This month’s Gluten Free Ratio rally is being hosted by Gretchen of Kumquat. Biscuits are such a big part of my food heritage. I grew up in a pretty Southern style part of Florida. Breakfast at home or the nearby truckstop restaurant, or place in town often consisted of biscuits and gravy. Grits were also important. Yet, this is not about grits. It is about biscuits. A good crumbled breakfast sausage is also delicious in the gravy and it makes for a more substantial meal. Yet, plain gravy with biscuits is such a classic. It’s certainly and economical dish. Only three ingredients are needed. Butter, flour and milk.
An early attempt. The dough was too dry and too short. It looks quite good though.
This has been a struggle, but here they are. I haven’t been able to get the perfect biscuit as I’d hoped. I was wanting those biscuits like I had when growing up. Ones like you see in holiday commercials. High sides, golden brown top, pretty darn cylindrical. Yet, I just couldn’t get them to be that tall. Not even when I doubled up the dough like I thought would work. After much experimenting I had to settle with what I present to you today. If I’d had more time I would have kept trying and trying. Indeed I think I will keep trying.
How those turned out. Hockey pucks, but alright with enough gravy or jam.
I learned that the ratio simply didn’t work for my flour blend or the liquid I was using. I had to increase the liquid in the ratio in order to get enough loft in the dough. I also discovered that the humidity of the day can really change the way a dough plays out. The time before this last trial yielded very close results, but the day wasn’t as hot or humid. The dough didn’t stick to the board like it did today. Even after a good chill in the fridge I had to use cling wrap and more flour to prevent stockage.
My next try. So much closer. Tried two thicknesses. Taller ones on the right were thicker.
Perhaps if I’d chilled the biscuits again after forming them they might not have spread so much this time. In previous batches I was getting 8 or 9 biscuits, but today I tried getting half to see if more dough would give me the height and shape I was looking for. Unfortunately it did not.
Shorter biscuits.
Even though these biscuits did not live up to the appearance I was looking for they do live up to the flavor. These also have a delicious crust on the outside. I’m quite delighted in this aspect of them. They are also splendid when served with some peppery white gravy.
Large, hand formed biscuits. My last attempt.
They’re huge!
Huge, but a wonderful interior. They could probably even be used for sandwiches. I’ve used them for egg and cheese biscuits.
Biscuits & Gravy
Ratio- 3:1:2.5 (flour, butter, kefir)
333g flour*
111g butter
277g whole milk kefir
4 tsp baking powder
Weight out your flour and whisk or sift it with the baking powder. Cut the butter into cubes and keep it nice and cold. Using your hands mix the butter into the flour until it is in small pea sizes throughout the flour. Pour in the kefir and stir it all together with a spoon.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Wrap the dough in cling wrap and chill it in the fridge for an hour. Remove the dough from the fridge and either pat it or roll it, on cling wrap or wax paper, to about half an inch thick. Using a glass cut the biscuits out of the dough. You could also choose to form the biscuits into disks by hand. If the biscuits become too warm, or become sticky put them back into the fridge before baking.
Bake the biscuits on a silpat lined, or lightly greased, baking sheet for 30-40 minutes until they reach a golden brown color.
*Mix together 75g millet flour, 75g quinoa flour, 100g brown rice flour, 100g cornstarch and 50g tapioca starch/flour…you’ll have extra flour leftover which is useful for dusting your work surface and can be saved for future baking projects including my amazing pie crust
While I haven’t a true recipe for the gravy for you, it is basically equal parts of fat and flour made into a roux (cooked together). Some milk (dairy or non-dairy) is added in small amounts until a thickness desired is reached. I found that about 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour with about a cup of milk or so made enough to produce gravy for four servings or eight biscuits. Season the gravy with salt and pepper to taste. Some thyme, sage or rosemary is also quite nice, however not necessary if you have a well flavored sausage to add in.
Dear comfort food. It takes me back to years gone by.
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Love the biscuits and gravy photo. They look so tasty.
Thank you! It’s such a classic, and true comfort food for me. I’m all about simplicity and comfort.
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I could see you using those large biscuits for some sort of tropical shortcake. Some of the pictures also remind me of dutch crunch (also known as tiger rolls) rolls that have that nice crackly top!
OH! I’ve never heard of Dutch Crunch. I’ll have to look it up. Erin Swing made me think of using them for Strawberry Shortcake. Being from the winter strawberry capital of the world (originally) I should have noticed it sooner.
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Wow what an awesome effort! Loved reading about all of your trials, and the crumb inside your latest ones looks quite nice – love the idea of biscuit sandwiches :)
What does McDonald’s market in the morning? Biscuit sandwiches. LOL These would be much better than their biscuits though, especially with only four (if you don’t count all of the flours as individuals) REAL ingredients.
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The crumb of the last ones love divine! Great minds (from FLA) think alike: biscuits & gravy! ;)
The crumb really is great. I’m so happy with that. They’re not the same biscuits I was going for, but they’re delicious in their own way. Speaking of Florida these would make a good strawberry shortcake.
The interior of these biscuits looks really tender. I love the big hand-formed ones you made – yumm!
Thanks so much. We’re eating the big ones this morning. They’re almost as big as our small plates. LOL You only need one when they’re this big.
When I used to visit my relatives in Ohio, we’d always have biscuits and gravy (& cheese…lots of it).
These look beautiful. You should write a cookbook one day Amanda…
OH maybe. I’ve thought about doing one on Venison. Thanks for the flattering compliment. Did they put the cheese in the white gravy?
first thing I thought of was strawberry shortcake biscuits. those look perfect! mmm.
This makes me want to go out and buy some strawberries. :)
They look really yummy! I’ve never tried millet flour. Keep trying – maybe there is another variation of flours that would give more rise? M Stewart uses a grated hard boiled egg in one of her biscuit recipes – I’ve never tried that, but she says it makes them more fluffy.
Another blend might work too, but I’d really like to find what works for this blend. I’m not ready to give up on it yet. I’m weirded out by the hard boiled egg thing. I don’t think I could do it. LOL
thanks for sharing your trials… good thing about biscuits is even if they’re a little tough, there’s almost nothing sausage gravy or juicy sugared strawberries can’t fix! looks like your efforts were all worth it… well done!
Thanks Gretchen! You did a wonderful job of hosting this rally and I really appreciate it. You’re right, good gravy or juicy fruit make most anything better.
Hi Amanda,
You get a prize for persistence! So many people (myself often included) just stop and “move on” when the first few attempts don’t work out. Your final result looks delicious – thatnks for sharing the whole story!
Ooo a prize? What do I get…ahem…I mean, yes I won experience, patience, and yummy biscuits. LOL Thanks so much for the comment. :)
Echoing the sentiments from the above comments, thank you for taking us through all your trials. You only know where you are from knowing where you’ve been.
And btw, the picture showing off the fluffy interior of the hand-formed biscuits was positively droolworthy.
Wow, thanks! Drool-worthy feelings are what I hope to create with my cooking and baking. I agree, we can only know how far we’ve come by knowing where we’ve been. I also spoke with another blogger recently about wanting food bloggers to share more of their failures and flops in the kitchen. It shows that we’re all human and none of us truly have any super powers that makes us better in the kitchen than anyone else can be, given enough time and desire.
Amanda-Thanks for continuing to provide cooking inspiration for the gluten challenged.
Haha, gluten challenged. :) I think Maui is really starting to catch up on being a great place for gluten free people.
Sounds amazing! I’ve been trying to escape gluten for sometime now. Not an easy task. Thanks for the great recipe!!
No problem! Recipe development benefits us all!
This makes me drool. And I’m thrilled to have another recipe to add to my bread file. Ratios are challenging for me, which is why I always end up buying the packaged gluten free mix. This year, I’m venturing out into making my bread products from scratch. I’ll have to let you know how it goes!
I’ve thought about having a local gluten free group, or gluten free meet up. Perhaps we could do something like that and bake together. We can talk more about it at the G.N.O.
Great job! This post made me hungry! :) Happy New Year Amanda!
Happy New Year to you as well! If you’re hungry it must be time to go make biscuits. :)
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