A perfect way to enjoy fresh summer fruit, these biscuits are made with complementary fats to be lusciously tender and packed with flavor. Macerated strawberries blend perfectly; raspberries, blueberries, and Boysenberries are great choices as well. And don't forget stone fruits! As a bonus these biscuits come together in a flash, requiring minimum technique.
Yield: About a dozen, 1 1/2 ounce (45 gram) biscuits
Time to make: 15 minutes active, 22 minutes oven dwell
Tools needed: Large bowl. Measuring cups and spoons or kitchen scale. Hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Sheet pan. Bakers parchment. Smooth plastic work station. Biscuit or cookie cutter. Bench knife.
Ingredients
Note:
To grind buckwheat from groats, process in a spice grinder or coffee grinder. It takes about 30 seconds of grinding, interrupted every 10 seconds or so with a good shake to the grinder. Processing buckwheat in this way yields a fresher, deeper flavor.
Procedure:
1) Heat oven to 425. Line a sheet pan with bakers parchment. To a large bowl, add the oat flour, the buckwheat flour, the tapioca starch, the sugar, the salt, the xanthan gum and the baking powder. Refrigerate for 1 hour or longer.
2) Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer and paddle blade, mix the chilled flour until fully blended. Add the coconut oil and butter cubes. Mix on medium speed until butter cubes have become rounded. Remove from mixer and turn out onto a plastic work station. Using the heel of your hand, flatten the remaining butter balls into thin slabs.
3) Using your hands and/or a bench knife, pile the flour-fat mixture into a mound. Form a well in the center and fill with buttermilk. Toss flour from the edges up onto the buttermilk, then tap the covered well to encourage the milk to disperse into the mound. Form another well and add more buttermilk. Tap down the flour and use the bench knife to scrape the loose dough into a rectangle. Fold the rectangle and tap flat, then fold again. If a dough has formed, stop adding milk. If not, make another shallow well and add more milk. The objective is to create a very loose, barely damp dough with some large flakes of butter.
4) Shape dough into a rectangle about 1 1/4 inches thick. Using a biscuit or cookie cutter, cut dough into as many biscuits as you can. Cut straight down, do not twist cutter. Place cut biscuits on the prepared sheet pan. Gather unused dough, reshape and cut again, making a dozen biscuits.
5) Bake 22 minutes, rotating tray once, until biscuits are light brown flecked with darker brown. Remove to a cooling rack and allow to reach an edible heat level, then eat as soon as possible.
Biscuits are best eaten fresh.