Maple Pinwheel Biscuits

Sweet, soft, and gooey. Talk about gone in 60 seconds....

Okay, this is another one from Biscuit Bliss, which I just reviewed for the Daring Kitchen. I was experimenting with different types of biscuit, because not being a Southern grandmother, I had never really been into them so much. This book totally changed my mind, but that’s another story.

I made these for Mr. Gorilla and I the other day, and we ate the entire batch withing twenty minutes of them leaving the oven. Seriously. Yes, we are pigs, but it’s totally justified when you consider the fact that biscuits go stale really fast, and the only way to get your effort’s worth is to eat them fresh. That’s my excuse.

I altered the recipe a little, because I like over-the-top sweet, so I’m going to post my version. If you want the real version, buy the book.

Maple Pinwheel Biscuits

(adapted from Biscuit Bliss by James Villas)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons sugar

6 tablespoons butter, cut into bits

2/3 cup whole milk

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup brown sugar

cinnamon to taste

1 cup maple syrup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425, grease a 9-inch cake pan and set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.

Cut in half of the butter until mixture is mealy.

Add milk gradually, and stir until a soft dough forms. You may not need all of the milk!

On a floured surface, roll dough out to a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle the remaining butter bits over the surface.

Sprinkle the cinnamon and brown sugar over the surface, and top with half of the nuts. It should be looking quite yummy by now.

Roll the dough lengthwise, like a jellyroll, and cut into 1-inch slices.

Place the slices in the pan, drizzle the tops with syrup, sprinkle with the remaining nuts, and bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through.

Drizzle with powdered sugar icing if you would like. I did. ‘Twas yummy.

I promise you, these will not last.

Cinnamon Scones

Mmmmm...cinnamony....sugary.....

So, I’m in the process of reviewing a cookbook called Biscuit Bliss by James Villas. Since I am not a southern cook, I considered myself to be generally clueless about biscuits, and I was right. My first attempt totally failed, but you’ll have to wait for the review to hear that story. This story is about scones. Mr. Gorilla, being the Anglophile, LOVES scones, so I thought I’d try my hand.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not as scone-intensive as the next lady – every time I’ve tried them in the past I’ve found them to be quite dry and crumbly, and not sweet enough. So I had high hopes for Mr. Villas’ recipe. Even though I threw my trust in him, I still altered a couple of things about the recipe, just to hedge my bets.

1. The recipe itself is for plain old scones, but I added cinnamon ’cause I felt like it.

2. I did not knead the dough. I’ll tell you when we come to it.

3. I topped mine with loads of coarse cane sugar before baking. ‘Cause I like sugar.

4. I didn’t use a biscuit cutter, ’cause I don’t have one.

Here it is, folks – the most awesomest, moistest scone you will ever eat!

Cinnamon Scones

(adapted from Plain Scones, in Biscuit Bliss, by James Villas)

Ingredients:

2 cups self-rising flour

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter, softened

3/4 cup whole milk

3 tablespoons cinnamon

1/4 cup cane sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425, and line a baking sheet with parchment.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Feel free to add more cinnamon if you’d like.

Add the butter, and rub with your fingertips until the mixture is crumbly. MUCH more pleasant than using a pastry cutter, let me assure you.

Gradually add the milk until a soft dough forms. You may not need all of the milk, or you may need a bit more. Use your judgement.

Here is where I differ from James: instead of kneading the dough on the counter, I squish it around gently in my hands (over the bowl) for a couple of seconds, just until the dough holds together and seems uniform. So do that.

Now, swipe the parchment off of your baking sheet and put it on the counter. Place your ball of dough on the parchment, and using floured hands (yours, of course), pat the dough into a rectangle about 3/4 of an inch thick. Coat the top of the rectangle with the cane sugar.

At this point, James whips out his diamond-honed biscuit cutter, but I don’t have one, and using a glass makes them come out flat. So here’s what I do. I cut the dough into squares, but I do not separate them. I then make diagonal cuts to form triangles, but still, I do not separate them. I simply pick up the whole shebang by the parchment, transfer it to the baking sheet, and throw it (place it gently) in the oven for about 12-15 minutes.

Here's how they come out of the oven. Nifty!

I let them bake as one piece, but the cuts make them easy to separate when they cool. This method keeps them moist, and prevents the sides from overbaking. It’s great!

So yeah, these scones were amazing, even three days out. Great recipe, James.