Buttermilk Biscuits with Parsley and Sage

I feel like I’ve been keeping this from you. It wasn’t on purpose of course, but I’ve made these twice before and am only just now getting around to telling you about them. These biscuits are as easy to make as they are delicious, and I highly suggest doubling the recipe which I’ve done each time I’ve made them. There’s chopped, fresh sage in the biscuit dough, and then when they come out of the oven, they’re brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with chopped parsley. They’re as rich and decadent as buttermilk biscuits should be, and they’re pretty with flecks of herbs inside and out. I found these biscuits in the book Flour by Joanne Chang. The first time I made them, I was looking for something savory to take to the Austin Bakes bake sale earlier this year in April. I was delighted with them, and since they’re quick to prepare, I made them again for the bake sale that just happened a few weeks ago. There’s no cutting butter into flour by hand. The entire process takes place in a mixer. And, once the biscuits are formed, they can be placed in the freezer until you’re ready to bake them. I’m already thinking about how convenient that would be for Thanksgiving dinner.

So, you start the dough by placing the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix briefly to combine. Then, you add butter that’s been cut into pieces, and mix until the butter breaks down some. In a small bowl, buttermilk, cream, egg, and chopped sage are whisked together and then added to the mixing bowl, and that is mixed into the flour and butter just until the dough comes together. As you transfer the dough to a work surface, you can work in any loose flour in the bottom of the mixing bowl. After patting the dough into a one-inch thick rectangle, I cut square biscuits to make things easy. Of course, you could use a round cutter, but I like the efficiency of only shaping and cutting once. Since I doubled the recipe and cut smallish squares, I ended up with 20 biscuits. They baked for 40 minutes, and then the tops were bushed with melted butter and sprinkled with chopped parsley. I sprinkled some coarse sea salt on them as well.

Like every recipe I’ve tried from this book, it works beautifully. My only disappointment with these biscuits is that each time I've baked them, I only kept a couple of them at home. I was happy to take them to the bake sales, but next time, I’m making a batch just for us.

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