Honey Butter Biscuits for a Saturday Morning

The kid and I needed a slow Saturday morning with a big sitdown breakfast of eggs, bacon, and homemade biscuits. The last few weeks, with the exception of my daughter's beautiful wedding, have been rough. It seems like there has been one challenge after another since mid-February. But spring is here and the garden is starting to fill out. South Texas is blanketed with wildflowers. The days are longer. There is much to be grateful for.

Sleeping in is hard around here. If it's not the dogs demanding to be let outside, the cat wants his breakfast or the chickens are cackling to be let out. So I was up by 7:30, which technically is sleeping in for a whole hour by weekday standards. I let the dogs out, fill the kettle so I can make coffee, dish out the dog food and cat food, and slip on some shoes to head out to the coop to let the chickens out for the day. By the time I head back in the house, I'm making coffee in my coffee press and starting breakfast.

We have eggs just about every day in some form or another, especially with the girls laying pretty frequently now, but I rarely make biscuits. This particular recipe was shared by my friend Bryan. We both enjoyed cooking together while he lived with us. He was in charge of the biscuit making while I made soup or something to go along with the biscuits. Ben calls them Bryscuits, so forever more they will be known in our household by that name.

A note about biscuit making. We were having some trouble getting the biscuits to rise nice and fluffy and after some investigation, I think I may have solved the issue. Apparently, according to the King Arthur Flour blog Flourish, when cutting biscuits it is important to use a sharp biscuit cutter or knife otherwise the dough pinches, preventing the biscuits from rising. Clean edges equal high rising biscuits.

Bryscuits (Honey Butter Biscuits)

• 2 Cups plain flour
• 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425F. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add cold butter and using hands, work into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Alternatively, you may use a food processor. 

Add honey and milk, mixing in with a wooden spoon or spatula. Gently knead dough and roll out to about 3/4" thick onto a lightly floured surface. 

Using a sharp knife or a biscuit cutter to cut biscuits into the desired shape. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until brown.

Serve warm with butter and plenty more honey (or your favorite jam).