Cherry Blossom Biscuits

So I was making pink biscuits to go with the pink molded salad— it was originally just a one-off so I would have something else in the photo, but then I was adding food coloring to the buttermilk when I decided that I’d inadvertently made the milk too pink. I had to add extra buttermilk until the color was right, but I ended up with twice as much buttermilk as I needed before I was done! Since I had all my ingredients out already I decided to make a double batch of biscuits, but to avoid repetition I decided to change things up a bit and make these sweeter for a more springtime feel! I added sugar to the dough, cut the second batch out in flower shapes, and put on a powdered sugar glaze at the end.

The biscuits didn’t hold their shape as well as I’d have liked, but they did end up being vaguely flowery-looking, enough so that I felt comfortable dubbing them  “cherry blossom biscuits” (though I didn’t have any cherry blossom essence, so it’s just for looks, unfortunately).

I really do like the method of folding the dough to create layers in the finished biscuits. Also, the folding method helps to firm up the extremely sticky dough, enough that it’s easy to cut into biscuits with a floured cutter. Here’s the recipe!

Cherry Blossom Biscuits (adapted from Allrecipes)

Makes about 3 dozen 1 1/4″ flower biscuits

7 tbsp. butter, chilled

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

2 tbs. sugar + extra for sprinkling

3/4 tsp. kosher salt

3/4 cup cold buttermilk + 2 tbsp.

pink food coloring

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tbs. milk

1. Cut butter into thin slices– about 1/2 tbsp. each– and keep chilled.

2. Stir pink food coloring into all of the buttermilk until it’s a nice deep pink. Chill.

3. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, 2 tbs. sugar, and salt in a bowl.

4. Add butter and use a pastry blender (or two knives) to cut in until the largest pieces are about half the size of a pea.

5. Stir 3/4 cup of the tinted buttermilk into the flour/butter mixture until it forms a soft, shaggy dough.

6. Dump out the dough onto a generously floured board and pat (with floured hands) into a rough rectangle. Fold into thirds and rotate 90 degrees. Repeat twice so you’ve done three letter-folds total. Keep tossing flour under the dough to keep it from sticking to the board. The dough will get significantly less wet and sticky at each turn.

7. Roll your folded dough out about 1/2″ thick. With a floured (don’t skip this step or it’ll stick), flower-shaped cutter, cut biscuits out, pushing straight down into the dough, and place them upside-down on a baking sheet lined with foil. Putting them upside-down will help them rise higher.

8. Brush biscuits with remaining 2 tbs. of pink buttermilk and sprinkle generously with sugar.

9. Place cut-out biscuits into the freezer for 10-15 minutes.

10. Bake on a middle rack of the oven at 425 degrees F for 7-10 minutes (depending on the size of your biscuits), until they’re firm on top and the bottoms are ever-so-slightly browned.

11. Once the biscuits come out of the oven, combine milk and powdered sugar to make a thin glaze and paint generously over the warm biscuits. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes:

1. The buttery flavor on these really comes through– they’re nice and rich and have a nice savory background to go with the sugary glaze. You can omit the glaze and you’d still have a nice little biscuit.
2. Obviously if you make larger biscuits, they’ll take longer to bake. Just keep checking the firmness of the baked biscuit and look at the bottoms to see when they’re done.
3. These don’t spread much at all in the oven, so feel free to put them pretty close together. I’m told (though have not tested this idea) that if you put them really close together they’ll rise higher.