Gluten-free biscuits and wildflower honey, please!

Sunday morning, I didn’t really feel like making gluten-free biscuits, but I decided to anyway because, last week, I harvested fifteen beautiful jars of honey from my three hives. This is my third year of beekeeping. Because we purposely grow clover and lots of other wildflowers, we have wildflower honey. Wildflower honey is one of many reasons gardens matter.

I wasn’t up to anything too difficult before my second cup of coffee, so I pulled down one of my favorite cookbooks by Marion Cunningham, The Breakfast Book.

I’ve written about her fabulous cookbook before, and I shared another favorite recipe on this blog for her nutmeg muffins. This time, I used her recipe for cream biscuits, one she attributed to James Beard’s cooking classes. Cream biscuits are much easier than making traditional biscuits where you must first cut in the shortening.

Gluten-free cream biscuits

2 cups of gluten-free flour mix. I like Cup 4 Cup all-purpose gf flour, but King Arthur’s gf flour is also really good. If you can only find Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gf baking flour, it’s fine too. Whichever variety you choose, make sure its ingredients have xanthan gum or you will need to add 1/4 teaspoon. Xanthan gum tries to replicate gluten’s stretchiness in gluten-free baked goods.

• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 to 1.5 cups heavy cream (this replaces buttermilk and fat in traditional biscuits.)
• 1/3 cup butter melted.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Lightly grease your jelly roll pan or baking sheet.

Combine flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir the dry ingredients together to blend and lighten them. Slowly add your cream to the mixture stirring constantly. I always need 1.5 cups of cream. Gather the dough together knead it gently. If it seems shaggy and dry, add more cream, but you don’t want a super wet dough.

Place the dough on a piece of parchment paper or lightly floured surface and knead it until it feels satiny to the touch. Press or roll it into a square and then cut 12 biscuits out of the dough with a biscuit cutter or small glass. Dip the biscuit tops into melted butter. (If you want to leave this last step out, it’s fine too.) Place biscuits two inches apart on the baking sheet or jelly roll pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until the biscuits are brown.

Serve gluten-free biscuits hot with real butter and wildflower honey. If you have Tupelo honey, even better.

Carol Michel and I dropped a new podcast episode this morning with wisdom from skateboarder, Tony Hawk. What do skateboarding and gardening have in common? You’ll just have to listen to find out.

Have a happy Wednesday and stay healthy!