Take A Bite

Raise your hand if you overdosed on Velveeta queso this weekend? Hand raised! I had such a fun night (not) watching the Super Bowl yesterday, enjoying all of the calories and camaraderie that the big game brings. A really fun dinner with friends Friday kicked off the weekend and then did a lake day Saturday. I’ve been so energized by my weekends lately with unexpected fun plans, they have helped me get through the longer more boring workdays that this time of year seems to always bring.

Wishing everyone a great week and a cozy Valentine’s weekend. It seems that the whole country is dealing with cold weather this weekend so I know I plan on staying mostly in and relaxing. Keep scrolling for some Val or Galentine’s recipes and my favorite heart day playlist!

-Fancy Monday dinner with redfish over linguine with a lemon butter sauce. Cooked for me, not by me - a treat!
-I can’t get enough of my new frother. I’ve been making my Dandy Blend with frothed Nutpods twice a day since I got my frother.
-I’ve been a biscuit-making machine. These flaky homemade biscuits went live on Take A Bite last week. Make them for a special Valentine’s breakfast this weekend!
-A big a$$ salad with the leftovers after making this meal the night before. Pecans, apple, cabbage, shallot, apple cider vinegar, the works!
-Flowers and baguettes at my favorite neighborhood coffee shop made for a happy Friday morning.
-Fruit flavored Mentos immediately transport me back to the snack shack while swimming at the country club pool we grew up going to.
-Spent Saturday with a spritz on Eagle Mountain Lake! The best hour escape outside of Dallas.
-Bought this gluten-free mix to cut corners on price and prep for the Super Bowl. It will now be a more regular purchase. I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil, added 1 tsp. of ground coffee to the mix, and then put more chocolate chips and Maldon salt on top!
-My favorite Super Bowl contribution is always the pigs in a blanket! I use this very easy recipe but then brush with melted butter, sprinkle with Everything But the Bagel seasoning, and serve with spicy brown mustard.

Annie

Love bites: Made this playlist in 2013 and have been adding to it every year.
Love bites pt. 2: Heart-shaped homemade Oreos are sure to win over anyone special in your life!

They are here! My best flaky layered homemade biscuits. These things are downright delicious and full of layers, just how I like them. Add a swipe of vanilla bean honey butter and you have a very sinful treat or breakfast.

This recipe was developed out of two different conversations. A good friend had polled our big group text asking if anyone had a good biscuit recipe. She had been trying one she found on Google over the past few weekends and they kept coming out flat and tough. We walked through the recipe together and she was doing everything right, so I took this as a sign to come up with my own biscuit recipe.

Then later in the week when a hankering for breakfast sandwiches struck, and the store happened to be out of biscuits, the nudge yet again to create a biscuit recipe came calling.

No fancy tools like a food processor or pastry cutter are needed for this recipe. All you need are a few simple ingredients, a bowl, and your hands! Cold butter is squeezed into the flour creating a very butter speckled dough! This (and baking powder) is what helps the biscuits puff up and rise, while also creating space between the layers from the butter melting into the dough while baking.

You can’t beat a Grand’s Flaky Layers biscuit, so I knew layers were a very important addition to my recipe. By folding the dough over itself, and then over itself again, and then again, multiple layers are created that then flake off perfectly once baked.

Best Biscuits
Yields 6 biscuits

Biscuit Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup whole milk
6 Tbsp. very cold unsalted butter, diced
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Vanilla Bean Honey Butter: (optional)
4 Tbsp. room temperature unsalted butter
1 Tbsp. honey
1/4 tsp. vanilla bean paste (Trader Joe’s sells this at the holidays, but it can also easily be found on Amazon)

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 425°. Add the flour to a medium bowl. Working quickly, squeeze the very cold and diced butter between your fingers until all of the butter is flattened into little flakes and mixed into the flour. Add in your baking powder, sugar, and salt to the bowl and mix with a spatula. Then make a well into the flour mixture and add about 1/2 of your milk. With the spatula gently begin to combine the milk into the flour mixture. Add in the rest of the milk, and then using your hands, work everything together until a dough starts to form. The dough may be sticky in some places and dry in others, just do your best to bring the dough together without overworking it. Turn the mixture onto a floured surface and start to work it into a verticle rectangle (if you have a bench scraper it can be helpful with these next steps). Again it will look dry, but that is okay.

Once flattened into a rectangle fold the dough like a letter. Bring 1/3 of the top to the middle and then the remaining 1/3 from the bottom up and over. See the pictures above for reference. Now you just repeat! Flip your “letter” over so the seam side is down, and with your hands, flatten into that same verticle rectangle shape again, and then fold like a letter. Continue this until you’ve flattened and folded about 4 to 5 times. This is what will create all of those layers. The final time, flip it seam side down again, flatten it into rectangle, and with a knife, cut into 6 equal squares, about 3x3.

Place biscuits on a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet. Brush the tops of the biscuits with 2 tbsp. of melted butter and bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

While the biscuits are baking prepare your vanilla bean honey butter. In a small bowl, add the room temperature butter, honey, and vanilla bean paste. Whisk vigorously until smooth, creamy, and combined.

Serve the biscuits warm from the oven with vanilla bean honey butter and enjoy!

Note: These biscuits can be made ahead (unbaked) up to 1 month in advance. Make the dough, cut into squares, and freeze, uncovered, on baking sheet until solid, then transfer to a freezer-safe Ziplock or storage container. Do not thaw before baking just add a few minutes to the baking time.