Rosemary Biscuits

I served these biscuits Christmas Eve with our Gumbo. Again, a huge hit! Here’s how I served them…

I chilled the biscuits over night so they sliced open very easily with a serrated knife. I smeared the bottom half of the biscuit with Blackberry Farms blackberry jam. On top of that I layered a small piece of sliced Honey Baked ham and topped it with a chunk of French Brie and replaced the biscuit top. I put the biscuits in a glass casserole dish and topped with a damp paper towel then covered the dish with its glass lid. I ran them through the oven long enough to heat them up and melt the Brie, then served hot out of the oven. Yum.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 stick butter, chilled
• 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 cup buttermilk (not low fat)
• 4 tablespoons of butter melted for skillet and brushing

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder into a bowl.
3. Cut chilled butter into dry ingredients with pastry blender until well combined.
4. Toss in chopped rosemary.
5. Make a well in the middle of bowl and add buttermilk.
6. Combine flour and butter mixture with the buttermilk and rosemary until a dough ball forms.
7. Turn out on a floured surface. Roll out with floured rolling pin and cut biscuits with metal ring (you choose diameter). Thickness should be about 3/4 inch. Continue folding in dough and re-rolling until all the dough is used. Use the rolling pin as much as possible and not your hands. Using your hands will heat up the butter. (I roll on marble countertops directly, which keeps the butter cool.) Your dough should be speckled with butter and rosemary.
8. Use 2 tablespoons of melted butter in bottom of iron skillet. Place cut biscuit dough rounds in skillet and brush with remaining two tablespoons of butter.
9. Cook until light brown, but don’t overcook. Biscuits will rise only slightly. These are simple biscuits, not lots of fluffy layers, but oh so tasty.

Recipe source is combined from about three different Southern Living Cookbooks.