It's been one of those weeks. After going to the hospital Tuesday night thinking "it was time" I was discharged. Sure my contractions were 2 minutes apart but I stopped dilating shortly before I hit 4 cm so I was sent on my merry way. Since then we've been in limbo. My son came in a little over an hour from the time that my water broke and I realized I was in labor. My daughter was born in less than 4 hours from my water breaking and it would have been faster if they hadn't slowed me down with medication because of a low heart rate. So, living about 1 hour and 15 minutes from the hospital has caused much logistical planning and some nights spent at my parents house (10 minutes from the hospital). After deciding to "brave" it tonight at home I was rummaging through the fridge trying to figure out what I needed to cook that wouldn't last if we were out of the house for another three days. Finding some hard boiled eggs, spinach & mushrooms I decided that biscuits were the best vehicle for them.
Lately I've had a love affair with biscuits. I bake batch after batch, smothering them in jam and butter. It might even qualify as a fetish. And I couldn't be happier with this Spinach & Mushroom version. My husband proclaimed them "awesome" and they will be on a regular rotation here because they contain the correct combo of speed, ease, and low cost.
Spinach Mushroom Biscuits
(Makes 8 biscuits- there will be extra spinach mushroom filling to eat as a side for lunch the next day)
Just want to make plain biscuits- gather the ingredients up through the asteriks & follow instructions below!
2 cups flour
1 TBS baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
6 TBS butter
1 cup buttermilk (you could use regular milk but the buttermilk is sooo good!)
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8 oz sliced mushrooms
1/2 lg shallot
1 TBS oil
1/4 cup white wine (optional)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
8 oz spinach
2 hard boiled eggs
1. Preheat oven to 450. In your mixer combine 2 cups flour, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp kosher salt and 1 TBS baking powder.
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| Run the mixer for a minute to blend it all. |
Throw it into the mixer a couple pieces at a time with the blade running.
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| The little butter chunks will start to get mashed into the flour. |
Measure out a cup of buttermilk. You could use regular dairy but the buttermilk flavor is amazing and incomparable.
Add the buttermilk into the mixer and mix until combined and sticky. There will still be tiny chunks of butter. This is ok.
Flour a cutting board to dump the dough onto.
Using a spatula, put a chunk of dough onto the flour. If you're making plain biscuits you can dump the whole batch out- if you'll be doing the spinach mushroom filling it's easiest to work with one quarter of the dough at a time.
For the filling, chop half of a shallot finely. Saute in a tablespoon of olive oil.
Pre-sliced mushrooms were on sale so that is what I bought. I threw them into the food processor quickly to mince them so that they would be "filling-sized".
Saute the shallots and the mushrooms together until golden brown. Add 1/4 cup of white wine (optional). Add salt and pepper.
Add 8 oz spinach. I roughly chopped mine. Stir a few times. You want it to wilt.
Once the spinach has wilted turn the heat up a tiny bit just to evaporate any excess liquid in the pan.
Dice up two hard boiled eggs. Toss them into the pan with the spinach and mushrooms and turn off the heat. Toss to combine.
My sous chef was growing restless and kept trying to pull down my pants so I gave her the mixer attachment to lick. I think she likes biscuits too. :)
Ok, back to the biscuit dough. You've already put a quarter of it onto your flour covered board. Use your palms to gently flatten it. Do NOT roll it out. Rolling it out presses all the air out and they won't puff up all pretty.
Now fold it in half and flip it so that the top side is now down in the flour. Flatten it again and repeat this step about 2 more times. This helps to add air so that the layers bake up fluffy.
At this point my hands were covered in flour and the sous chef kept yelling for daddy so I missed a photo. With the dough flat you want to spread one side of it with some of the mushroom and spinach filling. Then, fold the other side over to cover the filled side.
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| Filled and folded over. |
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| Flatten it out a little bit more, gently- so that the filling doesn't come out. |
Use a pint glass top to cut the biscuits out. Same deal if you decided not to fill them. It is very important to just push the pint glass straight down without twisting it. You should hear a little burping noise when you push down. That is good! It means your biscuits have air in them and will puff up (can you tell that puffing up is a really good thing yet?). Do not twist the glass. Twisting the glass as you cut crimps the edges and will yield flat dense biscuits.
Your biscuits should look like this:
Repeat the above process until you've used all your dough. You will probably have some leftover filling. That's fine. You can serve extra with the biscuits or save it for lunch the next day. I like to spread it on crackers.
You can also make calzone shaped biscuits if you feel more comfortable. Just put some filling on and stretch the dough over.
Bake at 450 for 8 minutes. They will look delectable and golden brown when they come out.
If you chose to not fill the biscuits and make plain ones they'll look lovely and golden too! I make these all the time- the height and the fluffiness is my ideal drool-worthy biscuit.
Serve immediately. They taste best warm. Enjoy!
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| Spinach Mushroom Biscuits |
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