I Love My Nieces to Peaches!
Who am I to deny some of the cutest kids on the planet from wanting to learn how to make a dish at The Bell House? Of course I acquiesced their request and we made Blackberry Peach Biscuits.
Let me introduce the little darlings pictured from left to right. There is my diva daughter, "chicken" and "mini me."
For my Charli Angel, if age 6 is a preview of age 13, call me freighted. Let's all hope I can tame the beast before she realizes her super strength and intelligence. ;)
Next we have "Chicken." She got her nickname from the movie Girl, Interrupted. When she was a toddler, she would hoard lots of random items in her pockets and in bags. In the movie, Brittany Murphey's character would accumulate chicken carcasses under her bed and refer to the kitchen of her new apartment as an "Eat in Chicken." The name "Chicken" stuck.
Lastly, my sister attests she's raising me. So, Mady is my "mini me." This must mean my sister thinks I'm awesome!
In my nieces household, they love eating breakfast for dinner. Their mother, my sister, likes ham, egg and cheese biscuits when she orders breakfast out. So, I thought teaching the girls how to make biscuits would score points with mama on breakfast for dinner nights.
Since the girls already know how to cook eggs and bacon, I thought we could top these biscuits with some seasonal fruit and luscious whipped cream.
Let's start with the BISCUITS:
4 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
2 sticks of unsalted butter, cold and sliced into 16 peices
1 1/2 cups of buttermilk, cold
4 tablespoons of granulated sugar
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, mix the flour, baking powder and kosher salt together.
In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk and sugar.
Scatter the butter pieces over the top of the flour and turn the mixer on low speed. Mix the butter into the flour for about 1 1/2 minutes. You should see pea sized butter chunks.
Pour in the buttermilk and continue to beat on low speed for another 30 seconds.
Dump the dough onto a well floured surface and knead the dough a couple of times to absorb any flour that wasnt yet incorporated.
Pat the dough into a 1 inch thick slab.
Use a 3 inch glass or biscuit cutter to stamp out some biscuits. Place the dough onto the parchment paper 1-2 inches apart. Knead any scraps into a 1 inch disc and cut as many biscuits as you can until all the dough has been used.
Bake the biscuits for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Biscuits are best eaten the day they were baked. If needed, store in a tightly sealed container and "refresh" the biscuits in a 350 degree oven for 3-5 minutes.
PREPARATION TIP: This recipe will make about 10-3 inch biscuits. For my family, I will bake off what I need and freeze the unbaked dough for later use. Seal each unbaked biscuit in plastic wrap and store in a labeled freezer bag. When you are ready to bake the biscuits, place the frozen biscuits onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and set in a warm place for 20 minutes or until the dough has thawed. Reaching maximum oven temperature is important when baking bread or biscuits. This provides the necessary heat to make those babies rise to their full potential.
The BLACKBERRY AND PEACH GOODNESS:
5 yellow peaches, pitted and sliced
1 pint of blackberries
2 tablespoons of packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients. Dump the fruit into a well buttered 10 x 10 inch glass baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake the peach mixture for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 30 minutes.
PREPARATION TIP: I used firm peaches for this dish. The peaches were full of flavor with the texture of an apple. The riper the peach, the softer the end result of your compote will be.
Split a biscuit, top the bottom half of the biscuit with the peach mixture. Throw on a dollop of whipped cream and top with the other half of the biscuit. Enjoy!
PREPARATION TIP: This recipe will make enough filling for 5 biscuits. Although, this is best the day it was made, store the leftover fruit in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for 2 days. Warm up the fruit before serving.
WHIPPED CREAM:
1 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Place a metal bowl and beater attachments in the refrigerator or freezer for at least 30 minutes. Add all the ingredients to the very cold bowl and whip until you see stiff peaks.
Store any leftovers in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.
Final note on these three ladies before I end the post. They're great kids and really put forth a lot of effort into everything they do. Check out a few of their accomplishments they started this Summer.
Cowboy Reinactments:
