Breakfast Biscuits

This morning, I made biscuits to use up half a pint jar of homemade applesauce. The applesauce had been a test where I cooked the apples without the honey first, then added the honey after twenty minutes. It came out runny, no structure, just like you'd expect from boiled apples, really.

It had cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, clove, and nutmeg in it. The jar has been open since before Christmas and I already boiled it again once. I figured it would be fine if cooked into something.

So what do you do with little motivation, a need for breakfast, and a cup of thin apple sauce? Me, I make biscuits. Now, when I say biscuits, I mean drop biscuits, scones, bannock -- whatever you want to call it. They are essentially all the same thing:
2 Cups of flour
2 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1/3 Cup of fat
3/4 Cup dairy (or any wet thing)
and whatever you want to add in, such as spices or cheese.

Today I used butter, apple sauce, and a dollop (seriously, did you think I measured?) of thin vanilla yogurt.

Drop biscuits are just a thing you learn to do. The first day I successfully made roll out biscuits, only a few years ago, I felt the achievement. I can still do roll out biscuits, but when I do, I mostly stick to classic recipe. Drop biscuits are far more forgiving. If you make them too dry, you can add a spritz of milk or water to the dough and still be able to eat them once baked. If you make them too wet, it's not a good idea to add flour, but you could if you couldn't bake them as is. Heck, if they're really too wet, you have waffle batter or pancake batter missing eggs. If you put sugar for the salt, or ginger powder instead of cinnamon, you're still probably OK. (But next time, sniff your spices, OK?)

This morning, because I was using spiced apple as the dominant flavor, I chose to make the biscuits with butter. Apples and butter are meant to be together. I cut the butter into slivers and then cut it into the flour with my hands. This isn't pastry. Fluffy flour and softened butter feel nice to manipulate. (As will all cooking, make sure your hands are washed and clean under the fingernails.) I had forgotten the leavening and salt, which should go in with all the other dry ingredients, so before the butter was incorporated, I put those in and stirred it up.

Lumpy butter still works, but you always get a better result if you have as close to a sandy texture as reasonable. If you want to add sugar, put it in with the flour. (I believe this is "scone method." As opposed to "muffin method," where the sugar is creamed with fat and eggs, and the dry is added secondary.) I forgot the sugar, too -- but the apples and yogurt were sweet enough.

Once the butter, flour, pink Himalayan salt, and baking soda were incorporated, I poured in some yogurt, around 2 tablespoons. Then in went the spiced apple sauce.

It's important not to overwork biscuit dough. Don't stir it. Don't knead it like pizza dough. You don't want chewy-making gluten to build up. Be gentle with the dough. Fold it in the mixing bowl (yes, I use a bowl -- and still get flour everywhere) like a big fluffy goose down comforter.

A well-preheated oven at 475 ° Fahrenheit, and 12 minutes later, breakfast!

They came out delicious, in case you are wondering. Fluffy, nicely flavored, just a hint of sweetness.