Description

These biscuits were so much fun to make: from rubbing the butter into the flour, to patting down the fluffy, pillow soft dough, to cutting out perfect little squares of dough and painting them with an egg-milk wash.

Ingredients

Scale

1 large egg
1 large egg yolk and egg white (separated)
½ cup crème fraîche
½ cup greek yogurt
2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon plus ¼ teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons table salt
1½ teaspoons freshly ground pepper
1½ sticks unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch dice and chilled
2T heavy cream or half and half or milk
Maldon salt, for sprinkling

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Instructions

In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the egg yolk, crème fraîche and milk. Reserve the egg white.
In a large bowl, combine the 2½ cups of flour with the sugar, baking powder, table salt and pepper.
Using a pastry blender or 2 butter knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal–or rub in with your fingertips or pulse in a food processor.
Add the egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough is evenly moistened. Gather the dough into a ball and knead 2 or 3 times, just until it comes together.
Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper and dust them with flour. Transfer the dough to one of the baking sheets and press it into an 8-by-10-inch rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 400°. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and roll it out to an 11-inch square. Fold the square in half and roll it out again to an 11-inch square. Repeat the folding and rolling once more. Using a 2-inch round biscuit cutter, stamp out as many biscuits as possible. Gather the scraps, reroll and stamp out more biscuits.
Evenly space the biscuits on the lined baking sheets. Whisk together the reserved egg white with the cream or half and half, and brush the tops with this mixture. Sprinkle with Maldon salt.
Bake the biscuits in the upper and lower thirds of the oven for about 20 minutes, until golden; shift the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Serve the biscuits warm.

Notes

The original recipe called for ¾ cup of creme fraiche and ¼ cup of milk–I used ½ cup of creme fraiche and ½ cup of Greek yogurt (2%) because that’s what I had on hand. I’m sure other combinations would work, as well as sour cream in place of the creme fraiche. As long as you use enough of an acidic dairy product (creme fraiche, yogurt, or sour cream) you should be good to go! I also mixed my leftover egg white with half and half for “painting” the biscuits before they went into the oven.

Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 20 mins