I made Ginger Biscuits last night. It’s one of those recipes I had sort of forgotten about until I saw a picture in a magazine of cream biscuits with brown sugar. The first time I made Ginger Biscuits it was with a recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook, but that one had too much stuff in it and didn’t have things that belong in biscuits like buttermilk, so I’ve concocted my own and like them even better. My recipe has a double hit of ginger, using crystallized ginger, which I can eat right out of the package like candy, and powdered ginger. Once I added fresh ginger but it tasted really bitter. Molasses subbed for brown sugar, which was a perfect compliment to the buttermilk. The secret ingredient is usually a little bit of apple cider, but I didn’t have any so I threw in a couple of dashes of Calvados (apple brandy). The dough was kind of weirdly orange, hmm, but the end result – well YUM. I did cheat and make them in the food processor. Biscuits should be mixed by hand to keep the butter from being too incorporated, but I was feeling a bit lazy and the texture was fine.
I’m going to fess up to a weird little fetish, here it is: I absolutely adore biscuit cutters. I have my grandmother’s set in a round tin. I have several with fluted edges and an old one you just roll and it cuts out shaped biscuits. I practically swooned when a green Bakelite one turned up in an antique store. I am not opposed to using a water or wine glass in a vacation house, but in my own kitchen there are PLENTY of choices. Biscuits at home get baked in the iron skillet. It’s the perfect shape and they always seem to cook better. Do other people do that? I’m not sure.
The biscuits smelled divine in the oven. We had some ginger jelly, but it seemed like over kilI so I opted for a lot of butter and a dab of apple jelly. Sammy stuck with his usual molasses. They were scrumptious….think I’ll make them for breakfast and cook a little Benton’s country ham to go inside next weekend when we’re all tired of turkey. That should be a match made in heaven!
Ingredients
1/4 c crystallized ginger (sometimes called candied ginger)
2 c self-rising flour
1 tsp ground ginger
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) cold butter, cut in 4 pieces
2 Tbsp molasses or brown sugar
1/2 c buttermilk
2 Tbsp Calvados or apple cider, optional
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Chop crystallized ginger by hand or in the food processor into small bits and set aside to mix in last.
Either by hand or in the food processor combine flour and powdered ginger and work in butter.
