyme.

Smoked Cheddar & Bacon Jalapeño Beer Bread.

When this bread recipe from Chocolate, Chocolate and More appeared in my newsfeed I was instantly hooked.  Joan took a classic beer bread and gave it personality.  Her gorgeous photo drew me in but the fact that you can have it ready for the oven in 5 minutes sealed the deal.

In 5 minutes you can have a bread baking in the oven.  In 45 minutes the smell of freshly baked bread will be wafting through your kitchen.  In one hour, start to finish, you will be fighting off the family as you try and picture this bread.  You’ll want to remember it….because within mere minutes, you’ll need to make another one.

Okay, that’s not entirely true.  You see we don’t generally keep bread on hand.  It’s a self control thing.  So when we do make it I try and come up with some fun ways to use it.  We did put a healthy dent in it while it was still warm from the oven.  However we saved enough to make a Three Cheese Mac ‘n’ Cheese Grilled Cheese which was pure indulgence.  AND we discovered that Smoked Cheddar & Bacon Jalapeno Beer Bread ground up and added to your meatball mix is pure genius!!

There are so many flavor possibilities with beer bread.  We used smoked cheddar, bacon and jalapeño, all of which came through.  Imagine if we used maple bacon with pumpkin ale or added fresh herbs and lemon zest or I could go on and on.  If you’ve avoided bread making (like someone I know) because of the work and time required this is a great recipe for you (and me).

At the time of this post, our blogger friend Joan with Chocolate, Chocolate and More is facing an unimaginable battle.  Two days ago her daughter Grace was struck by a car while walking to school.  She was placed in a medically induced coma while her injuries were evaluated.  Today her meds were reduced enough for precious Grace to open her eyes to see and recognize her family at her side.  Please keep this beautiful family in your thoughts and prayers as they continue on this path of healing.

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Smoked Cheddar & Bacon Jalapeño Beer Bread

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Author Chocolate, Chocolate and More

Ingredients

• 3 cups Self-rising flour
• 3 Tbl. sugar
• 1 12- ounce bottle beer
• 1 cup cooked bacon diced
• 1 cup shredded smoked cheddar cheese
• 1 jalapeño fine diced
• 1/4 cup butter melted

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9×5 loaf pan.
• Combine flour, sugar and beer in a large bowl. Stir until moistened. Fold in bacon, cheese and jalapeño. Pour into greased loaf pan.
• Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven, pour melted butter over top and bake an additional 10 minutes.
• Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from loaf pan and serve.

The post Smoked Cheddar & Bacon Jalapeño Beer Bread appeared first on Lemony Thyme.

Brown Butter Irish Soda Bread {with Rosemary & Cracked Black Pepper}

As St. Patrick’s Day entered the radar of food bloggers and the like, the recipe sharing became fast and furious.  I couldn’t have imagined Guinness could find it’s way into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert….but alas it’s been done.  Wonderful dishes rich in flavor yet not overdone.  I suspect that holds true for Ireland herself.  I never question the authenticity of a dish, purely because I love to experiment with recipes and expect others do as well.  Let that be the lead in to this not so traditional Brown Butter Irish Soda Bread with Rosemary & Cracked Black Pepper.

The beautiful thing about this, and other ‘quick’ breads, is there is minimal work involved.  No proofing, rising, doubling in size.  Just a bit of kneading, a dusting of flour, ‘x’ marks the spot, and straight into the oven it goes.

A basic Irish Soda Bread recipe has just a few simple ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk.  Which was completely the route I planned to go for my first attempt. Until I spotted a couple of recipes from Epicurious, that added browned butter, rosemary & cracked black pepper, caused a change of direction.

There’s a recipe note I must share.  As I was lining up the ingredients for a picture I noticed that the bag of flour I had pulled from the pantry was Self-rising Flour vs. All-purpose as the recipe called for.  Hmmm, seems my All-purpose flour canister was empty.  Experiment with recipes remember :)  For tips on flour substitutions and exchanges check out this article.

Second recipe note: every variation I read said not to over knead the dough.  Just enough turns until the dough comes together, six to eight times max.  Well…in an effort to not over work the dough the end result is a bread that looks more like a four leaf clover.  Quite fitting for today, don’t you think.

And a bread that tastes simply divine.  This is one of those breads that you’ll stand over breathing in it’s goodness.  My favorite way to describe this is when aroma becomes flavor you know something amazing is happening.  The aromatic fresh rosemary combined with nutty brown butter was fabulous.  And if anything, the Self-rising flour may have delivered a lighter slightly less dense Irish Soda Bread, which was quite fine with us.  Brown Butter Irish Soda Bread with Rosemary & Cracked Black Pepper we will certainly not wait until next St. Patrick’s Day to enjoy your company again.

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Brown Butter Irish Soda Bread {with Rosemary & Cracked Black Pepper}

The aromatic fresh rosemary combined with nutty brown butter in this bread was fabulous.

Course Bread

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author lightly adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients

• 2 cups Self-rising or All-purpose flour plus additional for kneading and dusting
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
• 2 Tbl. butter
• 1 tsp. fresh rosemary minced

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and pepper.
• In a small sauce pan over low heat, melt butter, add in minced rosemary and slowly cook until butter turns golden brown.
• Add browned butter and buttermilk into flour mixture. Use a rubber spatula to mix ingredients, scrapping down sides of bowl until just combined.
• Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Knead dough, turning about 6-8 times just until it comes together. Form into a 6-inch round and place on ungreased baking sheet. Use a sharp knife and cut a 1/2″ deep ‘x’ in the top of dough. Use a fine mesh sifter and dust top of bread with flour.
• Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

Notes

The bread pictured was made using Self-rising flour with the baking soda and salt. It can also be made using All-purpose flour with the baking soda and salt.

The post Brown Butter Irish Soda Bread {with Rosemary & Cracked Black Pepper} appeared first on Lemony Thyme.