Sunday, June 10, 2012

Whole Wheat Biscuits #SundaySupper

Biscuits might not be the first thing you think of when it comes to summer cooking, but biscuits go really well with pulled pork, barbecue chicken, and that fried chicken you're going to take to a picnic.

And compared to my usual loaves of bread, biscuits are pretty darned fast.

This weekend's #SundaySupper (with a theme of Simple and Fresh Meals for Summer) is sponsored by LAND O LAKES®, who sent out a bunch of coupons to the group to use to buy butter and to give away to our readers. The butter isn't their usual salted or unsalted - this one includes olive oil as well as sea salt.

I figured it was worth a try. I use a LOT of butter, and I always like trying different brands and different types of butter. I stay away from margarine and fake butter products, but there are plenty of times when I use both olive oil and butter in a recipe. So this didn't seem too weird.

The LAND O LAKES® Olive Oil & Sea Salt butter comes in 1-pound boxes divided into  half-sticks. I'm not sure if that's more convenient or not, but it's different. At least I know which butter it is when I'm looking into the refrigerator.

Taste-wise, it's not like anyone's going to notice the olive oil. The butter was a little softer than regular butter, though, so that's something to keep in mind if firm butter is important. I'd think twice about using this butter for puff pastry - or I'd be shuffling it to the refrigerator a lot more often.

Then again, most people don't make their own puff pastry, so I'm probably the only one having these thoughts, right?

Yeah, right. Except for you over there in the corner, thinking about puff pastry.

But I digress. Biscuits.

At first I considered making some kind of herbed biscuits, then I changed my mind and decided that I'd make them a little healthier with some white whole wheat flour. Good thought process, but the bag that I thought was white whole wheat flour was actually whole wheat flour.

Oh well. That works, too. The biscuits were a little more brown than I wanted, but the flavor was good, and that's really all that counts.

Whole Wheat Biscuits

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 half-sticks LAND O LAKES® Olive Oil & Sea Salt butter
1 1/4 cups cold milk

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, all purposr flour, baking powder, and salt, Whisk to combine.

Add the butter. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until the pieces are no larger than small peas. Add the milk and stir until all the flour is moistened.

Flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Pat it (or use a rolling pin, if you prefer) until it's 1/2 thick. Fold it in thirds, like a letter. (If you need more flour to keep the dough from sticking to your work surface, dust with flour as needed - but don't add too much) Pat or roll it again until it is 1/2 inch thick. Fold in thirds again.

This time pat or roll it until it's 3/4- to 1-inch thick. Cut rounds from the dough with a biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on your prepared pan. Pile the scraps on top of each other, trying to keep the dough oriented in the same way - all that folding created layers, and you want to keep them as horizontal as possible.

Cut more biscuits from the scraps.

From the remaining scraps, you're probably better off making a drop biscuit or two. They won't be pretty, but they will taste fine - and the cook needs one for a sample, right?

If you like, brush the tops of the biscuits with milk or melted butter. Bake at 400 degrees until the biscuits are browned on top, about 14 minutes.

You wanna win some buttah? (Contest is now closed!)
  • To win a coupon for a free pound of this butter, leave a comment telling me what your favorite recipe is that features butter. 
  • For a second entry, tweet a link to this contest, and make sure you include the #SundaySupper hashtag. You can say whatever you like in the tweet. Come back here and tell me that you tweeted.  
 This contest will run through Wednesday, June 13 at Midnight, mountain time.

Disclosure: I received a full-value coupon redeemable for LAND O LAKES® Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt, for recipe development and review purposes along with one coupon to give away. All opinions are my own.

For more information about LAND O LAKES®, you can find them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter at @LandOLakesKtchn.

About LAND O LAKES® Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt: Land O’Lakes is expanding its popular line of half-stick butter with the introduction of LAND O LAKES® Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt. This new product contains wholesome ingredients: sweet cream, olive oil and sea salt. LAND O LAKES® Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt is an easy and convenient way to simply enhance the flavor of your favorite foods. Available in a premeasured half-stick size, this new product can be used for topping and cooking a variety of foods, combining the two ingredients consumers often combine separately when frying or sautéing foods. The delicious taste of butter and olive oil will add delicious flavor to any dish.

About Ree Drummond and Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt:
Ree Drummond, better known to her fans as The Pioneer Woman, is helping us explore the delicious flavor of our new Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt. Ree will create blog posts, recipes, and videos that explore how she uses this new butter to enhance simple weeknight meals.


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