A Year-Round Guide to Franklin and Nantahala

We love our blueberry biscuits here in the South, typically scooped up from a beloved fast-food fried chicken chain. For a quick option, the drive-thru variety works just fine, but

Rosemary and Goat Cheese Strata

We love our blueberry biscuits here in the South, typically scooped up from a beloved fast-food fried chicken chain. For a quick option, the drive-thru variety works just fine, but

Blueberry Biscuits With Almond Glaze

blueberry biscuits almond glaze

We love our blueberry biscuits here in the South, typically scooped up from a beloved fast-food fried chicken chain. For a quick option, the drive-thru variety works just fine, but graduating to a homemade version is well worth the additional effort – which is not much effort at all.

Homemade biscuits are surprisingly simple. A great homemade biscuit is all about the right ratio of leavener to flour, the right amount of butter (lots and lots), and the right amount of mixing (not much at all). This recipe results in a perfectly dense-but-fluffy biscuits with evenly distributed, plump blueberries throughout. The biscuit recipe itself is only slightly sweetened, allowing the bakery-style almond glaze to do most of the sweetening. These are perfect for breakfast, dinner, dessert, and everything in between.

Blueberry Biscuits With Almond Glaze
4 cups flour
½ cup sugar, plus extra for topping
4 teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoon salt, plus extra for topping
½ cup cold butter diced into ½-inch cubes, plus extra for topping
2 cups blueberries
1¾ cup cold buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 475°. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together until well combined. Remove about ¼ cup of this mixture and place in a medium bowl and toss blueberries into it, coating blueberries well. Add butter to large bowl of dry ingredients and cut it in with a pastry cutter or two knives. Be patient and thorough. The mixture should look like crumbly, damp sand when you’re finished. Make a well in the center and pour in blueberry mixture, buttermilk, and egg. Mix dough until it is just barely combined. Do not over mix. If dough is too dry, add water, one tablespoon at a time, until mixture comes together. If too wet and sticky, add flour one tablespoon at a time until it doesn’t stick to your fingers when pressed, but sticks a little when pinched.

Pat dough out onto a well-floured counter until it’s about 1-inch thick. Cut with a floured 3½-inch biscuit cutter. Place biscuits on prepared baking sheet so that they touch each other. Place a pat of butter on top of each biscuit. Sprinkle biscuits with pinch of salt and sugar. Bake for 8 minutes, then turn the oven off. Leave in the oven for about 10 minutes longer, or until they’re golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes before topping with the glaze.

Almond glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon almond extract

Whisk together all ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over warm biscuits and serve immediately.

 

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This story was published on Jun 01, 2016

Julie Ruble

Julie comes from a family passionate about food: Her grandmother made the biscuits and gravy, her father made the chicken and dumplings, and her mother made anything and everything, with a flourish of buttercream on top. Her parents blazed a trail of comfort food from their beginnings in the Midwest to Julie's current home in the South. She lives with her husband Mike and their two dogs in Raleigh, and is the creator of Willow Bird Baking.