Yogurt Biscuits & Honey Cardamom Butter

 

I adore Biscuits, and by that I don't mean cookies, I mean North American style biscuits. Any soup or stew is immeasurably improved by the addition to the table of a nice basket of hot fresh biscuits. 

I often have huge debates over the differences between Biscuits and Scones. Some people think that the two are the same thing and interchangeable, but in all honesty, they are two completely different things altogether!

 

There are some really significant differences between scones and biscuits. Scones typically have eggs in them and biscuits do not. Scones tend to be a little denser, drier, and not as flaky. 

Just adding oats, fruit, herbs or anything else to a biscuit dough and cutting them in triangles does NOT make them a scone. Seriously. They may look identical in very many ways, but that is where any similarity stops!

 

The recipe I am sharing today for Yogurt Biscuits was adapted from the Book, "Southern Biscuits," by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart.  

I was intrigued by the notion that you could make delicious biscuits with only flour, salt and yogurt.  I just had to try them for myself.

 

They were incredibly easy to put together. They are basically just salt, self rising flour and yogurt.  Do use full fat yogurt. I have it on the authority of Natalie that low fat yogurt does not work well. I believe her. 

I did not try them with low fat yogurt, but when a professional tells you not to use it. I listen. They usually know what they are talking about.  Trust me on this.

  

If you don't have self raising flour, you can make your own. (For every cup of flour, sift together 1 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder.)  It works a charm.  

If I am making my own self raising flour, I will usually make five or six cups of it at a time.  You will always use it up. I promise you it won't be a waste of your time or money. I have plenty of recipes on here that use self-raising flour.

 

Soft butter goes very well with hot biscuits and if you are serving biscuits on their own, why not make it a flavoured butter. Today I made Honey Cardamom Butter. Honey and Cardamom have a natural affinity for each other. 

Both have incredible warmth.  Its difficult to put into words, but both feel like hugs and kisses and home sweet home to me.

 

This natural affinity  between honey and cardamom is almost as strong as the one for biscuits and any butter!  What is a biscuit without butter?  No quite the same.

Look at the height of these biscuits. These rise really, really high.  Quite surprisingly high when you consider that there is only a few basic ingredients in them.

 

That's what you get when you use a very light touch and you don't twist the cutter when you are cutting. So many people end up with lopsided biscuits.

That can be prevented by cutting them out by tapping straight up and down with a sharp edged cutter.  Straight up.  Straight down. No twisting at all.

 

I used a 3 inch cutter, patting my dough out to 1-inch thickness. I got 8 lovely big biscuits. Eight big, lovely, fluffy, beautifully textured biscuits. 

These are as light as a cloud.  They almost float off the plate.  Like an angel's wings or an angel's kiss. They are amazing.

 

If you use a 2 inch cutter you will get more biscuits obviously. I like my biscuits to be a bit of a handful most of the time.  They are perfect for filling with things. 

Smaller ones also have their uses however. Smaller ones are perfect for grouping on a plate and can trick people into thinking they are not quite eating as much as they would be were the biscuits larger in size.

 

You can cut biscuits rally small, like one inch in diameter and that size is perfect to be used filled with ham or smoked salmon as appetizers or pre-meal nibbles, meant to be served with drinks

These, however, were perfect just as they are  . . . tall and light textured   . . . with a beautifully flaky crumb. Mean to be enjoyed.

  

In short  . . .  biscuit perfection. Whether you are enjoying them with butter and something sweet, or  sitting next to a hot bowl of soup or stew. 

Obviously with a soup or stew you may want to leave off the Cardamom Butter, unless it is a creamy soup such as a roasted butternut squash or pumpkin.  It might go rather well with those.

In any case, I really hope you will want to bake these.  I am absolutely positive that you will enjoy them as much as we did.

Yogurt Biscuits & Honey Cardamom Butter

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Yield: 6 - 8 (3-inch) biscuits)

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 15 Mcook time: 15 Mtotal time: 30 M

Make sure you use full fat yogurt for these deliciously light and fluffy biscuits. If your yogurt is especially thick you can thin it with a bit of milk.  These are fabulously tall, crisp on the outsides, tender inside,  and go perfectly with the honey butter!

Ingredients:

For the Honey Cardamom Butter:

• 1/2 cup butter at room temperature (120g)
• 2 TBS honey
• 1 1/2 TBS icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom

For the Biscuits:

• 2 1/4 cups of self raising flour (315g)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup full fat yogurt (245g)
• softened butter for brushing (optional)

Instructions:

1. To make the honey cardamom butter, beat all of the ingredients together in a bowl until evenly mixed. Scrape into a serving bowl. Cover and chill until needed.
2. Preheat the oven to 225*C/450*F/ gas mark 7.  Line a baking tray with baking paper.
3. Measure (280g) 2 cups of the the flour into a bowl along with the salt and make a well in the centre. Add two thirds of the yogurt into the well, reserving the rest along with the remaining  (35g)1/4 cup of flour. Use a spatula to mix the flour and yogurt together just until he mixture comes together and the dry ingredients are moisened and a sticky dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If you think the dough is too dry, add the remaining yogurt. If your dough is too wet, use more flour when shaping.
4. Lightly sprinkle a board with some of the reserved flour. Turn the dough out and using floured hands, fold the dough in half and pat out to a 1/2-inch thick round using only as much flour as is needed. Flour again and repeat, patting the dough out to 1/2 inch thick for a normal biscuit, and 1 inch thick for a tall biscuit. (I like them tall.)
5. Using a floured 3-inch cutter stamp out 8 biscuits. Take care not to twist the cutter or your biscuits will be lopsided. Try to get as many cuts as you can from the first cutting. Gather, pat out and recut the scraps.  (These will be tougher which is why you want to get as many as you can from the first patting out.)
6. Transfer all the biscuits to the lined baking tray.
7. Bake the biscuits on the top rack of the oven for 6 minutes. Rotate the baking pan, back to front and then bake for a further 4 to 8 minutes until well risen and golden brown.
8. Brush the tops with softened butter if desired. Serve warm with the Honey Cardamom Butter.

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