Tuesdays with Dorie: Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

I finally got my Baking: From My Home to Yours book in the mail and the little person who wanders around my house all day has taken quite a liking to it:



I'm so excited to get to participate in Tuesdays with Dorie this week and I'm even more excited because Ashley from Eat Me, Delicious chose pecan sour cream biscuits!

I love biscuits. I really, really do. Infact, the kid and I are sharing a Chik-Fil-A chicken biscuit right now (I had a free coupon, get off me.). But unfortunately my biscuit making skills don't extend past popping frozen biscuits in a high powered microwave for 2 minutes and then an oven for 5. Oh the joys of working fast food.

Back to Dorie's biscuits.



These biscuits came out more like scones, but I think I may have overworked the dough slightly. Next time I'm going to try grating frozen butter into the dough instead of using a pastry cutter. See? My first week participating and I learned something new.

The biscuits were really good though. Like, really really good. I'm not ashamed to admit that Spencer and Landon each had one biscuit and I ate the rest.

Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits
Makes about 12 biscuits)

2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1/3 cup cake flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
1/2 cup cold sour cream
1/4 cold whole milk
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans, preferably toasted

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Get out a sharp 2-inch-diameter biscuit cutter and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Whisk the flour(s), baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a bow. Stir in the brown sugar, making certain there are no lumps. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips (my favorite method) or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You'll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces the size of everything in between-- and that's just right.

Stir the sour cream and milk together and pour over the dry ingredients. Grab a fork and gently toss and turn the ingredients together until you've got a nice soft dough. Now reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick gentle kneading-- 3 or 4 turns should be just enough to bring everything together. Toss in the pecans and knead 2 to 3 times to incorporate them.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Dust the top of the dough very lightly with flour, pat the dough out with your hands or toll it with a pin until it is about 1/2 inch high. Don't worry if the dough isn't completely even-- a quick, light touch is more important than accuracy.

Use the biscuit cutter to cut out as many biscuits as you can. Try to cut the biscuits close to one another so you get the most you can out of the first round. By hand or with a small spatula, transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet. Gather together the scraps, working with them as little as possible, pat out to a 1/2-inch thickness and cut as many additional biscuits as you can; transfer these to the sheet. (The biscuits ca be made to this point and frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight and kept for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting-- just add a couple more minutes to the oven time.)

Bake the biscuits for 14-18 minutes, or until they are tall, puffed and golden brown. Transfer them to a serving basket.