Whole Grain Pecan Drop Biscuits

There is something about homemade biscuits that has always made my mouth water. Long before we were gluten-free, I made biscuits by rolling them out and cutting them. They sure were good, but became too time consuming for a busy family life.

Lamenting to my aunt one evening about making a really quick dinner, she suggested biscuits and eggs. The only problem was, I said, biscuits take too long. Why in the world wasn't I making drop biscuits (and in a muffin tin to make it easier!), she wondered. A really quick, easy and delicious drop biscuit recipe out of my Joy of Cooking? After that night, I never went back. Sure, I'd eat those great rolled and cut biscuits if others made them, but I would forever enjoy the simplicity - and taste - of drop biscuits.

And so it continues, even gluten-free. (I've been using Pamela's baking mix for them.) When I found out that biscuits would be our challenge for this month's Gluten Free Fatio Rally, I immediately knew I wanted to make drop biscuits, but with a whole-grain twist and the addition of pecans. A restaurant we loved before going gluten-free made the best (rolled and cut) pecan biscuits.

Many thanks to Gretchen of Kumquat blog for hosting this month's rally. Be sure to head over to her delicious sweet buttermilk biscuits recipe and also check out the recipes all of the other participants baked up for you this moth. Gretchen has all of them listed with links.

Logo designed by Anile Prakash

If you aren't familiar with the Gluten Free Ratio Rally, you can check out my rally page here, where I list all my other ratio rally recipes as well as the first rally month introduction/host post by Shauna Ahern of Gluten Free Girl and the Chef. Baking and cooking with weight and ratio gives you independence in your kitchen that you can't imagine is possible until you try it for yourself.

I used Michael Ruhlman's ratio for biscuits in this recipe, adding a little more liquid for the drop biscuit factor. Ruhlman's biscuit ratio is 3:1:2: 3 parts flour: 1 part fat: 2 parts liquid.

One new thing I tried for this recipe is ground Salba (chia - Salba is just brand of chia I prefer) seeds. Usually when making recipes like this that don't contain a binder like egg, I might use a milled/ground flax slurry. I've been wanting to try ground chia, though, knowing how well chia sticks to everything when moistened, and Shauna's last rally post convinced me to try it. I'm so glad I did -- this is the way to go! And I always feel I need to make the slurry when using flax, but this isn't necessary when using the chia. I even tried it and it would have been a disaster to try to mix that sticky glob into the biscuit ingredients! I just added it into the dry ingredients and it worked like magic.

Can you see how tender these are?

When I first took these biscuits out of the oven, my hopes fell a little - they were cracked a little on top and must surely be hard and dry. I was delighted to be WRONG - the biscuits were delicious, tender and had a wonderful texture. We all loved them, and I hope you do, too.

(Happy New Year, by the way! I wished you all a happy one here, but just realized that this is my first post of 2012 - what a great way to start out the year with fellow gluten-free bloggers!)

Projected prep time: 15 minutes; Bake time: 20 minutes
(Printable Recipe)

3 oz. (84 g) brown rice flour
1 oz. (29 g) teff flour
1 oz. (29 g) sweet rice flour
1 oz. (29 g) millet flour
1 1/2 oz. (43 g) tapioca starch
1 1/2 oz. (43 g) potato starch
1/4 oz. (6 g or 1 tbsp.) ground Salba (chia) seeds
2 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
3 oz. (6 tbsp.) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (2 oz. or 58 g) chopped pecans
*1 tsp. lemon juice or distilled white vinegar in cup to make:
*7 oz. milk (see above, or use soured milk)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease 12 regular-sized muffin tins.

Mix flours together with ground chia, baking powder and salt.

Place a teaspoon of lemon juice or distilled vinegar into cup and then enough milk to make 7 ounces. Let sit while you work the butter into the flour.

Cut or pinch butter into flour until crumbly. Mix in chopped pecans.

Make a well in the middle of the flour/butter/pecan mixture and stir the milk in until a dough is formed.

Drop spoonfuls into the muffin tins.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until done in the middle. Bake on top rack if using a gas oven.

Enjoy!

Don't forget to check out Gretchen's sweet buttermilk biscuits and all of the other amazing biscuits baked up for the rally this month. Thanks again, Gretchen!

Savory or Sweet Puffed Oven Pancake

I'm telling you right now that the savory version of this puffed oven pancake may be one of my best creations ever. I think I've come up with some pretty tasty concoctions, and they each have a place in my heart. Many of them, however, have taken up a good time in the kitchen - with some frustration thrown in before finally giving me something I was satisfied with. This was one of those times where not only did it taste great and come out perfect the first try, it was easy.

I made the sweet version of this pancake one morning for breakfast. The entire house was in agreement that it was a keeper. I adapted the pancake part of the recipe from the Puffed Oven Pancake recipe out of the Better Homes and Gardens Our Best Recipes cookbook. They also had a suggestion for the fruit.

The savory version, however, was my concoction one of those nights where I not only didn't feel like cooking anything elaborate, we were also getting low on groceries. I declared it was probably going to be an eggs and biscuits kind of night for supper. As I started pulling out the ingredients for the eggs and biscuits, I saw the spinach and heard it calling, and suddenly thought of the puffed oven pancake I'd made for breakfast a few mornings before ...

Projected prep time for sweet version: 15 minutes; Projected prep time for savory version: 35 minutes; Projected cook time: 20-25 minutes

Pancake ingredients:
2 tbsp. butter
3 eggs
1/8 cup almond flour
1/8 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1 rounded tsp. milled flax seed
1 tbsp. sweet rice flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. sea salt

Savory ingredients:
Grapeseed oil
1 medium white onion, diced
5 red potatoes, cubed in small pieces (Note: another potato type will work fine, just alter the amount for the size)
2 or 3 good sized handfuls of fresh spinach
3 or 4 eggs (you'll scramble them)
Monterey Jack cheese
Sea salt
Herbamare (original)
Black pepper

*OR*
Sweet ingredients:
3 cups sliced fruit
1/4 cup mandarin preserves or orange marmalade
Powdered sugar (optional)
Whipped cream (optional)

Note: If you do the savory version, you'll need to start cooking your potatoes and onions before baking the pancake. See below for instructions.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place butter in a skillet (I used cast iron) and put in oven for two or three minutes until butter is melted, then remove from oven.

Sift dry ingredients together in small bowl.

Whisk eggs together in a medium mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients and milk, and whisk together well. Immediately pour into hot skillet.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. The pancake will puff up and brown. Note: I've made this a few times now and each time it has puffed up differently. Sometimes it puffs all over like the photo below and sometimes it puffs more evenly and then all the way up the sides - don't know why it's different each time, humidity changes, perhaps?

It will start to deflate some as it cools.

While your pancake is baking, work on your toppings.

I'll start with the savory (don't forget to start cooking your potatoes and onions before baking the pancake).

Place onions and potatoes in a pan with some grapeseed oil.

And cook until potatoes are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Scramble eggs into pieces and season to taste with salt, Herbamare and pepper.

Mix the eggs together with the potatoes and onions over low heat and then add the spinach.

Toss together until the spinach is mixed well with the rest of it.

Spread over the puffed pancake.

Then sprinkle cheese on top.

Return pancake to oven until cheese is melted.

Kindly ignore the paper plate. And the poor photo. It was a throw-together supper on a crazy night.

And now for the sweet topping. I chose sliced peaches (they were frozen, but very close to fresh - immediately frozen after being picked fresh from my dad's peach tree) and frozen organic blueberries for mine.

In a small saucepan, melt preserves over low heat.

If you are using fresh fruit, just slice it and have ready to spread over pancake. If you are using frozen, you'll need to thaw it. I thawed my frozen peaches over low heat, then added the blueberries after I removed from heat, stirring just until thawed, and sweetened with organic sugar until it tasted just right.

Then I strained the juice out.

And spread the fruit over the pancake, then spread the melted preserves over the fruit.

Then I sprinkled some powdered sugar over all of it.

I wanted to put a dollop of whipped cream on each slice, but I was out of whipping cream. It tasted wonderful without it.

The entire pan disappeared pretty quickly (as it did with the savory version - no leftovers, but enough for seconds!).

Enjoy!