Artistic Biscuits: Chocolate Orange Walnut Biscuits for Jeri & Robaire

My sister Jeri and her husband Bob (Robaire, I call him) came for a visit today to meet their new nephew. Jeri and I both give the marriage of orange and chocolate the stamp of approval. I wanted to sass up the combo a little so I also added walnuts and chili powder. In the picture below the biscuits look a little flat. That's because I completely forgot to add the baking soda. They were still scrumptious!


2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 t. baking powder
2 t. sugar
3/4 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
6 T. (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
zest of one orange and juice from half
1 oz. good dark chocolate (I used 1/2 a bar of 74% cocao Dagoba with chilies and nibs)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 t. chili powder
1 cup well-shaken low-fat buttermilk
1/8 cup raw sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Blend in butter with your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in orange zest, orange juice, chocolate, walnuts, and chili powder. Add buttermilk and stir until just combined.

Spoon dough into mounds (size depending on how many you wish to make - I made about 15 total) about 2 inches apart onto a buttered large baking sheet. Sprinkle raw sugar on top of each.

Cook 10-12 minutes and transfer immediately to cooling rack. Devour.

Listen to this on loop while making these:

"I Am A Paleontologist" by They Might Be Giants (Animated by my buddy Sean McBride)

hands

Artistic Biscuits: Cheesy "Faken" Birthday Biscuits for Loreen

I made this recipe up for my sister's birthday keeping the following things in mind: 1. She prefers savoury over sweet and 2. she was to arrive in the morning and so I wanted it to be breakfasty. Although I passionately hate omelets, I have nothing against omelet ingredients so I thought long and hard about what I could tolerate in an omelet, were I to be able to tolerate omelets. The answer I came up with that I thought Loreen would like was the following list of ingredients: cheese, vegetarian bacon, onion, parsley, and pepper.

Sinful breakfast deliciousness.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 t. baking powder
2 t. sugar
3/4 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
6 T. (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
8 oz. Muenster Cheese, coarsely grated (1 1/4 cups)
1/4 cup minced onion
2 T. fresh parsley, finely chopped
5 pieces of Morning Star vegetarian bacon strips (or Smart Bacon)
1 t. coarsely ground black pepper
1 cup well-shaken low-fat buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Blend in butter with your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in Muenster cheese, onion, parsley, and ground pepper. Cook vegetarian bacon according to package instructions (I did mine in the skillet in a Tablespoon of olive oil) and when cool, crumble into bits and add to mixture. Add buttermilk and stir until just combined.

Spoon dough into mounds (size depending on how many you wish to make - I made about 15 total) about 2 inches apart onto a buttered large baking sheet.

Cook 8-10 minutes and transfer immediately to cooling rack. Devour.

Happy Birthday, Loreen.